We were at Santorini airport at 4AM, waiting for the flights to Athen and then Dubrovnik. It was at the moment that I felt myself not young anymore. “Getting up at 3AM is too tiring…” I murmured. Recently, I was browsing my photos taken in several trips over the past 5 years, I was happy that it was 20+ year old me in the photos, rather than 60+ year old me who may start to reminisce the youth. After all, time gets precious when you get old.

Anyway, even though I was low-energy in the morning, the navy blue of the ocean in Dubrovnik quickly got me back to normal excitement level. “The blue is different!” I was shouting in the Uber on the way to our Airbnb.

Dubrovnik, where Game of Thrown was filmed in, gets its popularity because of the movie. And the price in Old Town of Dubrovnik reflects that popularity as well: a simple pasta costs almost 30 euros. I was shocked, my partner’s brother who lives in Finland was shocked too. Fortunately it tasted good, so I didn’t complain.

One specialty about Old Town is its distinct city walls and the consistent paving materials, limestone, which together creates a “sense of place”, reminding you “hey, you are entering a historical area”. Another specialty is that there are quite a lot restaurants and souvenir shops located side by side but technically in the same old buildings. Initially I thought people would avoid business development but only setup a few museums so those historical buildings can be preserved well. But It turned out people are happy to adopt the other way. The scene feels like the modern is embedded in the old, and the latter embraces the former.

Just walking around in Old Town felt satisfied. We then walked to Old Port, where there are still quite a few boats parking there. What surprised me was the clean water. “How can it be soooooo clean that I can see the bottom clearly!” Maybe it’s not a busy harbor so the water isn’t polluted? I am not sure. I just felt like we don’t seem to have clean harbors like that in Taiwan 😂

Close to Old Port, there’s a SUPER good ice cream place called Gianni. It was so good that we visited 3 times. The texture is smooth and the ingredients is fresh! They have quite a few flavors. So if you have time, go try as many as possible 😄 Ohhh btw, they also have restrooms so you can achieve 2 things all at once without paying extra.

After our sweet craving is satisfied, we went to take Dubrovnik Cable Car. It’s nice to see beautiful Dubrovnik from a higher perspective, but I don’t particularly find it stunning. Maybe it was the cost that let me down 😂. While I was there, I couldn’t help but compare the famous Maokong Gondola here in Taiwan: the horizontal distance is 4+ km, takes 20 mins to complete a ride and costs 12 USD for round trips. 😆 Anyway, if you are in Dubrovnik and don’t have time to take the cable car, I would say you don’t have to regret a lot ha.

In the evening, we took a Uber (because the bus didn’t come 🥲)to a vegan restaurant called Urban & Veggie - Vegan Restaurant Dubrovnik in the west of the city. They have an open air dining area where most of people were sitting there. The vibe was chill and the food was great! Also, the area is different from the center, so it may worth to check out if you have time. Dubrovnik isn’t like Paris having plenty of things to see, I personally think 2 days exploration is enough. But If you accidentally stay longer than expected, it won’t harm to come to this area and explore:)