24.06-25.06.Dubrovnik, next two days.Swimming.Talks.The other Harbor in Dubrovnik.

24.06 Tuesday began with rain

I didn't sleep well Monday night and was woken up by some serious rain. Despite (or because of) this, the view from the window was pretty great:




For lunch, the group I was with grabbed some sandwiches (again) from a small shop and sat on the pier from Game of Thrones (Seriously. Remember this scene? Or this?) . Afterwards, we went for a swim around the corner (really, over a hill and back down) from the first cove, which was much nicer and cleaner, although the water felt cooler. Probably because it was much warmer and sunnier.

Same pier where we ate lunch, but on the next day:


After the talks, we went back to the old city. We ate (just outside the walls) at the same place as Monday evening,  ,,the Terrace". It had a great view and the food was pretty good. I had one of the daily specials, the ravioli with truffles as well as an order of grilled veggies. Our experience has been that most things don't come with veggies, but ordering them on the side for another 2.5-3 euros is always an option.

Some of us wanted to go into the old city proper afterwards to walk around. Here's a totally normal street in the old city:



and a woman with wings, swooping around the main street (she probably was advertising the Midsummer Night's Dream which was playing at the far end of the street)



On the next day (Wednesday), there'd be a proper tour of the old city. We weren't sure if we would go, especially since it was supposed to rain the next two days. So, we did our own little mini-tour of the side streets and alleys of the old city.



I saw this sign and thought, well, gotta check it out:



The view was reached through a whole/doorway in the city wall. Here are two pictures of the "most beautiful view":





Another normal (narrower) street, from near the south wall:



This building dates from 1664:



You have to pay around 100 Kun (btwn 7.5 and 10 euro) to clamber around the fortifications properly. We didn't really have that much daylight left, so left it for another day and just peaked through a fence:



We rounded a corner, and saw a great view of the other side of the city and its defenses, towards the north:



Outside of the old city, to the east, is a small harbor. Very pretty during dusk:








Dubrovnik from the Pier:
 




We saw some other people swimming, but I personally wasn't interested in swimming right there:




From the pier, we could see a cruise ship, which was probably headed to the other harbor in the west:




25.06 Wednesday and the other harbor of Dubrovnik. 

On Wednesday, there were only two talks (well, two talk time-slots) and then we had the rest of the day free. I discussed some math with people for a while and later did a very small amount of walking around. My friend had mentioned some not-so-touristy restaurants on the west side of everything, by the bus station (and the other harbor), so I decided to go for dinner over there.

Heading there, one could see more mountains in the distance:



We managed to avoid all stairs going there, and just walked down a gentle hill. Success!

First view of the other harbor:




After we ate, more harbor, with some sunset light awesomeness:





The restaurant we picked is called ,,Amfora". Tasty tasty, and the waitstaff was a lot more laid back than the pushy super-used-to-throngs-of-tourists guys around the old city. Similar prices, but the food quality was higher. I had the risotto, which had the correct rice and lots of basil and parmesan. Delicious.

There are stray cats all over Dubrovnik. They seem to be both rather clever and sweet. This one, as I approached and hauled out my camera, scampered up on the scooter and then mewed at me as I pointed the camera at it, like he wanted payment for doing what he was supposed to. I didn't throw him any food (to be fair, I had none on me).

22.06 --23.06 Dubrovnik Croatia, arrival. First 2 days.

Auf Deutsch.

I'm in Croatia now, for a conference which runs from 23rd through the 27th of June. It's in honor of the 60th Birthday of the  founder of my sub-area of Topology (Goodwillie).  I'm happy to see my colleagues again -- and the sun as well :) .
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Arrival -- day 1. 

Croatia -- from the plane, everything seemed very hilly (really, mountainous), sunny and beautiful. I'm here for a conference, and immediately had the feeling that I should come back to visit again, when I really have enough time to enjoy the place.




After we landed, we took the shuttle (not the public bus, which we didn't see) into the city -- it took maybe 20 or 30 minutes. It was a beautiful ride along the adriatic coast.



What I had not understood when booking a hotel, was that its location necessitated schlepping my 16kg suitcase up ~100 stairs -- I chose to hold it over my head, and cursed not wearing my ankle brace.

Well, I guess I'll get in shape this way.

When looking up the ``street", what you see:



And here's the view from half-way down:



I sent an SMS to a friend who's also here, so we could meet up and find some dinner. We opted for the old city ---which is ``close" as the crow flies, and a little less close when you take into account the stairs. We ate at the ``favorite" restaurant of our host, which was not that great.

Here's a picture of the main street of the old city (it's about 300m long):


 We discovered that the old city *also* has a lot of big staircases (thankfully, the restaurant-street was only up about 5 or so steps) :





After eating, we took some time to go to the/a harbor (the one on the east end of the city), had some ice cream and looked around.



There was a fake submarine:





Outside of, but near to the old city:


A nice vantage point, looking south-east ish:



2nd Day (First Day of the Conference)

On the second day in Dubrobnik started the conference. For breakfast, we ate in a restaurant which is adjacent to the conference center (it's called "Sesame"). Good coffee, and I could get a totally normal breakfast of müsli, yogurt and fruit.

We had sandwiches from the "Sandvich Stand" for lunch and sat on the pier (which was in Game of Thrones):




While we were sitting there, one of the other people mentioned that on a nearby island they saw an octopus along the coast. This was said while we were watching little crabs scuttling around an outcropping.

Afterwards, we walked up a hill towards a fortress and looked out over the city:




Looking in the other direction, we saw a cove where one could go swimming (which also showed up in Game of Thrones). Later that evening I even went swimming there:




The water was amazingly clear, which you can kind of see in this picture:




In the city, we saw a lot of pretty little side streets (which is called an "Ulica" in Croatian):

After lunch and after another lecture, I gave my own talk. I felt it went quite well :).
I swam later (after all the talks were over and after dinner), sort of in celebration. The water was a bit cold, but sort of "marbled" warm-cool and the saltiness was nice (and different from just pool swimming).

[Next: more pictures, more of everything!]