Sunday, August 23, 2009

Six Days of Joy

I am already some time back from Croatia. It was an ultra-short vacation with A. just to get out before my year abroad starts. From Helsinki we went with Blue1 to Dubrovnik, which is the main tourist-city in Croatia. We took the airport bus directly to the Pile Gate, the main entrance to the Old City of Dubrovnik. We were staying in the only hostel in the old city, fresh*sheets. It’s a small (only 22 beds) and cozy hostel, which is also a good place to meet people. The rooms are nicely decorated and have a warm atmosphere. The common area is very small and so getting contact to the other guests is easy.

The City of Dubrovnik is totally focused on the needs of tourists. Shops and Restaurants are expensive and everywhere are people offering excursions and boat trips. We left Stradun, the main street, and turned to the small streets and the city wall. From there you have a very nice view on the old city and the harbor.

One main attraction is the view down to the bar “Buza”, which is located in front of the city wall on the cliffs. On our second day we went there to swim and jump from the rocks.
The next day we had our travel day, as we went from Dubrovnik to Brac, the third largest island, just off shore of Split. The travel was kinda complicated, as we had to take two busses, the ferry and then a bus again. We had a tight schedule, as the bus on the island was just running three times a day. The trip took us from Dubrovnik to Makarska, then with the ferry to Sumartin and then with the bus to Supetar. It was a good day we saw a lot and were enjoying the time on the road/water.

On Brac we were staying in Supetar in the Shangri La Backpackers Hostel, which is a fairly new hostel, just opened two months before. Also this was a very nice hostel and we met a lot of interesting people. We enjoyed the sun and the sea and in the evening we had BBQ with the guys from the hostel, who were organizing loads of activities for the guests. We always went out as a group. The second evening we went first down to the harbor, where a local fisherman was selling grilled, fresh fish directly from the boat, an amazing dinner and a perfect base for a night out. So we went to a silent party. Everybody is wearing headphones and can choose between three channels with different music. A funny thing, especially when you get your earphones down. Everybody is singing and dancing to the music, which you can’t hear.

The last station was Split, which is the second largest city in Croatia. We went directly from Supetar with the ferry. We were lucky, because our first day was the last day of the Split Summer festival and so there were a lot of concerts and events in the whole city. We had a very nice dinner in a local restaurant and enjoyed the warm temperatures during a walk through the nightly city. The last day of our travel, we spent at the beach just to get some tan.

It is amazing how fast one week goes and how much and how fast you can miss being “on the road”. It was a short time, but a good time and now I am looking forward to start my studies in Helsinki.

~M~

No comments:

Post a Comment