After a fantastic and refreshing night of sleep, Steph and I got an early start to the morning. We headed back down to Old Town so we could walk the walls around the city before the crowds appeared.
Even though the ticket was a little expensive, the picturesque, orange-tiled views from the walls of this fortress made the 150 kuna totally worth it. You could really understand why Game of Thrones decided to use this Medieval city as the setting for King's Landing, the capital of Westeros where the Lannisters (and the Iron Throne!) reside. I could clearly visualize scenes of the show from certain look out points, like the Red Keep and the staircase where the infamous "walk of shame" occurred. I couldn't stop exclaiming how beautiful the city was the entire time. I seriously almost cried at one point. While up there, I also bought my magnet for the city of Dubrovnik, as well as a little tapestry of Croatia to hang in my room. By the time we finished walking the walls an hour and a half later, we were starving. We stumbled upon a cheap hamburger place down a little alleyway and happily plopped down. I ordered a huge guacamole burger and fries, and ate the whole thing. We both also got gelato afterwards (coconut for me, caramel for Steph), which we ate by the waterside. Then we went in search of an "I <3 Dubrovnik" shirt since Steph collects them from every city she visits. After we finally find one (it was surprisingly hard actually), I ended up buying a cheap, cute fedora at a nearby shop. I swear, whenever I go outside, my forehead gets lobster-red instantly. The sun has a nice canvas with my large, transparently white forehead. I did make sure to wear sunscreen today, but the direct sunlight from the walls still did a number on my. So hopefully the fedora does its job! Afterwards we walked back on the main road for a bit to see a different view of the Old City. We got some good pictures, and then quickly realized how tired we both were. Since we'd finished everything we really wanted to do in this part of Dubrovnik for the day, he headed back to our hostel (which we thankfully now how to get to now, ugh) to rest and to start woking on the rest of our travel plans. This break was originally only supposed to last a few hours, after which we would head into the New Port area for dinner, but we stayed at the hostel for the after rest of the afternoon. By 8:00 pm, we were both quite hungry again and were unable to lie to ourselves about being able to wait to eat until the morning, so we finally wandered outside. We went to the first open place we saw: an itty bitty bakery. We both got a pizza pastry and an apple strudel. Back at the hostel, out roommate was eating his sushi outside on the terrace, so we joined him in the brisk, clear night. Now, I'm off to bed for another early day. New destination: Split, Croatia.
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Hello from Dubrovnik! (Aka, King's Landing from Game of Thrones!) Most of my belongings from studying abroad are packed away in my suitcase back in Athens while the rest is strapped to my back. Now that my program has ended, I will be traveling around Europe for the next 2 1/2 weeks before returning back to the States.
Currently I'm traveling with a friend I met through the Athens Program. Today has been painfully long, exhausting, and stressful. Getting to Dubrovnik was trying, to say the least. Our day started off by worrying we were going to miss our plane to Croatia. The Aegean Airlines check-in area was a mosh pit this morning at 7:00 am. I've never seen this airline look like this - especially this early in the morning. It took forever to get through the line, and we didn't know if we even had everything we needed as far as luggage tags or stickers. I hadn't bought a checked bag for the flight, so I was worried that I'd get slapped with a huge fee at the desk unsuspectingly. Thankfully, the woman who checked me in let me go through without making me pay any additional money for my one bag (I only have one cabin bag, by the way. I shouldn't have even had to check this). The one good thing that came out of this experience was meeting another female traveler going to Dubrovnik. We're actually going to be in Split at the same time too, so we exchanged numbers and are making plans to hang out! Once on the shockingly empty airplane to Dubrovnik, I immediately fell asleep for the entire flight and woke up in another country. After grabbing our stuff from baggage claim, the now-three of us bought express bus tickets to Old City. To do so, we had to convert several of our euros to the Croatian kuna, which is a very high numbered currency compared to the dollar and euro. Some places in Croatia take euros, even though the official currency is the kuna, but the kuna is mostly what we're using right now. Once at Old City, we said goodbye to our new friend for the time being and went to buy another ticket for a local bus so we could get to our hostel. That bus wasn't scheduled to come for several more hours (or so we thought. I ended up reading it wrong initially. I only got one hour of sleep the night before, so my head wasn't in a great place), so we grabbed a leisurely lunch of fish and chips by the water. It's actually a bit chilly here since we're near water and there's usually a breeze, so we ate sitting near heaters and while wearing blankets on our laps. Afterwards, we grabbed some ice cream and sat on a bench in the sun to warm up. Eventually the bus came, and we asked the driver if he knew where the stop was to get to our hostel, and he said yes. So we hopped on. Unfortunately, our hostel did not provide good directions (or, rather, any directions really), and we ended up having to trust the driver who didn't seem to know what he was saying for sure. We got off where he said to, and promptly was lost. The road was nowhere to be found . Long story short, we walked back and forth several hundred meters in each direction on a fairly busy highway with no walkways. For nearly two hours. It was so dangerous and so aggravating. We had to ask 4 different locals for directions, none of which knew what we were talking about. Even Google Maps from a stranger couldn't get us there easily. Upon almost giving up and going back to Old Town, some stranger called the hostel for us and had someone pick us up. A child, actually. His mom runs the hostel, so he came down, retrieved our tired bodies from the street, and ~finally~ led us up the practically nonexistent alleyway to the Magnificent View Hostel (yes, this is what it's called. It confused the locals, too). After getting inside and paying, we both passed out until 5:00 pm. Upon waking up to a freezing cold room, we got ourselves ready and walked back down to Old Town.We wandered through the Medieval city inside the walls for awhile (it seriously looks like you've walked onto the GoT film set) until we stumbled upon a little doorway that led to a fabulous view of the sea and sky. We sat on some rocks listening to soothing music from the bar below us and talked for quite a bit. Then we grabbed some dinner in a small restaurant. Seafood risotto for me, pasta carbonara for Steph. And we both got sweet, various fruits crepes for dessert, of course. Thankfully we got back to the hostel easily, safely, and quickly. Now it is SO time for bed! - Hannah Howdy, guys! Long time, no see, huh?
As usual with me, I'm currently on a bus to the airport. This trip's destination is...Berlin, Germany! I'm solo traveling again, and am looking forward to visiting my ancestor's homeland and stuffing myself with as much schnitzel as possible. To address my absence, this past month in Athens has been absolutely insane. Most of my days have been spent in class (whether in an actual classroom, in the ancient Agora, or on the Acropolis) and then locked away in the computer lab writing research papers. Unfortunately, all my energy has gone into writing required assignments recently, not blogging about my experiences. But I can proudly say that my two term papers ("Harriet Boyd Hawes: Life and Archaeological Influence" and "A Scholarly Critique of Wolfgang Petersen's Troy," if you're interested) are now finished and about to be submitted once I arrive at the Athens airport. Now I only have to worry about writing another two papers, studying for two finals, and finishing journals about cultural activities...yay... However, amidst the insanity of writing what seems to be a thousand papers this semester, I've managed to do some pretty cool things. I actually visited two islands in two consecutive weekends: Crete and Santorini, both of which are in the Cyclades. The 5-day Crete trip was part of my study abroad program while my weekend in Santorini was strictly for pleasure. By far, Crete was my favorite place we visited as a class on this program. Beyond visiting many ancient sites, I got to ride on my first ever cruise ship to get to the island and I did one particular activity that really pushed me out of my comfort zone (details to come in my post dedicated to my time in Crete). This excursion was also generally much more relaxed than others have been; we spent much more time outside than cooped up in archaeological museums, which was very much appreciated. Santorini was also beyond amazing. I'd been wanting to visit this popular tourist destination known for its whitewashed houses, bright blue roofs, gorgeous sunsets, and black beaches (and its ties to Minoan civilization, if you're a Classics geek like me), ever since I first watched The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. One of the main characters in the movie, Lena, spends a summer in Santorini (in Oia, no less) visiting her Greek grandparents. She ends up meeting a very handsome Greek fisherman-university student and they fall in love. But more importantly, Lena gets to use a donkey as one mode of transportation around the island. Casual. So I finally got to live all of my Lena dreams (besides finding a great boy ha ha hilarious). There are so many exciting things I have to share about the trip. But for now, I'm off to visit my 7th country in 3 months. Look forward to upcoming posts about my time in Amsterdam, Vienna, Rome, Crete, Santorini, and Berlin, as well as seeing more photographs. Talk to you soon, Hannah |
Hannah BisbingStudent @ Penn State. Figure skater. Writer. Traveler. Coffee fanatic. Foodie. Semi-professional people watcher who recently returned home from backpacking around Europe. All photos taken by me, unless otherwise noted.
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