Buns of Steel Baby

There are a lot of stairs in Dubrovnik. I am the stair master. I have mastered the stairs. The maps of Dubrovnik don't really make it clear quite how many stairs there are in the old town. That pretty much you can only see about two things in town without going up at least one step. This is not the town for people in wheelchairs, people with pushers or the unfit. I felt like I'd done 20 minutes at the gym just from carrying my gear from the bus stop to the pension. And that was before I started sightseeing.

I arrived in the late afternoon on the plane from Zagreb and it took a while to get into town from the airport due to a car accident on the narrow and windy road. After lugging my stuff to the pension, I headed into town to find something to eat. I hadn't had lunch due to the total lack of anything at the Zagreb airport (just a hint for anyone going there, bring something with you!). They hadn't fed us on the plane either so I was ravenous. I got some lasagne at a little place called Spaghetteria Toni which was really nice. I'm still adjusting to eating alone after being with the tour for the last three weeks but it was early and the restaurant was fairly empty. I also had an english magazine that someone had left at the pension which helped. It was nice to catch up with the useless information contained in women's magazines.

I didn't do anything else that night except enjoy having my own room and TV. The next morning I was up a bit later than usual because the room had shutters that actually do completely block out the sun. I woke up because I was hungry and headed into town to find something to eat. I thought I would go to the market and get something but there were only a handful of stalls and they weren't really selling breakfast food. I assume the market is better in the summer and spring. Luckily the same square has a supermarket and I grabbed some yogurt and bread for breakfast.

I headed to the walls first as I wanted to beat the people off the two enormous cruise ships in the bay to it. I stopped briefly at the church attached to the Franciscan Monastery as it was open and it seems that the opening hours of the churches can be a bit erratic. It was a fairly ordinary church on the inside with mostly baroque decoration.

It costs 50 kuna to go up onto the city walls but is well worth it. Keep your ticket as it will also get you into the St Lawrence tower on the same day (otherwise it's another 20 kuna). There are a lot of stairs walking around the wall and if you take the recommended direction it is uphill most of the way. I think that this is the easier way to go though as the stairs a slightly slippery and could be hard work going down the whole way.

The views from the walls are great and you can see both the old town and its landmarks as well as the ocean. The houses are built right up onto the walls and there are a couple that actually have gates onto the southern side of the wall. It was cloudy while I was up there and it rained briefly but I think the lack of direct sun made the photos come out better. It took a bit over an hour to walk all the way around the walls and climb the couple of towers that are attached to them. It was definitely worth the walk. It's a shame that you can't do it at night as well because it must look beautiful when the town is all lit up.

After walking around the walls, I headed back into the centre of town to the museum of icons that is attached to the Serbian Orthodox Church. It's a little museum in a building next to the church and costs 10 kuna to get in. There are only three little rooms but they have some lovely icons from around the local area and as far away as Russia. They also have some manuscripts and a collection of portraits of the family of one of the main church benefactors. They also have a huge collection of old books in multiple different languages. It was quite interesting just looking at the titles through the glass.

After the museum, I just wandered around the town for a couple of hours. This seems to be the easiest way to see Dubrovnik if you have the time as you get to see lots of little streets that you might otherwise miss. I went into a couple of the other churches which are a variety of styles due to the frequent earthquakes in the region. The sun started to come out at lunchtime which was nice surprise given the forecast for rain in the afternoon. It made taking photos harder though as there are a lot of shadows in town.

The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is the main cathedral in town and is mostly baroque though there are some modern additions. There are some impressive but very ugly altars made out multiple colours of marble (think ugly 70s kitchen tiles). I didn't go into the treasury as there was a tour group heading in but it has quite a collection of relics including most of St Blaise it seems.

I went to the museum at the Dominican Monastery (20 kuna) which is well worth a visit. The building is lovely with lots of late gothic archways and a large courtyard with fruit trees in it. They have a small collection of icons, carvings, religious jewelry and paintings. They even had the rest of St Stephen's head as the Hungarians only have bits of it in Budapest.

I then wandered back to the main street to find something to eat. I walked past the strangest bank sign which says no dogs and no men in speedos/women in bikinis (haven't seen one of them before). I grabbed a sandwich at a little takeway bar in one of the side streets before walking through to the little beach next to the walls. It's not really somewhere that you could go swimming but it was pleasant spot to sit against the wall in the sun and have a bite to eat.

I then walked around the edge of the little bay to the Fort of St Lawrence. There are a lot of stairs to get upto the main tower but then not many after that. I stopped briefly for a rest on the seats in the sun at the bottom of the tower and a friendly local cat came and sat on my lap for a little while to get a pat. Like all cats, it got bored after a little while and went off to sit in the sun and lick itself (because it can).

The tower offers great views over the coast and the old town. I was the only person there as it seem the tour groups don't actually leave the old town at all. If you were going to buy a building in Dubrovnik, this is it. The patios on the higher levels get all day sun and the views from the lower windows out over the ocean are spectacular.

I went back to the hotel to charge my camera batteries and have a brief rest before wandering around the city a little more. I had dinner at a place called Kamenice which is recommended in the LP and also by the man who owns the pension. The service was a bit poor and the food was okay but not brilliant. The salad definitely wasn't great. It was a large serving though and the food was fresh. Maybe they save the nice staff for the season.

The next morning, I wandered around town for a little while as it was a glorious sunny day. I didn't have anything that I wanted to do in particular though, so I decided to try and catch the earlier bus to Split. Now the bus station isn't where I thought it was so it took me a lot longer to get there than planned. I would have caught the bus if I had known that I would have had to carry my bags 4.5 km. The lonely planet marks it as being much closer to town and the address given in the tourist bureau brochure is also much closer than it actually is. So I had a long walk in the heat and sun to the bus station which is on the very edge of town behind the ferry terminal. I thought that I had found it closer to town but it turned out to be the swimming pool and a large carpark which is full of buses but you can't catch them from there. I eventually arrived five minutes after the bus for Split left so got to hang around at the bus station for two more hours until the bus that I had originally intended to catch left. Well, I didn't spend the whole time  at the bus station as I stupidly decided to go and find some internet and after walking halfway back to town gave up.

The ride to Split was quite pleasant and we got to briefly go to Bosnia-Herzegovina for a rest stop. I didn't realise that they have a small section of the coastline between Dubrovnik and Split. Unfortunately they didn't stamp our passports, just check them (well, really just briefly glance at them).