David turned the big 5-0 this year and we celebrated in true style. It’s almost difficult to adequately capture how profoundly perfect our week in Croatia was. Every aspect was of the trip was flawless. Croatia is stunningly gorgeous, the weather was spectacular, the service industry there is on-point (punctual, friendly, reliable), the food was delicious, and last but far from least, we were surrounded by dear friends (enough that we had to rent a third villa!). While there was a lot of planning leading up to the trip, the majority of that was completed by the time we arrived, which allowed us to kick back and enjoy the ride.
We arrived on Saturday afternoon. Even the flight in was picturesque, following the craggy, mountainous coastline sprinkled with countless inlets, each home to tiny beaches and villages, and islands and peninsulas breaking up the crystal-blue water.
We drove to the tiny village of Orašac, just north of Dubrovnik, met our host, Ivan, and got a tour of the villas. It didn’t take long to settle in and hop in the pool! Sally and I hung up 2 large birthday party posters she had made and I had printed specially for the occasion. That afternoon we welcomed Steen and Søren, later Sarah and Daniel, and Chris, Shar, Autumn, and Alex. I explored the town a little, found my way down to the Adriatic Sea, and picked up our first of many daily bulk purchases of bread at the local bakery.
The town of Orašac where we stayed is truly darling. There’s not much of a town itself, one restaurant above a newer large resort, but—aside from the resort—it seemed more like actual Croatia…tiny streets, half of which are actually just alleyways that are only for pedestrians (and so many steps!), tiny churches every 50 meters, and every house had beautiful flowers and vegetable gardens. Many times I came across people working in their gardens. There were almost countless places to explore. I ran every day of the trip and my phone actually asked if I had a new workout regiment due to the average 100 flights of stairs I did every day (which barely balanced out the food and drink I took in on this trip!).
On Sunday morning, Sarah and I enjoyed our first Adriatic Sea swim (had the beach practically to ourselves). The water is so clear that it seems like you could touch the bottom even when it’s much too deep to do so. While the water was a bit cool this early in the season, it’s still much warmer than in Ireland, and we didn’t have our snorkel stuff that first day but could see the fish swimming about our legs. Beaches in Croatia are almost all stone, only a scattered few are sand (and probably man-made), though some have smaller stones and some have larger (translation: more uncomfortable and awkward to walk on - no Bond girls sexily emerging from the water here!). The beach was only a 15-minute walk from the villas, but all downhill winding down steps and alley-ways…so it’s a good workup on the way back up!
That afternoon the temperature was delightful and there was not a cloud in the sky. We all enjoyed the villa pools as some more guests arrived (Luis, Alison, Liyana, Luichi, and Archie; Sue and Chad; John and Gaby; Nic and Bill; Jen and Chris). Everyone had a delightful time chatting and reconnecting or getting to know one another.
During the trip, I had set up to have smaller dinners/lunches with folks so that we’d be sure to get a little one-on-one time with everyone, and not have to worry last-minute about making reservations with whom and when. Sunday night was dinner with Sue/Chad, Chris/Shar at Panorama, the restaurant adjacent to the military museum at the top of the hill of Srđ,, overlooking Dubrovnik and the Lapad peninsula. Shar had booked this and wow, great call on her part. We arrived a little early so had time to appreciate the wildflowers and breathtaking sunset view of the coastline to the north. Dinner was cliff-side over-looking the Old City of Dubrovnik, and everything about the meal was awesome. There’s also a cable-car you can ride up/down to the Old City, but we did not partake in that.
On Monday morning Sue and I went for a walk up to tiny Chapel of St. Nicholas on top of the hill - I had seen the trail to it on my run on Sunday, but wasn’t sure about checking it out by myself. The tiny trail meandered upwards through an olive tree grove and rewarded us with a stunning view of Orašac and the sea.
Monday the whole group went on a wine tour that was a surprise for David. Three large vans took us up to the Peljesac Peninsula, with a stop at Ston village, another UNESCO World Heritage site. Ston touts having the longest defensive perimeter wall in Europe, going in at about 5km in length. Here we had about 45 minutes to wander around (so no walking the walls there) then we hopped back into the vehicles and did some wine tasting. We had 3 stops - my favorite of which was the second one. The first stop was very funny b/c it featured a wine history museum filled with terrifying characters, and then the woman who served us wine spoke only from her set dialogue, and was only able to tell us very little about the wine (“This is our middle-quality wine. It is red. It has 12.5% alcohol. Enjoy.”). I was worried about what was in store for us after this, but then the next 2 stops were excellent. At the second one, there was a beautiful garden outside that the children (and then adults) hung out in, the proprietor’s family had been in the business for something like 700 years, and he gave just the right amount of pertinent information about each pour in charming wine cellar. We also tried many different sweet fruit grappa-like wine, which I’m not usually a huge fan of, but in this situation found quite sumptuous.
On the way back to Orašac we stopped in Little Ston for lunch by the water. I’ve never seen so much seafood in my life and we only ordered about half of what our waiter suggested. I mostly appreciated the many friendly cats (so many cats in Croatia in general!) and playing by the water with the kids, looking at anenomes etc. While we were slated to have dinner out that evening, everyone was too tired so we rescheduled and had a relatively quiet night at home.
On Tuesday David rented a bike and hit the road, a terrifying prospect because, as nice as the Croatian people are in person, they are equally awful as drivers. Thankfully he survived and we met up with Luis/Alison/kids, Frosty and Salma for lunch in the Lapad area of Dubrovnik. After a pleasant stroll through the pedestrianized area (and of course ice cream), I enjoyed a little quiet time on a walk around Lapad peninsula. This took me past countless inviting seaside bars and restaurants, small beaches and swimming spots, and the famous Copacabana beach.
That evening, surprise #2 for David was a session with a local photographer (Dubo) for professional family photos. We’d done these only once before, when Sally was 1 year old, back in Virginia, so it was probably time. This was also our first time in the Old City (another UNESCO World Heritage site) so we were so thrilled to look around (which probably helped with our captivated expressions in the photos!). We also saw a monk feeding bread to pigeons, and were lulled by the accordion music echoing through the streets. (I'll just share 2 here)
From there we met up with Steen and Søren, John and Gaby at Tavern Arka, quite close back to our villa. While I say everywhere had great service, they went even further above and beyond here, and even drove us home!
Late Tuesday night the last few guests arrived: Ed and Julia, and we all stayed up much too late.
Wednesday morning we went on a walking tour of the old city of Dubrovnik with Sue, Chad, Nic, and Bill. The guide was excellent, peppering us with just the right amount of happy sad historical information. He was small but clearly remembers the war in the early 1990s, and it’s incredible to see how far they’ve come since then. We then popped into a pizza parlor on a sweet little side street, sat outside, and had a delicious lunch (burratina! What a sweet word!) followed by some time strolling around the city.
That afternoon Sally and I had some time at our local beach with some of the crew before coming back to get ready for the big dinner. Note: Daniel is a good uncle and carried Sally most of the way back up the hill!
Dinner Wednesday night was the big birthday dinner - we had a local caterer, undertook some furniture re-arranging, and did lots of decorating. Most everyone pitched in to help with some part of that, and the result was exceptionally festive, helped by the again perfect evening weather. Everyone looked gorgeous and the night went off perfectly. I gave David a toast without falling in the pool or crying (my two fears), and the surprise game I had put together worked really well! (It was about 50 multiple choice questions people could answer on their phones, conference style, and it inspired much fun conversation). Not shockingly, Jen Conn came in first, but Sue was 2nd (also no surprise), but hysterically, Bill (the person who knew David the least!), brought up third place. David sported a feisty sash given to him by Nic, and a captain’s hat from Daniel and Sarah. It was a perfect tribute to a stellar husband, father, friend, and brother.
On Thursday I had a morning walk around Orašac with Sue before she and Chad headed back to the US. After David got back from a bike ride, he and I took Sally and Autumn (new BFFs) to the Trsteno arboretum, which was another enchanting find. There was a crazy fountain that had very noisy frogs, and we saw a fat brown snake on the path. From there we spent a couple hours at another beach, Veliki Žal, where I spent so long snorkeling that it took me hours to warm up. The girls snorkeled as well, and we saw absolutely gorgeous fish.
That night David and I enjoyed yet another amazing meal in Old City Dubrovnik with Jen/Chris and Nic/Bill at Azur, then another late night catching up with folks back at the villa.
On Friday we had a lunch and waterfall date with Sarah and Daniel, Chris/Shar and the kids at a sweet little river-side cafe. The Ombla river is the shortest in all of Europe - it pops out of the mountain, travels 30-m, then empties into the “embayment” area before dumping into the sea. Accordingly to The Lonely Planet, this is a bumping swimming spot in the summer, but only Daniel was willing to brave it at this time of year.
Friday afternoon Alison had graciously planned a half-day boat tour for the group. We all had a fantastic time on the catamaran - stopping at 2 islands and cruising the sea. It was actually a bit cloudy, which made for gorgeous skies and lovely views of distant rain. Almost everyone jumped in and swam to shore at the first beach, and some of us snorkeled and were treated to an awesome display of fish. At the second island many folks enjoyed a drink or coffee, and some of us explored the tiny trails/streets.
That night David and I had another gorgeous sunset dinner with Frosty/Selma, Ed/Julia at Veranda, which was in the large hotel resort just below our villas. Veranda is family-owned and run, a fact much lauded by our waiter. The menu was divided into food by regions of Croatia, and yet again was delicious (especially the “poor man’s bread!”).
On Saturday Sally and I walked the old city walls, did some shopping, and had a little street picnic. Sally tried to balance on the lucky stone outside the church our photographer had told us about, and when she gave some coins to an older gentleman playing a traditional stringed instrument, he insisted I take a photo of the two of them together.
On Sunday it was time to bid our amazing trip farewell. Everything about Croatia vastly exceeded our wildest expectations. We are so lucky to have such amazing friends and family willing to travel across the world to celebrate with us. Hvala.
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