Dubrovnik back to Budapest

View from Cavtat Harbor toward the Hills

The owner of Villa Olav & Jo
 say their goodbyes

Today we left Dubrovnik, flying back north, to
Zagreb. Tomorrow we take a train on to Budapest, then it's... gasp... home. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Jo loves to swim, and she started the day with a hike down the thousand steps from Villa Olav to the ocean where she enjoyed a 'farewell' swim. Later we drove to the rental car depot at the Dubrovnik airport o return the rental car - sort of...
we got to the car return at the Dubrovnik airport where I asked if we could keep the car for few more hours, and miraculously - we got a yes. We'd wanted to drive to Albania, but didn't have enough time. Rats. The car agent suggested we drive to his favorite town, Cavtat instead, which we did. There we visited a little restaurant located next to the town's harbor.

The harbor with the archways of the restaurant in the backgrounhd

Walked around the harbor to the restaurant, stopping to photograph all the different fish I could see in the harbor's waters, loads more than I'll ever be able to identify. Will just have to appreciate them for the fishies they are.


Lunch for Jo was a massive bowl of fresh yummy mussels. For myself, I had the tastiest seafood salad I've ever had; fat morsels of shrimp, octopus, shelled mussels & clams. And every bit of crab was crab, with not a jot of pollock in the lot. Best yet, my meal came with dessert - yes, more chocolate cake drizzled with raspberry sauce and a hot cup of coffee.  I'd be glad of the big meal as the day progressed.

Then we were off  to the Dubrovnik mini-airport.

Never saw a bus like that before - where are the wheels?

All passengers had to get on a bus to ride over to the jet. Here's the bus exterior....

Bus interior 

 By the time the bus left it was jam packed as it headed for the jet.

Our flight to Zagreb

On the flight I realized, Croatia is color coordinated 
with decor of matched terracotta and shell white

We arrived in Zagreb after dark, and we 'assumed' we would stay at Central Hotel where we stayed before. But reservations - we had none. There is a Croatian sort of convention in town and most hotels jam packed, we were out of luck. The hotel clerk recommended we head down the street, which we did, stopping at the first hotel we came across, the Premier Hotel Astoria. Don't be too impressed, it's owned by my nemesis, the Best Western Corp. At the Astoria there was but one room left unoccupied, a business suite that was already booked but not occupied. There was some hard core begging, resulting in the clerk lady checking computer thingies and making a phone call or two. After several anxious minutes, it was announced we had our selves a room for the night. HURRAH! The room only had one bed. RATS! The bed was big enough for two. WHATEVER!

Early the following morning, we shuffled our luggage back down the street to train station for a long day on the rails.

Pulling out of the Zagreb station

The train cars had cozy little rooms with sliding doors, no dementors

Croatian countryside

Budapest Train Station, Gate 9 3/4 (I can dream, if I like)

The Budapest train station

From the train depot we took a taxi, returning to the same little apartment complex where our trip had started.

Here is the apartment building, which is built over a little bar. Each evening the bar hosts a lively group of students and locals. Jo enjoyed an adventure or two there.

The Apartment Building

It was our last evening. We took a last walk around the old neighborhood, Budapest's Jewish quarter. The 5% of my genome that is Ashkenazi Jewish felt right at home. We went to a little restaurant across the way & a few doors down from our apartment. There we enjoyed a nice meal. We chatted with the people one table over, and raised a glass to an adventurous trip, well met.