By the time we got to Dubrovnik it was dusk and we were starving. But, before heading for dinner we knew we had to find a place to stay. During the political regime that was in place during the war, politicians encouraged people to buy houses. Now, 15 years later the economy had taken a huge hit and people are nearly as well off. In fact the unemployment rate is greater than 20%. So, people have converted rooms in their homes to apartments or pensions. This is definitely a norm accommodation in Croatia. Perhaps even more so than hotels. The place we stayed at in Dubrovnik was simple, but the owners were so kind and treated us like we were guests in their home. Their daughter was studying finance in Vienna and had just come home for the summer, so she was interesting to speak to. Plus they had just brought their brand new puppy home – it reminded me of Maxxer.
For dinner we headed to the old town. I had read many tourist captions about Dubrovnik but nothing prepared me for the scale of the old town. It is literally a very old, small village completely surrounded by very high walls. Cute shops have moved in, but there were also people living within the walls. It was so FAIRY TALE! The buildings were beautiful, with cobblestone streets and narrow side streets that were sooo steep. The nice thing about visiting it at night was there were few tourists, so you could really take it all in. The next day when we went back, it was still beautiful, but just wasn’t as intimate. Day or night however, it was WONDERFUL. I absolutely adored the old city. Our dinner was phenomenal…we really treated ourselves (ie. went to a very nice restaurant where a huge fillet of fish, with scampi sauce and a side was maybe 100 kns or $12 – a real slurge! CRAZY. I swear the meal I had would cost at least $45-$50 at home.
Before leaving Dubrovnik we also visited Cavat.
|  | 
|
