Relaxation

We have had 6 nights so far in our cute flat in Dubrovnik, the Pearl of the Adriatic. 2 more nights here before departing to Italy on a boat..more on that in a moment. Today the weather turned a bit and it is raining. Out came our scarves. Yesterday we were laying on the beach having a picnic lunch. The weather has been great and we have been able to spend lazy days meandering around open air markets, playing on the beach, strolling the Stradun(historic main street in Dubrovnik), eating mussels and calamari, and unwinding until we cannot unwind any more. It has been just super. Since we are vagabonds we do not plan too far ahead. Sometimes that works out and sometimes it makes things challenging. We could not figure out how to get out of this area to Madrid. If you look at a map and see where we are you will understand why when you travel off season there are limited options. Well, we are adding Italy to our list of destinations. We popped into Italy when we were in Germany. Now we are going for 3 nights. This is how we get out of our relaxing oasis...we take a 5 hour bus ride to Split, north of Dubrovnik, then we catch a boat at 9 PM, destination....Ancona, Italy. Our boat arrives at 7 AM. From there we take a bus or train for a couple hours to Florence, the heart and soul of Italy. And, home to melt in your mouth pasta and vino. We spend 3 nights there and then take a cheap flight from Milan, 3 hours north of Florence, to Madrid. No sweat. Good thing we are flexible girls!! Whew. That took a couple hours at an internet cafe. While here we made new friends. We love making new friends. The place we are staying has two apartments and we share a phenomenal terrace. Bill and Pat are from Canada and we had lots of laughs and nice chats with them. We also all went to dinner and shared huge pots of mussels and calamari and wine. When we were having our travel detail issues they helped us make our decisions with their handy map and books! They left early this morning and we were sad to see them go. They left a couple days after us from Canada and have visited many of the same places in Eastern Europe. Last night our hostess, Jadranka, invited all of us in to her house for some wine and Turkish coffee. It was so interesting listening to her speak about the war and how it affected her family. An education for us all. What is so shocking is that it was only a little over a decade ago. By the way, do not drink Turkish coffee at night, very good but very potent. If you find yourself in Dubrovnik consider staying at http://www.dubrovnik-online.com/apartments_benussi/, we have apartment number 2 and we love it!