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Thursday, November 17, 2016

Apartment Bozica, Dubrovnik

This apartment sleeps 4 (2 adults and 2 small ikids), for 54 euros a night. The Daughter found it on booking.com. It is a 5 minute walk from the bus station so when we got into Dubrovnik last night, it was just a very short walk to a comfortable and clean place to sleep. Perica, who owns the place, has rave reviews on booking.com. Now that I have met him, I understand why. He is ever so warm and hospitable. He even offered to drive us into Dubrovnik old town for dinner!

There is a supermarket just a 5 minute walk away so it is easy to pop down to get yoghurt and fruits for breakfast.

Dubrovnik, Croatia is the filming location for the series Game of Thrones. Tourism here has grown in leaps and bounds because Game of Thrones fans come here to visit the old Dubrovnik fortifications and castle. The weather is very much like Italy. This is not surprising because Italy is just across The Adriatic Sea.

Croatia itself used to be Yugoslavia. In the 1990s, it fought its war of independence and today is its own sovereign nation. It was a bitter and ugly war where many people died. I guess that is the way of any war. I am guessing that is why this country seems to be so sparsely populated. There are no teeming crowds. People have a lot of space to move around in. Better not walk off the beaten track because some parts of the country still has landmines.

It is a beautiful country, largely unspoilt by industry. People are helpful and honest. It is worth visiting before the hordes of PRC tourists find out about this place and then come here to spoil it for everyone else. For the moment, it is still a country that does not look with distaste upon a Chinese face.

This is The Daughter's 2nd time here. The first time, she came here alone and only at breakfast today, did she tell me about her "great adventure". The more she recounted, the wider my eyes grew.

She had taken a midnight bus from Ljubljana, Slovenia through Croatia, to get to Sarajevo, Bosnia. The bus dropped her off in the middle of nowhere, in front of a petrol station at 0 Deg C. There was supposed to be another bus to pick her up to go to Bosnia. She was alone except for a little old lady (who looked like the Russian witch, Baba Yaga). The old lady spoke no English but showed The Daughter a photo of her 20 year old grandson and then asked if The Daughter had a boyfriend. This freaked The Daughter out completely, who started praying that this lady was not going to kidnap her and wed her by force to her Russian looking grandson. There was nobody there except for the said lady, who started yabbering into her phone. Was she planning a kidnap? 

Oh well. it turned out that the lady was calling up the bus company to get them both out of the middle of nowhere. The Daughter arrived home still unmarried and 2 years later, I discover that this happened.

Sigh! The Daughter posted her experience on Facebook but took care to ensure that I would not see that post. Mothers are the last to find out about such escapades. I am not very pleased.


The living room, which sleeps 2 small children.


The kitchen and dining area.


The view of the Adriatic Sea.

The apartment looks over a small vegetable garden belonging to Perica's 80 year old Grandma. She lives right beside the apartment, in that small stone building on the right of the photo. We went over this morning to borrow a bit of cooking oil. She is a friendly and delightful old lady, hale and hearty (does not look a day over 60 years) who goes about her household chores vigorously.

Dubrovnik is a town of 40,000 people built along the slopes overlooking the Adriatic Sea. The houses are built up and down the slopes and the streets between the houses are stone stairs. Thank goodness Th Daughter and I are travelling light and have only one suitcase between us to lug up the stairs.

See how the houses are stacked up against one another on the sloping hiilside?

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