"That's just who I am this week"

It was a long journey to get here. Longer than it ought to have been.

If I had an option to never fly Lufthansa again at this point, I would gladly take it. I'm sure the tiny Florence airport was partly to blame, but we left more than an hour late and narrowly missed my connecting flight to Dubrovnik.

I got rerouted through Munich and got in to Dubrovnik 4 hours later, with such a shaky landing that raucous applause erupted around me when we did land amidst gales of wind. Given this extra bit of travel and stress on their part, I'm going to keep the blame squarely with them.

Oh, did I mention they lost one of my bags again and I still haven't got it back?

Let's move forward amicably though.

It's beautiful here!

I can see King's Landing from my front porch!

Indeed, I foresee many days of me working on this front porch for the next two weeks. It's a beautiful view, a strong breeze that my Uber driver instructed me was called "Bura".

The place I'm staying? Suitable for the occasion... I'll post pics later, I forgot. But importantly, no washer/dryer, meaning the one suitcase I had full of dirty clothes was going to have to get laundered.

What I would shortly discover though, is that a beautiful view comes with consequences. Consequences like, a lot of stairs to get to either the beautiful Old Town below, or even to the nearest laundromat or mini market. 470 steps, to be exact, to get to Old Town. Which on the way down, no problem! On the way back... problem.

Exorcist steps got nothing on these, baby.

So anyhow, on my first full day here I embarked to go get some laundry done. Probably on 95 steps, but who's counting? (me). I did eventually manage to haul my suitcase up all of these steps back to my place with clean clothes after about 2 hours and 200 kuna (let's call it $25) for a couple of loads of laundry and detergent. Well worth it, I say.

By the way, just to break this story up, let's list some very obvious things about Croatia Sam didn't know before 3 days ago.

1) Language- Croatian (almost...*too*...obvious)

2) Currency- Kuna (aka, not the Euro, a source of some pride/tension I'd find out)

3) Area I'm Staying- called the "Dalmatian Coast". (this would have led to less confusion later when I ordered "Dalmatian Ham"

You might say, "Sam, wouldn't you do *some* research before picking this as your home base for a while?" And I'd tell you 1) you don't know me and 2)"that's just who I am this week" (title callback!!!)

Anyhow, my life these days means early mornings are mine, after that until early evening it's paying the mortgage. So I thought I'd explore a bit of Old Town. Top few first day discoveries:

1. Buza Bar

I feel like in America, mixing "bar" and "cliff diving" wouldn't go together. But here...

They tell you to just "get lost" in cities like Dubrovnik. I did! And saw a sign that said "Cold Drinks" and ducked in here. (I got the outside pic later, but let me keep the perspective here!). Turns out, nice little bar on the edge of a cliff that only serves beer, water, and some juices. No cocktails/wine! Also, you can take a dip in the ocean below or dive off the cliffs here too.

View of the Adriatic and the diver up next.

I'd learn "Buza" was not a corruption of "booze-a", you know, like a drunk would think. But instead, it came from the word for "hole", as in, these Austrians would put a "hole" in the city wall in a couple extra places, and the locals were not that thrilled about it .

2. Cats are everywhere

kitten/parent hiding in battlement... look closely if you don't believe me!

I'm told this had to do with this being a major trading post, and there being an abundance of rats hundreds of years ago. How do you solve that problem? Import tons of cats! Apparently the locals will tell you "please don't feed the cats, we need them to manage our pest problem"... but apparently the tourists have blatantly disregarded these pleas.

3. Bosnian food? Also big here.

Last vestige of my morning to myself was going to a Bosnian restaurant (weirdly called Taj Mahal... don't know why that happened).

Cevapi (or little mincemeat in a pita), with red onions and weird cheese on the left, peppers stuffed with spicy cream cheese and sour veggies on the right. You know, not what I'd order normally, but hey, when in Rome. (Side note, heading to Bosnia this weekend briefly!)

I did spend a lot of the day 1) trying to recover my bag 2) doing work/taking calls. But signed myself up for an early tour of the city walls the next day!

(...the next day)

It's hot out here! Glad I had a super early tour of the city walls, which is one of those things you have to do. And while I was happy to have a guide, a few tiny complaints here:

1) Cost- Apparently, 2 years ago, the ticket for the walls cost 70 kuna, or about $10. Now, it costs 200 kuna, or about $25. I'm informed UNESCO thought that raising the price would diminish tourism, as the 1.3 million folks rambling around these walls probably don't help them maintain their integrity after hundreds of years. I'm only saying this because, $20 for a guide and $25 for walking around makes this quite the pricey endeavor for tired Sam.

2) Steps- So many! What is up with hundreds of years ago and making everything difficult to climb?

3) Heat- As I said in the first part... it was hot out here.

That being said, this was thoroughly enjoyable. Here's some pictures from the tour:

I learned a lot too! Here's 3 key takeaways:

1) This city took a pretty bad hit during the recent war in 1991. To the point where every place with red roofing tile (aka almost all of it) is all new. Apparently, attackers were supposed to only attack military installations outside the Old City, but missed a lot.

2) Croats don't like Serbs. This is not a revelation. And my guide said "hey, the new generation is better about it than the old generation". But still, as the new generation (Jadranka our guide here was younger than me, so let's call her "new"), she had... some disparaging remarks.

3) Croatia is the 2nd poorest country in the EU. Let me put this in the tone it was put at the time... "Hey, we're the 2nd poorest! Take that Bulgaria!". They, apparently, don't want to take on the Euro. I'm staying out of politics after Daryl Morey's recent foray, so I'll just report what she said. But know that during tourist season (April - October), locals in Dubrovnik have to make all their money for the year because there's really not a lot of industry. It may have been a ploy for tips, but it's also true.

Had time for a quick lunch, stopped by the tour guide's recommended place in an alley in the old city

Most restaurants in the old city are tiny trattorias with great views. Of the city. Not the unsuspecting lady eating her lunch.

After lunch, it was back up the nearly 500 steps for work time. But work time is better when it looks like this!

To think, at GU I didn't have a window for 9 years...

After... a while... it was time to grab a late dinner. Had honestly one of my better meals in recent memory, including Italy! (mi dispiace, Italia)

The city walls in the background, fantastic! The seafood salad, fine, I like anchovies. But that "dalmatian ham and truffle ravioli" on the right... amazing. Best thing I've eaten in a long time.

Anyhow, that brings me pretty much to the end of things so far. I think I'll like it here!

Random Things:

Not sure how a full court game would work here.

"You shall not pass!!!!"

Moment of Zen:

You know? I don't really have one yet. I'll post 2x next time. Promise.