During our journey homeward, we spent some time reflecting on the whole of our trip. What was our favorite city? Favorite meal? Best accommodations? Most exhilarating experience? And in the end, we agreed that it is nearly impossible to pick one, two, or even three things in any of those categories. We simply found so much to enjoy each day in each city, and for so many different reasons. But that reality hardly makes a satisfying summary for the rest of you, so I will try to list some highlights here that might give you a good idea of why we feel our month away was perhaps the greatest honeymoon had by any couple, anywhere.
Dubrovnik highlights:
I give Dubrovnik its own category because this was the very beginning of our honeymoon, when we were feeling the greatest sense of awe about our chosen destination and the keenest sense of relief about relaxing with just each other after a week of wedding- and post-wedding celebrations. Our favorite parts of Dubrovnik included:
Our sobes with Lidija and Renata, with whom we were first introduced to the delightful concept of staying in private Croatian guest rooms.
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| From Honeymoon - Dubrovnik |
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| From Honeymoon - Dubrovnik |
Our walk along the top of Dubrovnik’s medieval wall, which gave us breathtaking views of the city and demonstrated the perfect marriage between the ancient and the modern, the war-torn and the rebuilt, the beautiful and the functional. No other city had an opportunity quite like this one to view it as a whole. Though it was an incredibly hot and sweaty venture, we loved every minute of it.
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| From Honeymoon - Dubrovnik |
Cold Drinks-Buža, the amazing bar built right into the rocks just outside the city wall. We shared many a libation here, listening to Frank Sinatra, watching the sunset over the Adriatic and witnessing some of the other patrons dive right into the Adriatic below us.
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| From Honeymoon - Dubrovnik |
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| From Honeymoon - Dubrovnik |
Our introduction to octopus salad, a surprisingly refreshing summer mix of fresh tomatoes, onions, cilantro and tender octopus. We still can’t figure out why it wasn’t chewy like the stateside octopus we’ve had. Mysteriously tender Adriatic octopus, I guess.
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| From Honeymoon - Dubrovnik |
Our experience with the Bravo! Vancouver chorale and the DSO (documented here and below with a couple of photos from our new friend Brian).
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| From Honeymoon - Dubrovnik |
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| From Honeymoon - Dubrovnik |
Day trips to pristine Mljet and lush Lokrum, two of our favorite miniscule Croatian islands. Unfortunately, we hadn’t downloaded our photos of these islands to our Picasa site before Lloyd accidentally swam with the camera, so our visual record is missing. But take this unfortunate incident as proof as to how absolutely irresistible the swimming opportunities were.
And now, the rest of the best of our memories and our favorite things:
Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina: A lovely river town with a sad recent history, Mostar captivated us right away with its iconic bridge, mosques, churches and cobblestone. Lloyd did a great job conveying our wonder of Mostar in his post, so I won’t belabor. But here is a photo to remind you.
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| From The Adventures of Courtney and Lloyd |
Sljivovica: Whenever we shared the news of our recent marriage (which became often after learning what would happen), our server or the restaurant’s owner would deliver two shot glasses of a very strong plum brandy called sljivovica (slee-voh-VEE-tseh) or some similar fruit-based spirit. The first server to bestow this stuff on us called it “firewater” and assured us it would “aid the digestion.” I don’t know how much digestion-aiding it did, but it sure as heck made both of us good and goofy for the walk home.
Korčula and Apartments Lenni: Korčula was our last stop on the Dalmatian Coast before heading inland, and as I wrote in an earlier post, this little island felt like home right away. Upon our arrival we were treated to the island’s hero’s welcome for Čoda, a Croatian swimmer who had just won a first place medal at some international meet. We didn’t know that we had shared our catamaran ride from Split with Korčula’s most recent favorite son (Marco Polo is her first), but when we arrived at the boat’s dock, it was filled with schoolchildren chanting his name - Cho-DA! Cho-DA! Cho-DA! The large boat emptied with no sign of the star, and we stayed to watch the children turn dejectedly from the boat as soon as it closed its doors. Moments later the boat’s doors swung open again, and Čoda stepped forward with a grin, arms raised in triumph, with his gold medal gleaming on his chest. The children went nuts, and Čoda spent the next 10 minutes signing their shirts and shaking their little hands. Our host Lenni, who had met us at the boat, bemusedly explained to us who he was.
Lenni and her husband Periša were to become a huge part of the reason we loved Korčula. I wrote about this in my prior post and won’t expand here, except to say that meeting people like these two is why everyone should travel.
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| From Hvar and Korčula |
Gelato, wine and pivo: Every day had three things in common: gelato, wine and “pivo,” which is Croatian for beer. Lloyd drank at least one pivo every day; I had a very good and inexpensive wine with each dinner. This region does wine very well, at least to my amateur tastebuds. And I don’t need to explain why we loved the gelato except to say that in the sometimes-oppressive heat, gelato became not just an indulgence but a survival mechanism.
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| From Rovinj, Poreč, Grožnjan, and Motovun |
Swimming: We swam nearly every day on the Dalmatian coast. The Adriatic itself is incredibly inviting, and the salt lakes on Croatia’s tiny islands are like something out of a fantasy world: impossibly clear and secluded, calling to something instinctual within you to jump right in and stay awhile. We always did. I am now holding a grudge against Lake Washington for being 50 degrees in the middle of summer and packed with motorboats.
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| From Hvar and Korčula |
Plitvice: How is this place not one of the 7 natural wonders of the world? Or maybe it will be, as I am just learning that there’s a worldwide poll to decide on the modern seven. Anyway, Plitvice Lakes National Park certainly gets our vote. Lloyd wrote about this one too, and though his blog is very good, you can also just look at a photo and understand why this place will stick with us forever.
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| From Plitvice |
Not to mention one of our more memorable dining experiences occurred in a tiny village outside the park, in the cavernous basement dining room of an inn-style sobe. The cook was a thin, rather masculine woman who spoke very little English. When we asked what kind of meat was in the goulash before we ordered, she held her hands up to her head like antlers. After she had successfully pantomimed “deer” for us, Lloyd ordered the dish. His goulash was excellent, very flavorful, and he complimented her on it. She grinned, then pantomimed shooting a rifle, complete with sound effects. “Pow!” she said proudly, and then “yesterday,” pointing at his plate. Lloyd was apparently eating some very fresh venison, killed the day prior by our host. Just doesn’t happen every day in our little urban/suburban American lives.
Ljubljana
This city, like Dubrovnik, gets its own category in our memory list. We wound down our trip here, and after weeks of charming Croatian beach towns, Ljubljana’s cosmopolitan bustle surprised and delighted us both. The city was vibrant morning until night, its inhabitants were mellow and friendly, the architecture was incredible and we could truly feel the rich Slavic history here. Very quickly we found ourselves fantasizing about settling right into Ljubljana life – Lloyd taking a job at the Microsoft office there (really), our learning the Slovene language, raising our kids there for a while. On our final night, a restaurant proprietor took us on a tour of his kitchen, gave us shots of a strong grape firewater and talked to us about city life, and we learned that Ljubljana is about negative 20 degrees Celsius in the winters with several meters of snow. Now, we look forward to renting a summer flat there instead.
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| From Ljubljana |
This epic post, despite my best intentions, doesn’t quite do the trip justice. When you experience so much fun and wonder every day, nothing ever could. So many of you contributed to this event through our honeymoon registry, and we want you to know that we savored the trip richly, loving every moment and feeling incredibly grateful for your part in it. A month-long honeymoon is quite an indulgence, and we feel so blessed that our friends and families helped us make this travel fantasy a reality – one that somehow exceeded even our highest expectations.
Thank you. Our lifelong journey together has begun in the best possible way.
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| From Rovinj, Poreč, Grožnjan, and Motovun | From Ljubljana |
(If you'd like to vicariously experience more of our trip, click here to view our photo albums.)
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