Croatia and Albania (and Montenegro) Part I

I just returned from my longest time away from Baby A (now Toddler A), and it was great, and also LONG! When I got back, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t changed a diaper in eleven whole days. What??? That seemed unbelievable. I went on this trip with a good friend, and when we booked flights, she wanted to pay extra so she could choose a seat. She couldn’t believe I didn’t care. She said, “what if you get a middle??” I had to explain that having an ENTIRE seat to myself, with no one on my lap kicking me in the face, or sleeping on me, or screaming and crying, was absolute luxury. Middle seat with headphones and a movie? Or a BOOK? Or… closing my eyes without worrying my baby would end up in the aisle? Unheard of.

Anyway, it was a fantastic trip. We saw so many things, went so many places, ate so much amazing food, and surprisingly didn’t spend too much money. Also, everyone survived at home! My husband, my baby, and of course our bonus family member – our nanny. They were all happy to have me back but the fact that there were no major crises definitely boosted my confidence in them, and also in the fact that I could go away again, but probably not for as long. Around day 6 I started to get homesick. I missed the tiny hands and tiny slobbery kisses and of course my husband and my bed! But the part of the trip I was most excited about was at the end, so that kept me going through the homesickness.

When I left home, I had 1 stamp in my passport from Mexico, because after I changed my name, I had basically been consistently pregnant and scared to travel, or postpartum. Now, I have 8 stamps. That is a lot to write about. Where do I start?? I guess, the beginning.

Why Croatia and Albania? Well… the flights were cheap. I paid under $700 round trip. Also, neither of us had been to those places before. We figured if we flew into one place and out of another, it would basically make an itinerary for us. And that’s basically what we did! We built our trip with the help of AI a lot. “What should you do with three days in Dubrovnik?” “If you have 7 hours in Hvar, what are the must-see attractions?” Etc. Who needs a travel agent anymore? We even asked questions like, “how do you get from Dubrovnik, Croatia to Shkoder, Albania, how long would it take, and how much do the options cost?”

We started our trip in Split, Croatia, because that’s where the cheapest flight went to. Also, I had never even heard of Split. We didn’t spend too much time there, but we had enough time to sample their famous Cevape sandwich, and go to the absolute must-see destination, Froggyland, the world’s largest collection of taxidermy frogs (507!!) set up in crazy positions, like Olympics, courtrooms, etc. No photos were allowed, but if they were, this blog would have probably been solely dedicated to Froggyland.

On our one full day in Split, we took a day trip somewhere else, a boat to three islands including to the Blue Lagoon. The water was cold, but of course we still got in. YOLO! How often are you in Croatia?? It was worth it.

The next day, we left Split, but when we first landed in Croatia, we found out that our original boat tour day was cancelled, and we had to reschedule. Since our newer boat trip didn’t include a stop in Hvar, we rearranged our Split to Dubrovnik transfer so we could spend 6 hours in Hvar. It was the right choice! Our ferry was going to stop there on the way anyway, and this way we got off, checked our bags at a place by the port, and then explored for the day. We took a Free Walking Tour (I LOVE those) and learned all about the island, how isolated and deserted it can be in the winter without tourists, and about their native crops (pomegranates, capers and olives) and animals (wild boars… and vipers!). We also learned that the guy who invented fingerprinting was from Hvar. Randomly, the international sprint Spartan race was taking place in Hvar the very next day, so we spent a lot of time watching them set up the course and watching the athletes practice. Talk about a gorgeous setting to work out! We headed back to the ferry after sampling the famous Hvar Cake and then caught the most beautiful sunset from the boat.

The next day was our first full day in Dubrovnik, except, we planned a day trip to Montenegro so we actually woke up at 5:45 am to leave the country. I told you I was collecting passport stamps! The trip, while early, was worth it because we made it to our first stop, Perast, at 8:45 before anyone else. We took a tiny boat the largest man-made islands in the Adriatic Sea, Our Lady of the Rocks. According to legend, it was formed by a tradition of local seamen who added rocks after successful voyages, after finding an icon of the Virgin Mary on a rock in the sea in 1452.  

It was absolutely beautiful, and the lack of other tourists made the photos even better! We had some classic Montenegrin almond cake and a coffee, and then headed to the next stop, Kotor. As you’ll see, we went back to Kotor a few days later, but this time we stayed in the Old Town, and let’s just say… it was CROWDED. We later learned that Dubrovnik limits their cruise ship ports to 3/day, but Kotor does not limit the ships. It was obvious. The streets, while tiny and windy, were packed to the gills. The only thing there was in the whole old city was souvenir shops. They mostly only sold cat things. Yes, you read that right: cats. Kotor is known for their cats. They introduced cats a few hundred years ago to get rid of pests, and now the city takes care of them. They are everywhere. They even had a cat museum! We went. It was… interesting.

The ride back was actually shorter than expected because the border crossing went smoothly (another passport stamp!) and we got back to Dubrovnik 2 hours early. With our newfound time, we decided to catch the sunset, and we hoped it would be as great as the previous day. It wasn’t, but it was still beautiful. We went through a tiny hole in the walls of the city, and headed to Bard Bar, which my coworker recommended. I had a mango-lime hard cider and it was DELISH. Then we went to a burger place that is known for their calamari “burger” (calamari on a bun) and it was yummmmmyyy. Great end to the day!

The next day was our only full day in Dubrovnik, even though we stayed there for four nights. We wanted to get an early start, but not as early as our insane 5:45 wakeups for day trips. We compromised that we would try to be at the walls by 8:00, and we made it by 8:30, which is pretty good, if you ask me. We heard that the walls could get extremely crowded midday, so we beat the people and got gorgeous photos. Also, in direct sunlight, even at 9 am it got warm! I cannot imagine how hot it is midday, or in the summer. We took a LOT of photos, and we were done by 9:30 am so we could meet our Free Walking Tour at 10.

Our guide, Marko, was awesome. He was born and raised in Dubrovnik and had amazing stories about living in Croatia and being shipped away to a remote island during the war with his mom and siblings. His only real memory was coming back on the ferry when he was 4. You’ll hear more later about young guides and their war experiences. During our whole trip, it was interesting to hear from people younger than me what it was like to grow up in war times.

When we purchased our tickets to walk the walls, we realized we could buy the “Dubrovnik Pass” for the exact same price, and it would include entrance to a few museums as well. We hit up the museum of ethnography after our tour to see classic examples of clothing from Croatia. For those of you who don’t know, my parents actually met in a Yugoslavian Folk Dance troupe, so I was very interested to see all of the outfits from the region. The outfits reminded me of the pictures I saw of my parents while growing up!

We felt like we had already accomplished a lot, but it was only 1:30 pm! We did some more sightseeing and then decided to take the cable car to the viewpoint at the top of the mountain. It was beautiful, but a little underwhelming if I’m honest. The ride was about 4 minutes long, and the cable blocked all of the views! Also, we had pretty great views that morning on top of the wall. However, I had an AMAZING blueberry cheesecake ice cream pop so that was worth it.

The day was still (surprisingly) young, so we went back down the hill, and then climbed up to the fortress, which was also included in our Dubrovnik pass. We took many more photos as the sun was starting to go down, and then we QUICKLY went to two more museums before our day pass expired. We went to the Museum of Natural History, and we made it to the Franciscan Monastery with 6 minutes to spare. There we saw a bullet hole from the war, which was still preserved in two walls, and we saw the longest-operating pharmacy in all of Europe, still operated by monks.

It was a LONG day! We were ready for dinner. We went to a place recommended by Marko, and I had a Dubrovnik special called “dirty macaroni.” It was basically braised short rib and pasta and it was DELISH. On our way to dinner, we came across two separate weddings and processions. It was interesting to see the different cultures. We learned later that the guy in the front of the procession waving the Croatian flag is an honor given to the groom’s best friend, but according to our friend we learned this from… it’s TIRING.

Thank goodness I was no groom’s best friend because I was exhausted. Actually, I’m tired just from writing this! Can you believe this was only the first 4.5 days of our 10 day trip?? Part 2 coming soon!