- Game of Thrones

The walled city of Dubrovnik

We left Rome and jumped on a plane for Dubrovnik where we would spend three days. This time we flew Vueling Air, a Spanish airline that left us with a funny story to tell. But, first let me say that the Rome airport is mess. I found it to be difficult to navigate, it contained very poor signage and we encountered angry airline employees throughout. This is not
a combination that leads to a pleasant experience. Anyway, our plane departure was delayed due to "airport resource constraints" (maybe the strike was still in effect?). As a result, our pilot was hell-bent on making up time in the air. It wasn't a long flight to begin with, but he was going to shorten it as best he could. The good thing was they were serving drinks and we were thirsty since we hadn't stopped for water all morning. We watched anxiously as the drink cart slowly made it's way back toward our aisle (23), but it sure didn't seem to be in a hurry. There were two people working the cart but only one of them seemed to be doing anything constructive. Frankly, if the second person weren't standing up, I would have thought they were dead. This was clearly not the most efficient process I had ever witnessed, and I was afforded plenty of time to watch as they SLOWLY moved passed aisle six, 20 minutes into the plane reaching cruising speed. I also noticed that the steward never seemed to have what he needed. About every 5 minutes he would signal to the aft for a cup, a bottle opener or some other thing that was not present on the cart itself. Somewhere over the east coast of Italy they finally managed to finish serving aisle ten. This was like watching paint dry! Meanwhile, the pilot was explaining that he was indeed making up time and we would land in Dubrovnik early. Still the drink cart steward seemed in no hurry (aisle 12, 13, 14....). After another 20 minutes the cart was finally approaching us. We were going to get some water at last. Aisle 21...22. They were actually unlocking the wheels and preparing to move! Wait...they were actually rolling the cart back toward the front of the plane. They were done serving! Without so much as an explanation or an attempt to quickly serve the last 5 rows they were storing the cart for landing as the pilot announced our descent. No water on this flight!

Birds

Dubrovnik was great. It's a walled city on the Adriatic coast in Southern Croatia. It was heavily bombed by the Yugoslav People's Army in 1991. You can measure the damage done by inspecting the tile rooftops and seeing which ones have been replaced - I would guess about 70%.

Birds eye view of Dubrovnik

We spent three days exploring the city, enjoying the food, hanging out on the beach and swimming. Dubrovnik offers great spots for rock jumping and swimming. Our first day in town we found mexican food, something we had been craving for awhile, and it was pretty good too!

The Croatian flag and nearbye fort

Beach with Locrum Island in background

Dubrovnik was not exactly cheap, but it had plenty of outdoor / water activities. Our first full day was a beach day. We were back in the Adriatic and enjoying it! After the beach the girls and I decided to take the boat out to Locrum Island 15 minutes off shore. This island was extremely cool. The coastline is rocky and they have installed ladders to get in and out of the sea.

Locrum shore

Locrum jumping rocks

The rocks make for superb jumping and diving with both low and high options. After purchasing some water shoes for the girls (a must have on Locrum), we spent a good portion of the afternoon jumping into the crystal clear blue Adriatic. It was great! By the time we were done the girls were really tired. I think they may have had too much sun because they didn't feel well on the boat ride back. We headed back to the house for a quite evening at home.

The next day Shannon and I got up early and "walked the wall". You can walk the entire length of the wall giving you excellent views of town and the Adriatic Sea. We started early to beat the crowds and the heat.

Later that day I spent a few hours diving and jumping off the rocks around town. What a great town to spend time in. Dubrovnik is also one of the primary locations for filming Game of Thrones, which Shannon and I enjoy watching. Since getting home we have been re-watching some episodes and recognizing locations.