On the bus
between Mostar and Dubrovnik, Liesbeth and I decided that not booking a hostel
was probably the smartest thing to do. In Croatia, especially in summer months,
people open up their houses to receive tourists for a couple of days. Kind of
like a bed&breakfast but I doubt it is highly legal. Nonetheless it is very
common that when a bus full of tourists arrives in a city, once leaving the bus
at least ten people jump on you to convince you to stay at their place. Last
year we were really lucky to get different awesome places and hosts for a cheap
price so we decided to do the same this year. We were right.
Once we got
out at Dubrovnik, we were jumped by a couple of people. While I went looking
for a cash machine (I hate the fact that you need different currencies in every
country you go. #EuroLove), Liesbeth got convinced by a guy to stay at his
place. A double bed room with air conditioning for 14euros per person per night
with a view on the bay where all the cruise ships pass by, was the deal we got.
You ought to be jealous because it was as awesome as it sounds!
We got to
the place and it appeared to be a very big house with over twenty people,
students, youngsters, families etc. were staying there. Slavko was having quite a good business it seems. In the end
Liesbeth and I ended up in a room with two Norwegian guys who later became our
friends. Once unpacked, we went out for a small snack as we were too tired to
make any dinner. We went sitting with our roommates and started chatting. One
of them happened to be working at a local diving shop and the four of us were
invited by his boss to join him for a late drink in a local bar. We were picked
up and half an hour later Liesbeth and I were having a good time with our new
friends. Then suddenly I heard “Thibault?” with a French accent. I turned
around and at the table behind us, was my cousin Fred!
I am not
kidding you, but how high are the odds of that happening? Me meeting my cousin
about 2000kms from home without even knowing he is there. Let’s make the count.
Liesbeth and I got to Dubrovnik (1), we got in the car with a guy we kind of
trusted(2), we ended up in a room with two Norwegian guys who were really
nice(3), one of them was working and we were all invited for a drink(5), we go
to a local bar(6) and behind me sits my cousin(7) – Fred who was sick of
Belgium again(8), decided to go to Eastern Europe (9), booked a cheap ticket to
Dubrovnik(10) on the same day we arrived there (11), went to his hostel which
was really close to ours(11), was bored so decided to go for a late night
drink(12), walked to a street full of pubs and decided to go to the one we were
in(13), sat right behind me(14) and recognized me as I was sitting there at the
same time (15). Exactly 15different odds that made this happen. Whataf*ck…
The evening
ended with the six of us chatting about travelling, diving, cultural
differences between Belgium, Flanders, Wallonia, Norway and Croatia.
Interesting and intriguing at the same time.
Day 18 of
EEET2013, the second to last day, we slept kind of late. Tired of all the
travelling, wandering about and experiencing expected and unexpected
experiences I guess. In the afternoon, after a great lunch at Konoba-pizzeria Blidinje, the both of us met up
with my cousin to visit the Old Town of Dubrovnik,
also named the most beautiful city of Croatia and the (most expensive of the) whole Adriatic Region. Quite a small old town to be honest, but the view over the Adriatic
Sea and a couple of islands is fairly great. We swam in the ocean and enjoyed
the view and rest as long as we could. At night we had another dinner together
with our Norwegian friends.
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| Small paths lead up and down within the Old Town |
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| Swimming in the Adriatic Sea with my cousin, unlikely to happen ever again. |
Our last full
day of EEET2013, I got convinced to do a thing I had never done before. Our Norwegian
friends and my cousin managed to convince me to go scuba diving. So that is how
I ended up at Abyss Diving Club in the PresidentHotel in Dubrovnik on a Friday afternoon. Together with two English
siblings I had the pleasure to taste of the life under water. It was quite hard
at the beginning, as I had issues breathing and lowering the pressure on my
ears when diving, but after a while I managed to control myself and dove until
about eight meters, which is normal for a “Discovery Dive” as they call it. We
saw a lot of different fish, a crab, a small squid, a starfish and a sea urchin
and more. The feeling of being under water and breathing under water was definitely
a feeling I would love to feel again someday.
After the diving we went back to our hostel, together with our Norwegian friends. In style of course, so we had the chance to symbolically finish our EEET2013-experience on a boat on the Adriatic Sea heading back home with new experiences, new views on the world and of course new friends. Closing down our last day was done by enjoying a beer with new friends and old family.
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| Experiences are the key to success. |
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| Chau Dubrovnik, Chau Croatia, Chau EEET2013 |
Day 20 of EEET2013,
the official closure: Liesbeth and I packed, said goodbye to our roommates and
we left to the Dubrovnik Airport.
There is a direct bus from the west entrance of the city. A plane took us to
Lyon, France where we headed for the Ibis Hotel in the Villeurbanne neighborhood. It took us a while to figure out
where it exactly was (and trains in Lyon/France are not cheap!) but we managed to
get there in the end. A good shower, shaving session and healthy dinner were
the official last things we did after twenty days on the road. Now we were
ready for a week of full, relaxing holidays to rest from our three weeks of
tripping, travelling and experiencing through Eastern Europe.
peace out_
Liesbeth&Thibault
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| waking up every morning with an ocean view and a cold beer, watching the enormous cruise ships pass by while chilling with 35°C in the shadow, randomly meeting up with one of my only two cousins in a random bar after only three hours in the city, scuba diving in the Adriatic Sea with our new Norwegian friends, discovering the spots where Game of Thrones is shot... Yes, we'll kinda miss Dubrovnik... |
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