A Bird's Eye View

This morning we slept in and decided to head into Old Town mid morning. We caught the 11:00am bus with no problem...aside from the women who pushed me out of the way to get on the bus after the bus driver said it was full.  We finally made our way to the walled city with the idea of taking a better look at some of the shops on the many side streets.

cute little shops everywhere

taking in the sights

As we were about to enter the gates, we noticed a film crew and actors below the entrance. It appeared they were filming a medieval piece...possible Game of Thrones!?!  Later on in the day, they moved filming inside the gates and we were greeted on numerous occasions by many of the actors...in fact I might have ran into a horse if it hadn't been for Lisa pointing it out. It was quite funny to see these people on cell phones, with modern sunglasses, while dressed in period clothing....lots of pictures were being taking as they walked through the streets.

what's wrong with the picture?

look who's strolling through the streets

Our first stop was the morning market where we saw a few things we liked yesterday. We met this sweet older couple selling dried fruit who just made my day.  We did a little bartering with them, bought a few items and then decided to buy something else...all while the wife was translating the prices by writing them down on loose pieces of cardboard. When we finally paid and started to walk away, the husband actually handed us some more money back...totally unexpected deal, but a nice surprise. Love these two!  The people in Croatia seem to grow their own fruit and vegetables, make their own honey and preserves, carve items out of olive trees, harvest lavender and spices, produce olive oils and wines, as well as create unique items from glass and Adriatic Sea salt.

a few items for sale

After our productive time at the market we headed in search of a vegetarian restaurant our hosts recommended...and what a treat it was!  I think Lisa would rate it as her favourite meal to date. All shops and restaurants in the alleyways are listed on nice scrolls, making it easier to figure out where things are...and it was certainly helpful in this case. 

take a peak

Nishta serves a good variety of vegetarian and vegan meals, but we both decided to try the falafel...especially after the reviews we saw on Trip Advisor...and they were spot on. Fresh cucumber, lettuce and tomatoes, with delicious homemade hummus and a spicy salsa....yummy!  The service was great, the meal well priced...food in Dubrovnik is extremely over priced...and they had the cutest little touches for decore.

a fantastic meal

After enjoying our lunch, we headed over to the old port as we only saw this area yesterday from the wall.  It is full of restaurants along the waterfront and a variety of boat tours leave from here...lots of tourists found here.  I also found the most spectacular handmade necklace made of silver and red coral. When the man put it on me, it looked stunning...and then he proceeded to warn me that it was the most expensive piece he had for sale...of course it was...at a mere 400 euros!!!  

along the marina

Once I was able to pull myself away from the jewelry, we walked around the other side of Fort St. John along the wall. 

strolling along the marina by the wall

Here we walked out onto the rocks where we saw people swimming yesterday. It was absolutely beautiful there, with the sun beaming down, the water hitting the rocks, boats sailing by and views of the islands and mountains in the near distance. We stayed here for a while enjoying the views and peaceful surroundings. 

loving it here

another view

On our way back around we came across several cats sleeping or strolling around. Lisa has developed an entire collection of cat photos while here...there are tons of cats in Croatia...so here's one of our subjects.  Sleeping beauty...

nap time

We still wanted to check out a couple other shops and look at a few more places we hadn't seen yet, so we headed back to the main Stradun. 

back into Old Town

loved taking pictures of this building

Here we found a little shop that sold the most unique pottery by a local Croatian woman. Lace of Dubrovnik is protected under UNESCO and she incorporates the many designs into her pottery in some form or another. She also uses lots of poppies in her work...this flower is seen all over Croatia...as well as beautiful mixtures of colours. Lisa and I spoke to two shop owners at length about the artist and then finally decided we would each buy a mug....don't rely on me to make the currency conversion however, as Lisa will attest to my limited math skills in this area!

dropped a few dollars here

Once we made our final purchases, we headed to the cable car. This attraction was destroyed in the war in 1991 and has since been reconstructed in its entirety.

the entrance

The very scenic 3.5 minute journey brought us up to an elevation of 367 meters, where you had breathtaking views of Old Town and the surrounding area.  

here we go!

areal view of Old Town

partially destroyed in the war

We snapped several photos...that was a chore in itself with everyone wanting the same location to get that one great shot. Lisa and I tried about 5 times to get a decent selfie...I'm pretty sure we are hopeless in this skill area. This is all we could produce….

the shot

sunset from above

We thought we would view the museum exhibit before we headed down, but the last car was heading back in an hour and we didn't feel we had sufficient time to see the entire museum, so as the sun was setting we caught our 3 minute ride back…beautiful.

our return in the evening sun

We thought we would take in an acoustic guitar concert tonight, but we were getting tired after walking around the past 8 hours...and it was getting cold out...so we decided to have dinner at a restaurant with a live guitarist. We were greeted with an aperitif and I proceeded to order the calamari rissoto that was coloured black by the ink of the squid and Lisa had fish soup. 

check out the colour

The meal was fair and the service was poor, so instead of having a nice evening kava here, we headed off in search of another place that we could relax and enjoy the rest of our evening. We found the cutest caffe called Orlando's, where we were pleasantly greeted, seeted by warm heaters and provided nice blankets.  We enjoyed our evening drink, while watching the people strolling along the main promenade...most of them eating ice cream!

loved this place

glowing from the war heat lamps :))

We arrived back at our apartment by 11:00pm after another full day of Old Town. We had a relaxing cup of tea, settled in for the evening...I think Lisa has invaded our living room...and looked over our newly acquired purchases.

living on the road

Tomorrow is our last day here and it should be a good one, as we've booked a half day kayaking trip.

Until then…

Lisa & Lisa