Day 1. Dubrovnik: the beginning of the journey

When I first decided to drive along the Croatian coast, I thought everything would be pretty simple: the sea on my right, the beautiful cities ahead, the car under me, and five days in which I would quietly watch all the most interesting things. In my head, it was almost a perfect road movie, where I drive beautifully along a serpentine, periodically stop for a photo and have dinner somewhere by the sea in the evening. The reality, of course, turned out to be a little more fun, because parking searches, attempts to understand local roads, and the classic "where am I going now?" were quickly added to the beautiful views.

But this is exactly the journey I wanted to remember him on in Croatia. It's not easy to come to one resort town and spend a week on the same beach, but to move along the coast, stay where you really want to, and see a slightly different Croatia every day. In five days, I managed to drive through several beautiful cities, swim in the sea, taste local cuisine, get lost several times and finally make sure that a road trip is much more interesting when you don't try to control every minute.

I started my first day in Dubrovnik, sharing photos from the cable car. To be honest, it was one of those times when I saw so many photos of the city that I was afraid to be disappointed when I met them. Usually, after the tenth photo of the same place, you get the feeling that you've already been there. But Dubrovnik turned out to be completely different.

Old Town

When I first saw the old town, surrounded by stone walls and lying right by the sea, I realized that the photos still did not convey the scale. The narrow streets, staircases, old houses, the splendor of the Adriatic and the huge number of people created a strange combination of a medieval city and a modern tourist resort.

The first half of the day I just walked around the old town. I climbed the city walls, looked at the sea and the roofs of houses from above, stopped several times for photos, and at some point realized that my phone was almost empty. It was very prudent of me to start a car trip with my phone completely discharged, especially considering that I will still need navigation.

After the walk, I decided to relax by the sea for a while. I hadn't planned to swim on the first day at all, but after staring at the incredibly clear water for a few minutes, I had to rethink the plan. After a while, I was already standing on the shore and wondering why I hadn't done it sooner.

In the evening, I returned to the old town again. Dubrovnik seemed very lively to me during the day, and towards evening the atmosphere became calmer. The stone walls were gradually illuminated by warm light, the sea was darkening, and for the first time that day I stopped looking at the clock.

I decided to spend the night in the Dubrovnik area, because in the morning I had to travel further along the coast. At that moment, I still did not know that the road would become one of the main parts of the entire journey.