a beach day!

Howdy from Dubrovnik!
We just arrived from Dubrovnik by bus and are settling in here. The bus we took was bizarre because it seemed like a coach city-to-city bus, but we quickly found out that it served as both a local bus and a longer-route bus. For instance, we stopped at least 10 times in the first hour. It was as if the local NY bus also continued after 10 stops on Broadway to DC. This wasn't simply picking up travelers and backpackers up from different places all heading to the same destintation - it was taking grandmothers from Split to the next town, then picking up some young teenagers and dropping them off one town later. It took us two and a half hours to go 60 miles. Luckily, the road to Dubrovnik runs parallel with the sea so it was beautiful the entire five hours from Split. We went through Bosnia - Hercegovina for a bit and got our passports checked twice- nothing like a little excitement.

Backtracking...
We had a great meal at Macondo in Hvar Town after I wrote my last post. We started with a lobster risotto, then had a mixed salad. For our entrees, I had fried white fish and Conor had fried squid, fish and prawns. With a good house wine, great ambience and a New York Times recommendation, this was a restaurant I was happy we made a point to go to.

Yesterday, we took an early ferry from Hvar back to Split. We got what has become our favorite Croatian failsafe lunch (burek, a doughy pocket stuffed with flavorful meat for about 2 dollars). After dropping off our bags at the guesthouse and finding that it was decently warm we went to the Bacvice beach near the harbor. It was nice to get in the sun. Afterwards, we hiked up the Marjan Peninsula, a beautiful park on the west side of Split. From the top, there were gorgeous views of Split and it was a decent two hour expedition. Last night, we walked around Diocletian's palace, had some hot chocolate and strawberry gelato and headed back to the guesthouse as if we were pensioners and not 23 year olds.

Today, we'll get a feel for Dubrovnik and in the next days, we'll walk the city walls and go kayaking.

Dovi đenja - maria