Today is my younger brother’s 21st birthday. He’s finally legal across the globe! In preparation for an EXTRA “Happy Birthday” Facebook post, I’m combing through my pictures of our Croatia trip together. It makes me smile so big remembering all those adventures, the beautiful sights, and DELICIOUS food. The wine was pretty darn good, too.
One of our favorite nights to look back on was one of our second night in Croatia, at a cute little hostile in Dubrovnik. We were walking around trying to find someplace for dinner, got tired, and I ran into a little market instead to buy us sandwiches and beers instead. That whole meal was about $4 USD. Where did we eat? On a park bench looking at the sterns of mega yachts in the port. We still laugh about our dollar beers and sandwiches sitting next to $100 million yachts. And little bro googled how to open our beers with keys, and he did it! He has a ton more patience than I do and is an excellent problem solver.
We went up almost the entire coast of Croatia in a week, starting in Dubrovnik and ending in Zagreb. We had hoped to experience Hvar and the adorable Northwest part of the country, however, a week is not a lot of time when you’re traveling largely by bus. Photos of Rijeka and Pula had me booking an Airbnb in advance, but we had to cancel that stay sadly, as it would’ve required us to rent a car. When you think you’ve done enough research, do some more! There are no direct and easy bus routes from Split to the Northwest part, and neither of us felt comfortable enough to rent a car. Dad certainly didn’t like the idea either. Oh well, each trip is a learning experience as much as an adventure. I can for sure see us making another trip to Croatia, so hopefully on the next visit we can finish our Croatia checklist.
Little bro was an absolute champ on his first international trip (aside from a family trip in Mexico). It was so great to be able to spend that time with him, as adult life makes it harder for us to see each other besides Christmas. I’m so excited for our next trip together, whenever and wherever it might be. He’s pretty open minded, which is awesome, and we’re both “doers”. We enjoy down time to relax but we can’t lay poolside or on the beach for hours on end, we get bored. When we travel the world, we want to see the world! Life is far too short to pass up any opportunity to experience our beautiful planet.
If you’re in Dubrovnik, definitely do the Game of Thrones kayaking tour. That was by far our favorite excursion in Dubrovnik.
