croatia :: dubrovnik

"dober dan!" (hello in croatian) we had a wonderful 9 day vacation to southern croatia in may where we visited three different towns. i have to say that republika hrvatska is now one of matt and my most favorite places. it is relaxed, beautiful and blue. clear blue water that is. it's just our style and very refreshing on a hot day!




our first adventure was catching the 6:00 a.m. train out of budapest headed to zagreb, the capital of croatia. it was a six hour ride and actually went better than we expected. matt walked reese up and down the train hallway and made friends in other rooms, we had lunch, watched movies on the portable dvd player, watched other trains out the window and took naps. not bad. once we arrived in zagreb we caught a plane down to dubrovnik where we had someone waiting for us with a sign that said "hilary dowiak". sweet! he took us to the outside of old town dubrovnik where we then carried our luggage to our apartment. yes, long day of traveling, but well worth it!





our accommodation was an apartment in old town dubrovnik inside the ancient city walls where cars are not allowed. it made for a unique experience exploring all the "streets" and stairs. reese loved running wild and making friends of all ages - even with the millions of cats hanging around. each morning we had breakfast in our apartment and then went out for coffee and a stroll while the slick marble streets were empty. during the day old town filled up with tourists from cruise ships, so we tried to get out of there. one day we took a boat cruise that stopped at three different islands where we got to explore a bit. (side note: croatia has more than a thousand islands along it's coast in the adriatic sea.) another day we went to the "sandy" beach. all the beaches in croatia are rocky, but they call the ones that have sand right in the water a "sandy beach". never mind that it has rocks all the way up to the water. matt and reese didn't mind walking on the rocks and i tolerated it simply because of the beautiful surrounding scenery.

welcome to dubrovnik - ploce gate

old town by day

old town by night (facing the other direction on the main street)
onofrio fountain - built in 1438
local boys playing on the steps of the church while their mom's are inside the above church
dinner in an alley
laundry
the harbor
the wall
along the wall

the famous red roofs
looking at the wall from the outside + east/west beach
east/west beach fun!
our boat cruiser


not sure which island this is but we loved the water AND the background
family shot


not sure which island this is either, but the scenery is surreal