Dubrovnik Digs: A Little Slice of Heaven

James at table

In Dubrovnik we stayed in a very funky apartment. I referred to it as Great Aunt Sophie’s garret. It was a fourth-floor walkup (Who reserved this, anyway?), built into the attic rafters of an 18th century building.

Climbing the stairs was an epic journey of opening and closing doors, dodging other tenant’s laundry, and skirting around a motley array of houseplants.

Inside, there were only two straight walls in the entire place – the rest were at low, wonky angles – crisscrossed by sturdy ceiling beams awaiting the unsuspecting noggin. James, bless his heart, scored several glancing blows and a few direct hits! He basically walked around hunched over doing the duck walk.

Our garret had four tiny windows, and the views from them were spectacular – absolutely worth the climb. Over the terra cotta roof tops we could see the ancient city walls and fortifications, too many church towers to count, every classroom in the Catholic school next door, and kittens playing in the ruins out back.

Rooftop 3

At night we gathered around the kitchen table, lit lots of candles, sampled a new wine, and discussed the day’s events … just like home.

We liked Dubrovnik so much we decided to extend our stay. So when our temporary lease on that little slice of heaven expired, we moved to a different apartment on the bay. It was only on the second floor and didn’t have any ceiling beams. That was probably good – James’ noggin needed a break!

Peace,
Terri

P.S. And yes, that is our laundry hanging in the back window. It was laundry day here in Dubrovnik, so we thought we’d join in!

Rooftop 2

Author: gallivance.net

We're Terri and James Vance - high school sweethearts who went on to international careers and became world nomads. Today, 65 countries later, we're still traveling ... and still in love. Check out Our Story for more of the backstory at gallivance.net.

23 thoughts

  1. What a quirky, fun-looking place you stayed in! Shawn and I just walked the walls yesterday, and so I’m now trying to pinpoint where your former apartment might be. We’d read that it takes about 2 hours to stroll the walls – we were up there for about 3.5. Love this city!

      1. Both are beautiful ‘pearls,’ just different sizes. 🙂 Dubrovnik is grander, and quite dramatic with its hilly setting, but I appreciate them both equally.

      2. Well, thanks to your great posts, Trogir is definitely on our future list. I’ve been sending some people to your blog that are going to Croatia in the near future – and they love your posts. Have fun!

      3. How nice of you to share the posts; we now have special friends in Trogir and beyond, so it’s good to know more visitors will be coming their way. 🙂

        You two are intrepid travelers, so I think you’d really like Trogir – especially in the more quiet travel seasons. Its proximity to Split and Šibenik is wonderful too. I’ll be posting on those gems soon.

        After Dubrovnik, you went to Mostar and Sarajevo? I think we might be heading to Montenegro or Albania tomorrow. Decisions, decisions. (I’ve seen Bosnia-Herzegovina, Shawn hasn’t, but we’re hugging the coastline for the sunshine right now.)

      4. That sounds like a great route. We didn’t get to see either place, so they’re both on our return tour list. I can definitely believe you’re loving the sunshine after the winter you experienced! We’re in coastal Georgia USA right now and it’s glorious!

      5. Yes, we’re on St. Simons Island – another little slice of heaven! We’ve just about finished our renovation and family business, so we should be able to hit the road again in the near future. We’re trying to figure out our next adventures – the fun part!

      6. They run the gamut from South Africa to South America to Round the USA on Amtrak to camping. We’re at that “let’s throw all the possibilities out on the table” stage! Sound familiar?

  2. Love the look of that apartment but I can see that permanenetly leaning sideways could become a hardship! Still, nothing’s a hardship to be in Dubrovnik, right? Beautiful!

    1. Hi Jo, It was so funny because the minute we opened the door to the apartment, the first words out of (very tall) James’ mouth were, “Well, this should be interesting!” I’d remembered to ask about all the particulars … except ceiling height! LOL

  3. I walked the walls taking photos of cats and people’s laundry. (grin) Well, I also took a few photos of the beautiful roof lines, churches and walls I confess… a mere 500 or so.

    1. It’s funny, we also took a few laundry photos. In a place as photogenic as Dubrovnik, anything makes a great subject. We also saw and photographed lots of cats … and strangely, no rats. ~James

      1. The no rats gets a grin. We noticed the presence of cats in our tour of the Mediterranean much more frequently than we have ever seen in the US.

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