(Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase from an affiliate link, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of this blog!)
Back to Croatia we go! And back to ground level after my trip on the cable car…
As you can see, it wasn’t just the jet lag that allowed me to enjoy empty streets in the Old Town. Even at normal hours, there were very few tourists because it wasn’t “cruise ship season.” Lucky me!
I checked out the Memorial Room of Dubrovnik Defenders…
And finally, Alex joined me for a delicious dinner. I think Tavulin was my favorite restaurant experience of the trip. The atmosphere was so authentic, the service super gracious, and the food SO GOOD. If I still remember that from 2018, it must have been good, right?! ;) (I promise it’s not just because I haven’t been inside a restaurant in almost a year, ha!)
The Christmas decor was pretty magical at night.
The next day was quite an adventure. It was Alex’s first day of not having to work all day, and he wanted to make the most of it. Of course I had been studying my Lonely Planet guide to Croatia with the intent of more Dubrovnik exploring, but he had other plans—hired a driver to show us around two nearby(ish) towns.
I think the main motivation was that it would be cool to check off two more countries, which in this case would be Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina. (I previously had no idea that Bosnia & Herzegovina was the name of one country, or even that Herzegovina existed. I felt so unprepared, ha!)
Anyhow, our driver was fantastic, and two of Alex’s awesome colleagues came along for this tri-country adventure….so what could possibly go wrong? Well…. let’s just say the weather was less than ideal. ;)
Nonetheless, first stop: the city of Trebinje, and specifically, this gorgeous cathedral.
I was honestly just relieved to get inside after how hard it started raining on our short walk from the bus… but I was unprepared for the sheer beauty of the interior of the Cathedral Temple of Holy Transfiguration.
The downpour forced us to spend most of our time indoors, but luckily our driver had some insight about which places were worth shopping in (instead of just hiding from the rain.) If your 2018 Christmas present from the Millers was from Bosnia & Herzegovina, this is the shop it came from. ;))
The rain slowed down enough for a quick stroll through the old town. I wouldn’t say we experienced a lot of culture since the place was so empty, but it definitely did feel completely different from Croatia.
We made our way toward Montenegro, with a stop on the way for some VERY tasty lunch. (Driver definitely came through for us on this one too!)
At this point, the weather got WAY worse and was actually pretty scary. MAJOR flooding was happening as we drove down the side of the mountain, and our driver said we might get stranded if we didn’t hurry and get back to Croatia. Yikes! So we never got out of the bus in Montenegro at all. Bummer!
But we did end up walking around one more town on the way back to Dubrovnik (once we were out of harm’s way.) Cavtat was just as rainy and empty as Trebinje, but we made the most of it and enjoyed our stroll anyway! :)
Not my favorite travel day ever, but when you have a limited time, you do the best you can, right?
Next up: ONE more day in Croatia! :)
