Last Night in Dubrovnik

We're relaxing on our last night here in Dubrovnik after having eaten a rather large dinner of pizza and spaghetti Bolognese. If this sounds rather inauthentic, it isn't - Croatia's cuisine consists of two main tracks: Italian and seafood. After last night's seafood extravaganza (grilled sea bass, grilled tuna steak, shrimp, prawns, mussels and squid), we stuck to the cheaper and more filling Italian food, in a randomly selected restaurant just off the main square.

Our last two days in Dubrovnik have brought perhaps our two favorite excursions thus far, to the islands of Mljet and Lokrum. Mljet is an idyllic island with two deep blue salt lakes within its national park. Lloyd and I separated from the rest of the tourists who hopped a shuttle to the lakes and decided to walk to them instead by way of a rocky path. On our way, we found a secluded place just perfect for two honeymooners to hop into the water. The lake was deep, cool and still - only one small boat brought tourists to this larger lake's tiny island - otherwise there was nothing else to be seen except blue water and our little heads bobbing about. Lloyd and I swam blissfully for about 30 minutes and then continued our walk to the next tiny village, where we ate an incredible bowl of fish soup with some prosciutto and cheese. The fish soup was a fish-based broth, we guessed, flavored with tomato and other vegetables in which small chunks of bread were soaking. Nom nom nom!

We rented two creaky bikes to explore the rest of the area around the two lakes. The views were lovely everywhere, with small lagoons and rocky beaches appearing behind the trees every so often. At the end of the bike path, a rocky inlet led out to the sea. Here we found a large, simple stone cross overlooking the Adriatic. We took plenty of photos for Lloyd's mom. On our way back, my janky old bike got a flat, and I powered through a couple of kilometers of hard pedaling before finally making it back to the fish soup place. Our final thought about Mljet: we simply did not have enough time here.

Today we headed out to Lokrum, the small island/nature preserve just 15 minutes away from Dubrovnik by boat. One of the main tourist attractions here is the nudist beach. I wasn't too interested in seeing a bunch of naked people, but I was very interested in swimming in the Adriatic in only my birthday suit. Showing a bravery heretofore unseen in our 3 years together, my incredibly modest husband stripped down and jumped in without much coaxing. He only lasted about 5 minutes before he started thinking a tad too much about the possibilities of fish nibbles and sunburns, so we hopped out, re-robed and explored the rest of the island. Trails took us to an old monastery, a botanical garden and a fortress, all showing some signs of the recent war. We also hit the famous Dead Sea on Lokrum, which is exactly as it sounds - a salty inland lake. "Lake" is a generous term - it's really more of a swimming hole than a lake. Lloyd was so jacked up about getting into it - especially after spying a cave at the far end - that our camera met its untimely demise in his pocket.

We're trying not to think too much about the photos that we may have lost forever. Instead, we're focusing on remembering our amazing experiences and patting ourselves on the back for choosing a fantastic honeymoon destination and making an entire month of this adventure.