I wanted to go to Dubrovnik for forever. When I studied in Vienna in 1987, I made plans. I got my Yugoslav visa and was finally going to go that weekend. Unfortunately, I became violently ill and ultimately had to go to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. My plans were thus thwarted and I wouldn’t have another window that fall. Then war came to the Balkans and I had to put my plans on hold.
I finally made it to Dubrovnik and Croatia in 2013 and it was worth the wait. Dubrovnik made the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in recognition of its outstanding medieval architecture and fortified old town. In fact, parts of Game of Thrones was filmed here.
We visited other parts of Croatia as well… Split, with its magnificent Diocletian’s Palace; the popular island of Hvar; the fantastic Plitvice Lake National Park; Blue Cave near the island of Bisevo; Green Cave on the island of Vis; and we did a wild and memorable whitewater rafting excursion down the Cetina River. Croatia has about the clearest water we’ve ever seen – and we drank from the river that day!
We returned to Croatia briefly on a Danube River cruise in 2018, stopping for a day at Vukovar to visit Ilok, Croatia’s best wine region.
An ocean cruise brought us back to Split, where we did a day trip to the charming seaside towns of Šibenik and Trogir.
