Tag Archives: Dubrovnik

Going Out in Style

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , ,

It’s our last Friday in Dubrovnik, so we’ve decided to do it up right. We’re basically re-creating my birthday by visiting all of our favorite spots: fancy tea and piano music at the Hilton, dinner at Nishta and hitting up our two favorite local pubs (Talir and Katie O’Connor’s). You can see below that Mr. F already has his party face on. If the weather is nice this weekend we may also try to catch the sunset one last time, but it’s been a lot colder and pretty windy the last few days, so we may or may not get that chance.

I’ll check in on Monday. We leave Tuesday morning, spend the night in Paris and arrive in Nice on Wednesday afternoon, so I’m optimistic that I can give you all the run-down on how that trip went on Wednesday. Fingers crossed!

Have a great weekend!

"ready to imbibe!"

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It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , , ,
The Stradun

This gallery contains 10 photos.

I will say one thing for the people of Dubrovnik: they know how to make this place charming as hell, especially during the holidays. And why not? It’s their bread and butter and they know it. Every archway (of which there are many) is adorned with boughs, lights and oranges and many shops have done … Keep reading →

Split Decisions

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , , , ,

I’m changing things up a bit for this post. We had a wonderful time in Split, but it would be a disservice to simply recap what we did, since what we really took away from the trip was how it made us feel and how it put this entire trip into perspective. So, I’m going to use this post to talk about some broader issues (with a little recap mixed in) and then I’ve put a slideshow of our photos from the weekend at the end to keep the post from getting ridiculously long, and to keep the photos from breaking up the discussion.

We set out to keep this blog for many reasons, but I’ve always wanted the primary focus of the blog to be about what it was really like for us to be here, what we learned from this trip and how we’ve changed as a result. With that in mind, it’s hard to know how honest to be about everything we are experiencing, since it usually takes a while to process our feelings and impressions of a place.

After we had been in Dubrovnik for about a month, we realized that we were both in a bit of a funk. We had separately come to the conclusion that we’d done everything here that we wanted to do, and weren’t really sure how to proceed with another month ahead of us in this sleepy town. We talked about it and realized that we both had this idea that we were supposed to feel a certain way, and felt that we were somehow failing if the reality of a place wasn’t matching our idea of it. We had to admit to ourselves that we were a little disappointed with Dubrovnik, and that it was OK to feel that way. It’s a beautiful place with a lot of interesting things to do, but two months were way too long to be here. Once we came to that realization, we both felt a lot better and were able to let go of the idea that we “should” feel a certain way, and we started to enjoy ourselves again. We started to embrace the downtime that we had, and of course really appreciated all the quality time together, which was the main reason for this trip.

Some important conclusions that we reached from that discussion were:

1. Usually we are feeling the same thing about a given issue, and we don’t realize until we talk about it (and when we do, we feel a lot better knowing we’re not alone in that feeling).

2. We need more of a sense of movement in this trip. In many ways, we enjoyed our drive cross-country more than we’ve enjoyed this trip so far, because we’ve felt stuck in one place.

3. We probably shouldn’t spend more than a month in any destination. Our original reasoning was that by staying here longer and saving on rent we’d be able to take more side trips, but the truth is that for our own mental health it would have been better to move on.

The tragedy is that when we had this talk, one of the solutions we came up with was to move on to Split for the next month. We know now that we absolutely should have done that. At the time, our arguments against leaving were that we felt weird about getting out of our arrangement with our landlady, we had already arranged our transportation to Nice and were leaving from Dubrovnik and (most importantly) literally no source we consulted had much to say about Split. Granted, the majority of travel guides aren’t geared toward our situation, but also the locals and friends we spoke to didn’t make it sound too exciting either. It’s really too bad, because Dubrovnik may be the beautiful favored child of Croatia, but Split is the fun older sister who takes you shopping and lets you get drunk with her cool friends who are home from college for Thanksgiving break.

We made it up to Split by 2:30 and made our way to our sobe. We got really turned around and missed both the entrance to Diocletian’s Palace and the street that our sobe was on, and I began to get really frustrated and suspected the trip was going to be a disaster (spoiler: it wasn’t). No matter what I did, I just could not orient myself to the map and it was driving me crazy. Jared saw that I was shutting down, took over and we found our way. Later, we realized that he had thought I wanted to do the navigating (usually it’s my job, since I USUALLY have a natural sense of direction) and I thought he wanted me to do it so I was even more frustrated that I couldn’t figure out where we were. We acknowledged that sometimes I just need to ask him for help, because he doesn’t always know I need it (which ties in nicely with point #1 above).

The incident also highlighted one of the key differences in Split: the attitude was much lighter here. We had to ask more than one person where we were going and they were all really helpful (one woman even went online to look up the address), which was almost shocking to us after our time in Mostar and some of the surly shopkeepers we’ve encountered in Dubrovnik. The guy who gave us the best directions even remembered us when we came back for breakfast the next day and asked how we were doing. We noticed this difference in attitude almost immediately upon arrival – it was clear that there is a pulse to this city that we hadn’t yet felt anywhere else. It’s true that we’re here in the off season, but Split was still full of people this time of year, and they were locals that didn’t leave once the sun went down. It felt like this was a town that people actually lived in and enjoyed.

We arbitrarily chose a restaurant from our guide book and ended up at Šperun. On our way out, we got to talking with the owner and had a lovely conversation about our trip and the differences we felt between the towns that we’d visited. We gave him our card and he had already posted our blog on the restaurant’s Facebook page by the time we made it back to Dubrovnik. It was the warmest interaction we’ve had on the whole trip, and the kind of meeting that we’d been hoping for all this time. After dinner, we meandered around Diocletian’s Palace, sniffing out bars by following the sounds of conversation. I’m pretty sure we were the only non-locals at any of them.

Another thing that kept coming to mind was how easily the weekend could have gone badly in our minds (or not as well). We already got lost, but we could have arrived to a less charming room, gone to a less inviting restaurant, or walked in a different direction and not found the fun bars to drink at. It all speaks to the fact that on a trip like this, you don’t know what is around each corner, which I think is part of why we gave Dubrovnik more of a chance than we needed to. We are both so open to meeting new people and having a good time here, and we just keep trying and hoping that we’d find that spark that eluded us. I think in this case it was just in Split the whole time.

However, what is steadily becoming the truth for us is the idea that there is no perfect place. We know that we probably would have also gotten bored with Split eventually, and that’s still OK, because we have a home and we’re not trying to find a new one. We’re trying to exhaust our current dreams while we have the mobility and financial means to do it, and to reinforce the idea that the grass is not always greener so that when we have kids and it gets difficult to travel for a while we won’t feel like we’re missing out on something. The one constant we have is that we love spending time together and that we are a good team, and we are very fortunate to have all of this time to just be together in the same space, wherever in the world that may be.

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A Case of the Mondays

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , ,

Hey guys, I am working on a post about our trip to Split for tomorrow, but we had so much fun this weekend that Jared came home with a cold…which he then gave to me. I was hoping to still get the post done for today but I have a lot to say and I don’t want to rush it, and with my current fogbrain (technical term) it’s pretty slow going.

Here’s some entertainment to hold you over until tomorrow.  XO

it does have a certain ring to it.

Footlong Friday: Tagging Along

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , , ,

Mr. Footlong has been busy these days. He’s a bit of a mooch, though. He joined us for Thanksgiving and thoroughly enjoyed himself…

"I'm thankful you're not serving hot dogs"

"chocolate orange pudding - huzzah!"

…but was mysteriously absent when it was time to do the dishes:

"..."

He popped up again just in time to go to tea with us on Wednesday, but his drink order was a little too eccentric:

"Barman! Fetch me a Midnight Train to Shanghai with THREE fingers of gin. You don't know what that is?!?!? hrmph."

Thankfully he was pacified by catching up on his USA Today:

"I far prefer the original newsprint, but this will suffice."

Oh, Frank. You’re difficult, but we love you.

A Little Off the Sides

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

When we were still in Seattle preparing for this trip, Jared needed a haircut. Rather than searching for a new barber (and Seattle has many excellent ones), I convinced him to let me try cutting his hair. My reasoning was that we didn’t know what we’d be able to find while abroad, it would save money and I would do my best to give him exactly the cut he wanted. Back in New York, it seemed like barbers were always cutting his hair way too short and with his light skin and hair, it’s a pretty severe look. We were so wary that he got a cut weeks before our wedding to give it time to grow out for pictures. By the time he figured out exactly what to ask for to avoid getting totally sheared, we moved out of the city. So for practicality and budget, I took over as barber. I wear many hats these days.

The first haircut wasn’t bad, but we agree that I’m getting better. I’ve cut Jared’s hair 3 times now and each time my technique is improving and I’m having more fun (and am less afraid that I’ll ruin Jared’s hair). We went for fancy tea and cakes again yesterday and I gave him a trim beforehand. When his hair grows long on the sides it starts to look a little “mushroom-y” (our term) so we thought we’d spiff up a bit (which is also why I am wearing a dress in the picture below).

before...don't worry, he's wearing pants.

during

he jokingly asked what magazines I offered, so I gave him this

the result!

Tea and cake was great, again, and we specifically went on a night that they had a piano player (M, W, F) and we were not sorry. The guy was really talented and super nice – eventually we were the only ones there so he came by and asked what we wanted to hear.

We were kind of pumped from being out so after dinner we went back out for some drinks. We’ve been giving this Irish bar a few blocks down another shot and are liking it more and more for nights when we want a little more liveliness. The bartenders are really sweet and the main guy immediately gives us a rundown of the cider inventory as soon as we walk in, since that’s what we always order. One of them just got a job working for Royal Caribbean and the other is obsessed with Chicago so we’ve given them our card in case they ever need contacts.  When we told them how long we were here, they looked at us like we were crazy – ha!  Maybe we are…

Money For Something

Posted by whitneyandjared in Finances, Jared, Travel and tagged with , , , , , , ,

It seems like it’s been a long time since I wrote something for this blog. Whitney has made it her baby, and I was more than happy to let her take it over. She’s done a tremendous job.

So we finally hit the end of our first full month in Dubrovnik, six weeks in total. Honestly, it feels like we have been here for six months. I’m not complaining; it seems like we have just hit our stride here, seen all that we can see, and now are in the groove here. The days and weeks pass quickly.

Most days, we sleep in a little (usually I’m up by nine, while Whitney wakes up….later). Then we usually are at the gym by noon, home by one, and then ready for work by two. I try to put in three hours of work a day, to pay for this damn thing, look for other jobs, find funny videos of cats, etc. You get the idea.

Before I get into the money breakdown, I’d like to mention a couple things I’ve noticed about our Croatian friends:

-       They like to smoke here. A LOT. Croatians smoke basically 24/7. Maybe this is true for all of Europe, I don’t know, but I feel like I’m in an episode of Mad Men.  It’s gotten to the point where I actually like the smell of cigarette smoke, but there have been times when we’ve had to leave places because I couldn’t breathe. God bless them, but I swear everyone here is going to die of lung cancer.

-       I have heard more 80s music than I care to hear ever again in my life.  Phil Collins? Check. Dire Straits “Money for Nothing”? You bet your sweet ass. Huey Lewis and the News? They are alive and well, apparently. It seems like they play the same 20 songs over and over again, and all of them are songs that were “hits” twenty five years ago. The Heart of Rock and Roll is apparently in Dubrovnik.

Okay, with that rant out of the way, let’s talk about money. This month we did pretty good, and assuming that I get paid for one of my remote jobs (a big if at this point), we are under budget for a second month.

We made about $3500 this month. Our expenses break down as follows:

Rent: $531

Food: $945

Entertainment: $871 (includes two trips)

Misc: $917

TOTAL: $3264

So we are under this month by around $250. We were under last month by about $500, so this puts us roughly $750 for the trip. Not bad.

But here’s what I’ve learned about expenses here: while two people can get by for roughly $3000 a month, they can only do that if they don’t travel at all, and basically stay in one place. And never eat out.

If you are planning on doing any sightseeing while in Europe, a much better budget would be $4000 a month. That would still be on the cheap, though.

If you want to really live here, including renting a decent apartment, going out to eat a few times a week, buying clothes and souvenirs, going out to coffee shops and bars, basically to live somewhat well, I would suggest a budget close to $5000 a month for two people.

We are getting by on $3500. Enjoying ourselves, yes, but just getting by. We are hoping that I can pick up a job or two more so we don’t have to live quite so close to the bone. I had thought that I would enjoy being poor, so to speak, but I’m finding that I would prefer to simply not have to worry about money as much as I do.

Until next time!

Onward

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

We’re officially starting to get a little bored here. We’ve kind of maxed out the things to do in this town, and while it’s nice to have a lot of down time, we’re definitely getting the itch to go somewhere else already. I’ve been hard at work playing travel agent and have put together our itinerary for the next two months, so I thought I’d give y’all an update.

On December 13th our time is officially up here in Dubrovnik and we’ll be heading to Nice to spend a month with a family friend of mine who lives there with her husband and two kids. We’re really looking forward to being around friends, and we lined up a place that is way nicer than we should have in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (it helps to know people). It’s a little above our budget, but we have a few friends and family who have expressed interest in visiting so we’re confident we can make it work. At any rate, we got way more space than we ever thought we’d have for the same price we would have paid for a closet, so we’re not complaining. Getting there from here was a tricky trip to put together without spending an arm and a leg, so we will be flying to Paris, spending the night and then taking the TGV (high speed train) down to Nice. I’m sure that will be a fun adventure to recap!

After Nice, we rented a studio in Seville, Spain. We’re both really excited about this. Spain is Jared’s favorite country and we’ve been wanting to go for a long time (it was actually our original honeymoon destination) and the thought that we were running out of time to go there was part of the impetus for this trip. Our place doesn’t look much bigger than the one we have now, but it has a little terrace and it looks pretty cute (fingers crossed!).

The problem is that once we leave Seville, we’re kind of stumped. We have one more month that we can spend in any of the EU agreement countries (the Schengen Area), and then we have another month that we can spend in Croatia, which we will likely spend in Zagreb so that we can go to Plitvice Lakes National Park and some places up North when the weather is nicer. One idea is to stay in Spain and go to Barcelona. I need to at least go to this city for a few days, so if we don’t go there after Seville, we’ll take a side trip while we’re there (don’t worry, I can’t leave Europe without seeing the Sagrada Família). Another contender is Paris.  Jared has never been there, but I’ve been several times and know it pretty well and can speak the language (or could, last time I was there…we’ll see how it is this go round). The drill is the same – if we don’t spend a month here we will definitely go while we’re in Nice. The problem with both of these cities is that they have expensive rents! So far, no dice on finding an affordable apartment in either city. We have heard Lisbon is cheap and underrated but we have also heard it’s kind of boring and we’re wary after things being so quiet here.

I thought I’d open it up to you guys, and get your opinion (and maybe any contacts you have that could help us find a cheap place??). Weigh in below and let us know if you have any other suggestions!  I’ll leave this open for a month, and which point I sincerely hope we have this figured out or we’ll be scrambling.

Check back tomorrow for Jared’s end of the month budget update!

Footlong Friday: Breaking Dawn

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , , , ,

Yeah, I’ll admit that I read the Twilight series (so did a lot of people).  No, I’m not a Twihard (thought that was the theme of my bachelorette party).  The movies are awful but they’re entertaining, especially to go make fun of with my girlfriends.  I figured I would have to wait until we got back to see the latest installment of the series, but it came out on my birthday (a day earlier than in the States) at our odd little theater here in Dubrovnik and we went to see it on Monday.  Seriously, this theater looks more like a lecture hall than anything, and has the most uncomfortable seats ever.  Jared didn’t even complain about bad the movie was (he willingly went with me because what else was he going to do?) – he only complained about how uncomfortable the seats were.  It has two showings per day – usually one American and one Croatian – and it only opens about 30 minutes before the show starts.  The awesome thing is that it’s only $5 per person, so that’s a refreshing change.

Anyway, it was nice to feel like I wasn’t totally cut off from everything I would be doing back home, and I actually saw it the same day as my friends in NYC did, so we were able to dish the next day.

I did learn a surprising tidbit that I suspect nobody else is privy to: the love triangle in the story is actually a square:

I think we all know which handsome devil Bella will choose.  No girl can resist that mustache.

It Never Rains in Southern Croatia

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , ,

This song was very much on my mind yesterday since it rained all day:

As a Seattle girl I don’t really mind the rain; it makes me feel at home.  What sucked was that we had a line of wash hanging out to dry, so we had to bring it in and dry it on the bed in front of the heater.  Then we spent most of the day indoors reading.  The gym has been closed for repainting for 2 days so we were total shut-ins, except for when we went out to feed the kitty, but he and his momma were [hopefully] holed up somewhere dry.

The rain gave the smooth stones of the Stradun a nice glisten, and as we walked home Jared declared, “it’s not so bad, the rain.”

UPDATE: It rained all day again today, but we ventured over to Port Gruz to get supplies for our Thanksgiving feast tomorrow.  Jared went out to feed the kitty this morning and met a woman who has also been feeding them (she approached him in line at the grocery store as he was buying cat food).  She’s a local so she’ll take over once we leave!  We’re SO relieved that they will be looked after once we’re gone.