Croatia, part XVI - Dubrovnik (iii)

I went back to the ice cream shop I went to when I first arrived, and got many more ices because I  could and I wanted them, and strolled around the old town enjoying my ices and the fact that I would be sleeping in Montenegro that night. Oh, and of course Dubrovnik, of course I enjoyed Dubrovnik.

I took the bus back to the AS without too much hassle, and found my bus without any fuss, as I do, and then it was goodbye Croatia, for the time being, and hello Montenegro. There was a lot of traffic on the road, but we only ended up being about half an hour delayed. Out of the 8 passengers on the bus, 5 of us were East Asian - there was me, two Korean girls, another girl from Japan I think, and a girl from China, who sat behind me. Honestly, I had no idea that this part of the world was so popular with East Asian girls, and it felt a little weird. The bus terminated at Podgorica though, and I was the only one who got off Kotor. These girls have no idea what they're missing.

On the bus back to the AS.

And one last glimpse of Dubrovnik before on to MNE.

Croatia, part XV- Dubrovnik (ii)

I didn't spend the night in Dubrovnik because the prices were nothing short of ridiculous. I thought that 27 euros a night for a bunk bed in a hostel shared room was way beyond anything I was willing to pay, and these were November prices. I just checked booking.com again and apparently the prices have been jacked up to 40 euro per night now. In a 10-bed dorm. In Croatia. Granted, the hostel has a rating of 9.0 (I make it a rule never to stay in a hostel with a rating below 8.5 unless I absolutely have to, and even so I won't go lower than 8.1), but still, 40 euro. That's more expensive than Dublin or Amsterdam.

I digress slightly, in any case I opted to cross the border (now that's a phrase loaded with connotations, especially in 2018) and stay in Kotor, Montenegro instead, since it cost 5 euro a night to stay at a very nice-looking hostel with a 9.7 rating. It really was a lovely hostel, but I'll write more about that when I get there. In any case, it was just a far more economic and pleasant option to stay in Kotor than it was in Dubrovnik, but I still got to spend an afternoon there, so I got the best of both worlds, so to speak.

(Note: I just checked the Kotor hostel I stayed at in November and sheesh, they're 19 euros now, 4 times what I paid last winter, so I suppose the prices really have been jacked up now that it's holiday season.)

I didn't pay to go up onto the city walls, because the weather was erratic and in my opinion, not good enough to warrant the rather steep entry ticket (20 euros, which really is exorbitant, especially for that region - these are London prices). Walking around was good enough for me, since it really was very picturesque. All the same - not entirely sure I'll want to come back.