Travel Diary: Dubrovnik, Croatia

Dubrovnik was the third and penultimate stop on our trip. By then, we were no longer jittery with excitement for the next thing. Here, we settled into a luxurious vacation sweet spot, lingering in the energy and melody of late-night in the old town square, having slow lunches that covered entire tables with shared food and drink, and greedily devouring stunning, sun-saturated views.

When planning, Kev was excited to suggest this stop to me because it hit all of my marks: the narrow streets of a European town, a seaside feel, warm weather, seafood, and a local wine trade. No question, Croatia blew my mind. It is so beautiful. I can't wait to go back. 

We felt the difference from Vienna as soon as we arrived in Dubrovnik's tiny airport. It was a humid morning - a rain storm was coming. We watched it approach during our drive that seemed to always keep the sea just at hand. We could see the clouds, still far but fast moving; we could see the pockets of clear day and crisp borders of light and shadow on the water below. The rain arrived softly at first and picked up quickly, and by the time we arrived at our AirBnB and completed our tour with the host, it had rolled on, revealing fresh blue sky. 

This place had a balcony and spotty electricity, and it would be our home for the next several days. 

Our first priority was lunch. Our host recommended a restaurant in Old Town that serves capon, a traditionally prepared chicken. 

We were staying a 15 minute walk outside of Old Town, and I would come to enjoy that walking route very much. For most of the walk, there was a wide stretch of promenade with benches and, on the other side of a railing, steep drops, strange plants, rock edges, and the Adriatic Sea beyond them. 

We had Dennis navigate us to dinner, during which journey he'd stop at every single street corner, unfold his map, and fail to locate us. Eventually we found the place, having gone down some of the most narrow streets I've encountered and climbed the steps used to film Cersei's Walk of Atonement on Game of Thrones.

By the way, GoT is big business in Dubrovnik, with no less than a dozen walking tours. At dinner, we saw two such tourists dressed in armor and dueling with toy swords for a photo op. The meal was good. So much seafood! Jugs of house wine!

After dinner we came upon a sign that said "Cold Drinks and the Most Beautiful View." We were sold. Turns out, we'd been pointed to Bar Buza, one of the most well known bars in the city. Happy to have fallen into this particular tourist trap. 

Bar Buza sits cliffside and there are multiple levels from which you can enjoy the view. When the water is calm, patrons can enjoy jumping into the sea for a quick dip. There are two locations in Dubrovnik - the one we went to didn't have a bathroom, which struck me immediately because alcohol makes everyone have to pee every 15 minutes right? Not just me? Anyway. We purchased a few bottles of beer and made our way down steps that degraded in stability all the way to the water's edge. 

We arrived just in time for blue hour, and with the day's earlier storm rolling away in the distance, the view pierced me in such a significant way that I find myself, even today, ten months later, thinking (almost aloud) every so often "no blue like the blue on the Adriatic" as if the thought were a mantra or a catchy lyric. I can only speak for my own experience and I learned long ago to show, not tell as a writer - yet I feel the need to document this: watching the day fade into darkness while sitting on a rock two feet above the sea, staring into the distance toward the flat, unnaturally perfect line of the horizon, finding myself in the third new place on the earth in a week and a half.. all of that combined to a memory that is both transcendent and deeply grounding. No, I wasn't drunk, just a sucker for earthly beauty. 

Once it grew dark we started to head toward home, stopping at La Bodega, a wine bar/cafe in the main Old Town square. A band was playing, that familiar lively buzz of night which always calls to me was in the air. We ended up staying for a couple of hours and imbibing on several glasses of wine. We took a group photo on our way out of Old Town which makes me happy to look at. 

Travel Diary: 2 days in Vienna continued

When we left the cafe we still had a ways to go before getting to the city center and so we made our way over leisurely, taking in the sights even as the temperatures dropped so much that Will buttoned his shirt all the way up to try to keep insulated despite being basically choked by his collar. 

We were headed to the famous Cafe Central, which Dennis researched extensively and was clearly very excited to visit. There was a line out the door when we arrived and when Kev returned from scoping out the entrance and joked "okay the line only wraps around the inside once," Dennis was 100% unfazed and ready to wait. Luckily, the line moved at a steady pace and we had seats in about 30 minutes. We ordered desserts to share and coffee drinks, took selfies with Will's selfie stick, and the more enthusiastic in our party even got a selfie while sitting on the toilet during a bathroom break. 

Returning to the apartment, we hung out in the upstairs living area and watched some tv, reviewed our days' pictures, and tried to decide on dinner before we got too hungry. We landed on Japanese - we'd all been craving Asian I guess, after being away from our usual diets that feature vegetables much more prominently than the cuisines we'd been enjoying in the past several days. 

More wine, more games, and bedtime after another long and active day. 

Day Two. 

Kev and I had the second day in Vienna to ourselves while the rest of the group biked over to Schoenbrunn castle. We started with brunch at Cafe Ulrich, lucking out with a patio table in great weather. (Think passing clouds and sporadic sunshine.) The meal held hints of fall with a pumpkin soup and beet purée. 

Afterward we lolled about the city and climbed the tower of the church in the main square. The travel magnet selection at the gift shops in the square was lacking but we scored a simple little blue and white one with "Wien" embossed in gold. I note this detail because after ducking in and out of what seemed like a dozen stores, I tell you it really felt like finding treasure when I finally took the darn thing up to the cashier and checked out. 

We'd agreed with the group to turn on wifi after the last scheduled tower climb of the day and link up for dinner. We didn't connect with them for a while and so we waited at a nearby wine bar, using their wifi signal and trying various white wines. Not a bad way to pass the time. 

Late afternoon was starting to turn to dusk. The chill was coming back into the air, but we were still warm from our activities so we continued to sit outdoors, finally ordering soup to keep up the warmth and tide us over until dinner. Sitting on that quiet side street sipping wine was another one of those moments like I had in Budapest when time slows just enough to form a more vivid memory than usual. No sky like the sky that afternoon in Vienna - supremely blue, and despite the clouds, where it was clear it was so clear that you could see sunshine filling it up as if the light was suspended in water. 

Our return to the Airbnb, a long one as we stayed about a 30 minute walk from the main square, took place as the last of the day was fading and this allowed us to see Vienna's gorgeous, and yes, opulent, architecture made brilliant against the golden light. We walked through gardens, under a couple of arches, across tree lined streets, and by the time we were a few minutes from our apartment I had my camera out in front of me the whole time, snapping the same picture over and over straight down our dingy, anonymous street - that sunset, that sky. That was the few hours' difference by which the city entered my heart.

The others had gotten back a little before us and were out on the roof patio enjoying a bottle of wine. The wind eventually whipped us back indoors and after a little unwinding we set out for our last Vienna meal. 

The place we'd had in mind was closed for a private party but the servers gave us a nice little recommendation for a restaurant that Kim now refers to as "cute place," as in our two Vienna dinners were "Japanese and cute place." 

Walking up to the front door felt like we were coming upon a tavern like the one in the Beauty and the Beast (original Disney animated version) and inside we found indeed a cute place that was barely populated as the other diners were all seated in the open air garden out back. 

These group meals in new places are treasures, I see that now. No memory exists of what we talked about but there is the certainty that we were enjoying ourselves. 

The coziness of that dinner and the bright yellow street lights which illuminated our last walk back to the apartment sealed the experience of this city. Vienna: technically beautiful, blazing skied, and for all its autumnal chill, full of moments of warmth. 

Travel Diary: 2 days in Vienna

What lingers from our visit to Vienna is the way the city inspired me to feel so excited about fall. I'll also add this unhelpful and completely subjective assessment: it exceeded my expectations.

In truth, my expectations were low. I knew the city would be gorgeous and the desserts to die for, but I'd also formed an image of Vienna as overly opulent, high brow, and generally too too super fancy, and that isn't my style. In planning our trip, the two day stop in Vienna accomplished a convenient check-mark in our world travels. It wasn't a destination if you know what I mean. 

We left Budapest in the morning, narrowly beating a rain shower to the train station. There, we had coffee and pastries before boarding our train and settling in for a couple hours' nap. Train stations in Europe have all looked alike to me, and all of them exactly like the one that Ewan McGregor steps out onto in 1900s Paris in the movie Moulin Rouge. High ceilinged, hopeful, and impressive if you look up, gritty and kind of shady if you look anywhere else. 

What I found when we arrived was a shy, silent place. There was an immediate chill in the air, the taxi ride to our AirBnB followed an unremarkable route, and by the time we arrived at the place I felt completely surrounded by the color and the feeling of cool gray.

Our host was friendly and suggested a nearby lunch spot for us to try out. Our second first meal. The place and the meal was so simple, so opposite of fancy-pants, that it charmed the crap out of me. I got this very clean vegetable soup served in a cool looking bowl. The water came in tiny glass bottles (okay, that's a little fancy).

It was several blocks from Schillings before we found a single storefront open for business. We entered the first cafe we came upon. I absolutely love stepping indoors somewhere with warm-toned lights and general coziness, still draped in cool air from the street, and being handed a cup of something hot to hold. Safe to say that when it comes to cafes, I fully embrace the millennial, hipster, etc. stereotype of loving them. I love mugs and milk foam designs. I like sugar cubes but love raw cane sugar chunks more. This place rejuvenated us just enough. 

The countertops were dark stone, the signage featured deco-style font, and the lattes came in giant blue bowls. Someone sat smoking by the large front window at a too-small two top, smoke swirling and dissipating in the late morning light. My mind started to catch up with my body. We were in Vienna now.

Travel Diary: Budapest Day 3

Day 3 would be our last day in Budapest before heading off to Vienna the next morning via train. That morning we went to the Budapest Zoo. Looking back, I realize it was something I really advocated for, and have since learned that going to a theme park or zoo in a zoo place isn't something I'd prioritize again. If I could do it again, I'd maybe instead suggesting walking around a different part of the city, seeing other sites, exploring side streets, and finding holes in the walls for breakfast and lunch.

Being with a big group helped make this activity special though. We spent a good amount of our time getting separated and finding each other again as different people were drawn to and slowed down by different exhibits. Plus, it was nice to be around "nature" and to pass a slow morning laughing at each other's random animal phobias and Dennis's utter inability to read a map. Going to the zoo and back was also the only time we got to ride the subway, something that Will, as a self proclaimed "foamer" was very eager to do.

We'd booked tickets for a sunset river cruise on the Danube river that evening (which Dennis insisted on pronouncing duh-NOO-bay), and I'm pretty proud of how much we packed into the intervening hours between the the zoo and when we were due at the dock.

We went to the Central Market, a huge market and food hall that was conveniently very close to our apartment. In keeping with other central markets I've seen in Europe, this was a sprawling, high-ceilinged place. Produce, meat, and other sundries were sold on the ground floor. Clothing, home goods, and souvenir vendors were on the upper level whose labyrinthine layout on suspended walkways gave you a sense of vertigo that was counter balanced by the suffocating backups in foot traffic. We ducked into a sit down restaurant and had a cafeteria-style lunch that was much needed and really delicious.

I distinctly remember the feeling I had upon leaving the market and walking into the adjoining square. By then it was afternoon and the sun had found its way to a low angle in the sky, warming the pavement, creeping under the umbrellas over cafe tables, stretching shadows, and casting gold tones all around. Time slowed down for me and I was completely, mindfully, present in the experience of this moment on this day in Budapest. It was as if my inner voice said "I'm here." Golden hour.

I took that feeling with me as we stopped at wine bar next. There was one little round table set up on sidewalk and we piled six wicker chairs around it. We had such a great time there, eating local cheese and cured meats and slowly getting drunk on inexpensive local wine while chatting with the super friendly shopkeep who had some crazy back-in-the-day stories.

photo credit KQ

We left this meal somewhat reluctantly, causing us to be in a rush to get to the dock on time. In fact, we had to run to the meeting location specified on the tickets.