A Dubrovnik Drive By View
Everyone loves Dubrovnik. Its a compact walled city filled with bars, restaurants and trinket shops. I was here in 2007 when it was more of a backpacker destination. Quirky bars, cheap food and old ladies crowding bus stops looking for renters of their extra rooms. The backpackers have moved on to cheaper and quirkier locals. Now its clogged with day trippers from the huge cruise ships and Instagrammers looking for the perfect selfie to extend their influencer status over the normies stuck in their boring real lives.
Dubrovnik stretches pretty far beyond the walled city. It is a pretty spread out along the coast. The bus station is a couple miles north of the city, probably to keep the narrow streets from getting clogged with all the big busses. Which means there is still an effort to get from the bus station to your room. My last hour on the bus was spent trying to find a cheap room on a bus route that was in an interesting part of town. I quickly learned that you get 2 out of those three in Dubrovnik. To top it off, the weather app was saying that there was some rainy days ahead. The collecting dark clouds off the coast were telling me rains were coming now. Dubrovnik is best enjoyed under sunny skies and warm moonlit nights. Having sunset drinks at the cliffside bar Buža Bar, some live Jazz at the mostly outdoor Troubadour or just exploring the walled city back alleys. None of these diversions are rainy day activities. The expense of a couple nights in Dubrovnik was losing its luster as the a light drizzle started. I made the executive decision to get back on the bus and continue my trip to Montenegro.
Enjoying another day at the beach
Its not far. I rented a car and made a day trip down to Kotor back in 2007. This time, On a bus in rain traffic with a border control, its seemed a lot farther. And I was going further Budva. I have read that it is a big expat beach town and cheap. I thought it would be a good place to settle in for an extended stay and see what the excitement is all about. The downside is that the rain decided to join me. There were some dry times but mostly it was always about to rain or just finished raining. Budva is a wannabe resort beachside town with open air nightclubs and restaurants. None of which present well in rainy season. There is a lot of new luxury highrise apartment buildings going on so I must be missing something. You would think that even in rainy season, there would be something to do. I pretty much just sat in my studio apartment and watched construction Youtubes.
I was very ready to leave.
