July 5: Dubrovnik Day 3

This morning LB woke me up at 4 and then Maddy woke up about 4:30. After the sun had come out, Maddy looked out the window and noticed Auntie Julie outside our balcony working out and announced it loudly to all of us. She and LB went outside to watch and Maddy ended up watching like a creeper for quite a while.

Maddy the Creeper

Eventually the four of us headed down to breakfast at 6:30, when they opened. Most of the options were pretty much the same as yesterday and LB enjoyed the crispy vegetable patties and the doughnuts. When we were done with breakfast we went back to the room to relax for about an hour before we met Ivan in the lobby to go to Dubrovnik old town.

The View From Breakfast

Vaughn, Charlene, Brian, Julie and Andrea all decided to walk to the old town and met the rest of us where the bus would drop us off. Most of the rest of the group was able to make it to the lobby on time, but Lana was nowhere to be seen and none of the cousins were able to contact her. Eventually Paul went to her room and pounded on her door, but still no answer. Luckily there was a housecleaner nearby who was able to open the door and Paul said Lana was still asleep with her earplugs in and eye mask on, so he told us to go ahead and they would catch us in the old town. We probably ended up leaving close to 9am and met up with the walking group right where Ivan had planned, just outside the east gate for old town Dubrovnik.

Entering the Old City

We started off walking up on the city walls, which gave us an amazing vantage of the whole city. Ivan planned on just taking us around half the city walls because it was pretty hot and we were fully exposed on top of the walls, so we ended up walking the northern half of the wall.

Touristing

When we came down from the walls we were at the end of the main street right next to a big water fountain, called Velika Onofrijeva Fontana, where we were all able to refill our water bottles, wet our hats and my dad soaked his shirt to cool off. Then Ivan gave us a quick tour of the old town before he left us to check on our kayak tour later.

Evan & the Velika Onofrijeva Fontana

After Ivan left us we went to a gelato store because Maddy had been asking for ice cream as soon as we came down from the city walls. We went to a shop on the main street called Mostro Gelato. They had a lot of unique flavors including Dubai chocolate, but both LB and I opted to copy my dad and get mango coconut which was refreshing and rich at the same time.

King's Landing?

After the gelato we went to a few souvenir shops and then looked for a restaurant that I had bookmarked since some people were hungry. The restaurant, Taj Mahal, couldn't sit everyone that came to eat, so Charlene and all the boys went to a pizza place right next door, while Yeh-yeh, Ni-ni, Brian, Julie, Andrea, Christal, Lindsey, Lana, Kelsey, Megan, Maddy and I all stayed. Taj Mahal is a Bosnian restaurant that specializes in meat and they also have a butcher shop in Dubrovnik. We ordered cevapi and a two dish traditional experienced, which we chose sarma, cabbage and grape leaves stuffed with beef and rice, and hadžijski ćevap, which was a stew of slow cooked beef, vegetables and kajmak or cream. The cevapi was the best we've had so far because it had a deep char flavor and you could tell the meat was of a higher quality.

Ćevapi

The sarma was served on a bed of mashed potatoes with some of the braising liquid over the top. The rice was perfectly cooked and tender and the minced beef was nice and rich.

Sarma

The hadžijski ćevap had a nice variety of vegetables including eggplant, zucchini and carrots and the beef was braised nicely to the point where it was almost falling apart in the rich tomato based braising liquid.

Hadžijski Ćevap

After we finished lunch we headed back to the hotel by way of the public bus, which was very easy because the first stop was the old town and the last stop was our hotel. Back at the hotel LB went with Wyatt and Cedric to take a nap while we took Maddy to swim with the rest of the cousins.

Nap Time

After we were done swimming we got LB from Wyatt and Cedric's room and brought him down to our room. He was able to stay asleep until I woke him at 4:30 so that we could meet in the lobby at 4:45 to go on our kayak tour.

For the kayak tour we had an odd number of people and LB wanted to go with Wyatt so I was in a kayak by myself. Unfortunately Maddy couldn't come so she and Christal hung out in the old town and waited for us.

No Kayaking Means More Gelato!

Our guides, Eugene and Marco, took us around Lokrum island, which is the closest island to old town Dubrovnik, making multiple stops along the way. Most of the stops were for rest and to tell us the history of the island and some stops we were able to get out of the kayaks and swim or jump off some cliffs, some of which were pretty high.

Geronimo!

Towards the end of our circumnavigation of the island they took us to a small cave and had us swim inside, dive down and look out the cave towards the sun and the water was a vibrant turquoise blue. After the cave we got back in our kayaks and headed out into some open water to sit and watch the sunset.

The Flotilla

Once the sun set we headed back to the beach to return the kayaks and equipment. Maddy and Christal were waiting for us as we got back and then we all got on the public bus, which was really crowded, and rode back to the hotel in our wet clothes. By the time we got back to the hotel it was after 9pm, so we decided not to go back into the old town for dinner and just eat at the restaurant at the hotel, Restaurant Zoë to celebrate Brian's birthday. We all went and either took quick showers or just rinsed off and then met in the lobby before walking down to the restaurant.

Is That Daniel-San?

The food was Mediterranean with local influence and it turned out to be much better than I had expected and not too expensive. Christal and I shared a sea bass carpaccio starter that was served on a bed of arugula and dressed with olive oil, orange and lemon. It was nice and light and the sea bass was very fresh.

Sea Bass Carpaccio

LB ordered Istrian fuži, which is a local pasta, with a truffle sauce made with butter, fresh black truffle and Grana Padano cheese. LB loved it and ate most of it before getting full and letting us polish off the rest.

Istrian Fuži

Christal ordered the fish soup because she knew Maddy would like it. It was nice and light with a little bit of rice, lemon and parsley to help boost the flavor of the fish.

Fish Soup

I ordered the crni rižoto, or black risotto, which was obviously risotto but with cuttlefish ink and pieces of cuttlefish that turned the whole dish black. It was very good with the cuttlefish pieces cooked perfectly so that they were really tender with no rubberiness or chewiness at all. For the most part the rice was cooked well with just a few grains here and there being slightly under, but the dish was not too viscous so it had a pleasant mouth feel. After we finished dinner we all headed back to our rooms and went to bed.

Crni Rižoto