2014.29.06. Dubrovnik. Cable Car. City Walls.

[hier, auf Deutsch]


2014.29.06. Sunday. First, the cable car ride.

It's good to know, that the bus (any bus shuttle at all) that takes you back to the Dubrovnik airport, leaves from the ,,Cable Car" stop instead in front of the Pile (Peee-lay) gate (where you're dropped off when you arrive).

To get there, you walk to the old city, but instead of walking you, you walk around, following the road north-ish, outside the city walls. It's really the only street you could take.

There's a place to buy tickets on the cable car which takes euros-- a fair amount of places (but not all) around Dubrovnik do. A round trip was about 14 Euros (100 Kuna).

Here are some photos I took while waiting in line:



You can see Lokrum (which we'd visited the day prior) in the background:



Inside the cable car, there wasn't a whole lot of room to take photos.  Here's one I managed to take:




From the top, here's a view of the city and cable car:




I figured out a way to make a panorama from some of my pictures from the top -- this is as you look north and a bit east (you can see why they'd filmed a fair amount of Spaghetti westerns in Croatia):




You could also see the ,,Red Keep" from Game of Thrones :



[Compare with this still from the Game of Thrones (2.Season, 6.Episode).]  The photo also shows a (returning?) canoe-tour group. We didn't end up doing that ourselves, but it was popular among other conference-goers.  If you look very very closesly, you can also see (sort of ,,under" the Red Keep) the Pier.

More to the west, you can get a good view of the western harbor (the "real" harbor) of Dubrovnik, and the Elaphiti Islands:







At the top of the mountain stands the fort  Festung Srd (originally constructed in the early 1800s by Napoleonic French forces).  It is now a museum about the Croatian war of Independence (which they call the Homeland War, of1991-1995).  During the war it was shelled from nearby mountains (those pictured earlier). You can still see traces of the damage:




It's worth noting that the cable car was damaged during the war and out of commission for a while. It's only been somewhat recently that it's been repaired/renovated/replaced and up and working again.


City-Walls Walk

There are only about 2 places where you can start your walk along the city walls (which costs 100 Kuna, and no, you cannot pay in Euro).  We were wandering (after the cable car) around a bit first, starting through a northern gate into the old city:



We hadn't made it up the hill on the northern side of the old city, so we walked around a fair bit. I liked these nice tiny streets:



We also saw this rather funny tavern --- ,,Tavern Lady Pi-Pi".  The statue/fountain is of a woman peeing (I kid not).



Before finding the entrance to the city walls, we found a basketball court/playground and got some directions (half in Geman)

A view of the playground from the walls:



First view from the city walls -- this is what you see right after you enter through the Pile gate:




It was super warm and not particularly comfortable on the wall. We'd said this later to our host and he said you should only visit it early in the morning.













Here was another Game-of-Thrones place, the ,,House of the Undying"(still from the show):





There were also some empty buildings -- my guess was that these were sort of reminders of the war (or perhaps simply not repaired since then, for whatever reason):





End of the trip. Summary/ Thoughts.
On the next day, with the help of our host, we managed to use a way from where we were staying t othe Cable-Car stop, basically without stairs. It was incredible.

We were rather early, though, so we ate some lunch at ,,Yummi-Cafe" there.

A tip: Souvenirs are several Euros cheaper at the airport giftshop than in the old city.

All in all, Dubrovnik was very pretty and the people nice.

It was never clear to us how tipping works in Croatia, so we always gave something.

Where we stayed had a lot of steps between it and where we needed to go, but there were a lot of nice fruit trees around (lemon, apple) and everything was beautiful, green, and quiet. Also, most other places there had just as many steps.


The biggest ``attractions" of Dubrovnik are:

• the walk around the city walls
• the ride/view of the cable car (and the museum in Srd) 
• the Elaphiti Islands
• swimming in the very clear, refreshing, salt water 
• hiking in the mountains (not in the summer!) 
• canoe-tours around Lokrum and other places
• Snorkeling (German is ,,schnorklen") 
• tours with glass-bottomed boats
• eating fresh fish dishes
• good coffee
• beautiful, sunny weather (not always, but often)

We managed to do most of these things. I'd go gladly back to Croatia, although probably try out another city.

If you like swimming every day in the Adriatic Ocean and enjoying the sun, Croatia is a good travel destination.

28.06.2014 Dubrovnik. The Island of Lokrum.

Our host spoke some German (mixed with an occasional word of English). We learned from him that the nearest island, ,,Lokrum'',  is a kind of nature preserve.

We had lunch at  Konoba Gallus. There was a huge group of tourists, fresh off the cruise ship, who were to eat there. So, there was only a small little side area where we could eat (and only pizza).

It was here, further, below, and to the right. One one side was a stone wall, and not so far away was the matching stone wall of the building of the restaurant. It made a sort of breezeway that the wind gently flowed through and was very pleasant.  Here is someone else's photo. 

I had seen the following sign from this hidden area. It took a few times reading through it, before I understood what it was about :).



Afterwards, we walked to the east harbor of Dubrovnik, past the various stands for tours and dinners and tours, and finally saw the one ship which went to Lokrum.  It was 140 Kuna (~ 18,50 Euro, $25.20) round trip. Here are a few photos of the ride to Lokrum:

After 10-15 minutes, we were there. We'd learned (from previous travel) that it's a good idea to have a map. So, I took this picture of the relevant map before we went traipsing around:



We started at the harbor marked (1) and walked around sort of west and north.

Here's a view from the harbor where we landed:





and another:



There were a lot of peacocks on the island. Maybe they came from the time when the island belonged to the Hapsburgs (Wikipedia agrees with my theory).



The peacock danced -- either to try to scare us off or to impress the ladies. He vibrated, shaking his feathers, and made an odd rustling sound in the process.

Here's another, trying to do the same, without the giant feathers:



We saw a peahen with her babies as well:





We saw a fair-sized lizard (maybe as big as my foot) and another, which scampered off:



At the harbor of Lokrum were a lot of crabs. Here's the best picture of one I ended up taking:



There's a smoking ban on the island (so you don't burn it down). I like the sign for it:





One of the sights to see is a former benedictine monastery, now in ruins:




Another photo of the monastery. From this angle, it reminded me of the Alhambra. It's not easy to tell here, but the wall is a light pink. Pink granite? (Does pink granite tend to occur near limestone? It seems to in Texas).

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After the previous-monastery, we walked down to the other side of the island, a part of the coast where a few people swam. Rather, where families with their small children were standing in the wayer. It was very shallow and not somewhere we felt like trying to swim.










After the coast, we walked back up to their "Dead Sea/Lake", (``Mrtvo More'' in Croatian), a saltwater lake.




And there were yet more peacocks there. We got to see a few fly up to and down from trees, which was quite a sight (couldn't get a picture fast enough, though):





There was a (also from the Hapsburgs) Botanical Garden,  with palms and cacti, and some really large prickly pear cacti:








Some random religious building:




I thought it was cute/funny that this restaurant (on the island) had, in addition to "normal" desserts, also fruit like watermelons in the dessert fridge here:




Next time (probably the last post from this trip):

Sunday: Cable car up the mountain, and later, walking around the city walls. Lots of photos.

26.06-27.06.2014 Dubrovnik.End of the conference.

[auf Deutsch]

Since Thursday was mostly just about the banquet, I'll skip talking about it and posting pictures (since this is a travel blog). However, if you were there, or simply want to look at pictures from it, I can advise that the organizers are collecting photos and will post them, I think, on the conference webpage.

Ok, ok. One photo. In the middle (with the beard) is the person whose birthday we were celebrating. Around him stood many of his former students.



I should mention that every day I had breakfast at  Sesame,  a restaurant (and also a hotel, I just learned) near the IUC-- ,,Inter-University Center"-- where the conference was held. The waiters were nice and their coffee was delicious.

Here's the view from the IUC in the direction of Sesame. You can see a little of Sesame on the left side -- it's pretty well hidden by the trees.




Friday, 28.06..
Friday was the last day of the conference. the conference was held in the IUC which had a really pretty courtyard, where we daily had coffee and cake (and math chats):



Here's a view from in front of the IUC:




Lunch was at ,,...nishta", a vegetarian restaurant. Tasty and interesting. I had the felafel and lemonad.

After the last talk, a lot of people wanted to go swimming, since the weather was great. We went to a ,,Beach bar", where you could swim and snorkel nearby.  But, like every ,,beach" here (outside of the artifical one by one of the fancy hotels), it was no proper beach, but a rocky coast.

It was fun and relaxing. Some people swam, some sat, some drank. You could comfortably leave your stuff to be watched by the people there and go take a turn in the water. The water, as ever, was a bit ,,fresh" and therefore refreshing :). I finally had my swim-goggles with me, and the water there next to the ,,beach bar" was shallow enough that I could see a few things -- a sort of ,,sea-snake" and some fish. It would've been a lot easier with a snorkel. I was very much out of practice holding my breath.

Here's a nice view near where we were swimming. It's a part of  `Blackwater Bay" from Game of Thrones:




After the swim, we met up with a few others, then re-divided into groups for dinner. Because of my pleasant experience in the harbor in the west, I suggested we simply go there and find something. The weather was still nice enough that we all opted to walk there (it was mostly downhill, anyway). It was a pleasant walk.

A nice sunset view as we walked:



This is probably Croatian for ,,push":




We ended up eating at  Porat.  I had the seabass, which was steamed in banana leaves, and every bit as soft and delicious as the menu had promised.




Hier is some of what other people ate:







Next up on the travel blog:

• Saturday -- exploring the botanical garden/reserve on the island of Lokrum
• Sunday -- Cable car up the mountain, lots of beautiful views of Durbovnik. Later, a walk around the city walls. 

I flew back on Monday.