Dubrovnik – The Wheels Come Off the Wagon

Dubrovnik at Dusk From the Harbor

The low hum of the air conditioner; the weight of winter comforters pressing down against me; the ribbed wooden ceiling; the excruciating pain…those are my memories of Dubrovnik.  In a city that is easily one of the most beautiful and unique on the Dalmatian coast, it’s strange that these would be the things that I will remember most.  But that’s what happens when you wind up with food poisoning.

We arrived from Sarajevo without a place to stay (Clearly I’m anxious about it), but we located the perfect apartment.  It was on a street right outside the walls to the old city.  And it had air conditioning and, most importantly internet.  I’m being very cautious about getting places with internet right now as my bar exam results could come at any time (and should be here by now…again, anxious).  Our first afternoon we spent at a great “locals” beach with a very nice view of the fortressed town.  Then we walked around the old town and grabbed dinner at a seafood joint that had been recommended right in the harbor of the city.  I got the mussels and Kati had some grilled calamari.  Neither of them were very good.  That should have been my first warning.  They didn’t do a very good job cleaning the mussels--beards were rampant in the dish.  Yet, I continued eating.  After the disappointing meal, we decided to stop in D’Vino, a highly recommended wine bar in the old town.  I got a glass of a Croatian specialty red, Pošip.  It was exactly what I’d been looking for.  It was full-bodied, flavorful, and had the hints of nutmeg that I’d heard make Croatian wines so unique.  Afterwards, we drank some mediocre Bosnian wine we had brought with us back at the apartment and called it an early night.

1:13 a.m. – I wake up, not feeling my best, but I go back to sleep.

2:01 a.m. – I wake up again and in the process wake Kati up.  She asks me if everything’s ok.  In response, I could only dash to the bathroom.  It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this bad…definitely since I came down with the Swine Flu almost two years ago and thought I was dying.  I spent the night in complete misery wearing as many of my clothes as I could put on and using all of the blankets and sheets in the apartment, but I was still freezing.

In the morning, I took some Advil and was determined that I would not let food poisoning ruin our chances to explore Dubrovnik.  We started late—10:15—and went down to explore the town.  I forced down a little breakfast.  Then we stopped by the Franciscan Monastery and the third-oldest operating pharmacy in Europe.  Our next stop was at a really cool photo gallery that specializes in images of war.  While we were there, their emphasis was on the Middle East’s Jasmine/Facebook Revolution and Yugoslavia.  It was great.  About 30 minutes into walking around the gallery, I almost passed out.  Five minutes later it happened again.  We left immediately.  I tried to eat a sandwich, but it was no use.  Kati carefully walked me up the outrageous number of stairs to leave the fortressed old town and get to our apartment.  I spent the rest of the afternoon in even worse shape than the night before, but Kati took good care of me.

In a Moment of Feeling Ok at Café Buža 

At some point in the afternoon my fever finally broke.  I was still determined to explore the city a little more.  We walked back down to the old town and checked out a few more churches.  Along the way Kati and I were both feeling a little coastal (and really hot) so we picked up some sweet hats.  We also stopped by the one place that I really wanted to go: Café Buža.  In Croatian, buža essentially means a hole in the wall.  Café Buža is just that.  It doesn’t advertise, outside of a handwritten wooden sign for “cool drinks” and it’s not in any of the guidebooks.  But if you walk down the back alleys of the old town, you can find a hole in the wall, and, if you walk through, you escape the old town onto a rocky terrace overlooking the sea with the best view in the city.  If I was feeling a little better I would have joined the locals for some cliff diving right below the bar.  Sadly, I didn’t think that was a good idea so we grabbed a quick drink, stopped for dinner, and headed back for an early night.  Despite my terrible condition, we managed to see just about everything I had hoped, but we didn’t get to stroll along the city walls and battlements.  I guess that will have to wait until next time.