Eating and Walking

Today we all woke up at a leisurely pace and had a hearty breakfast of salami, bread, jam, fresh cows milk cheese and sour cream topped with paprika and green onions, beignets (which are totally jelly donuts), and coffee. We sat around discussing movies (or cinema as we like to call it now) and generally wasting time before we head out on the town.

Ulises and I needed to send money to put down as a deposit on the apartment that we are renting in Dubrovnik, so we had to find a Western union. Of course, this results in lots of standing in the wrong lines, miscommunication, and falling back on Natasa’s ability to speak Croatian and call the rental agent….all is done successfully, but with lots of nail biting and a little bit of hair pulling.

Our first stop is Algorithm bookstore, a great bookstore with electronics and the largest English language book selection that I have seen since leaving the states. Given my complete inability to leave a bookstore without purchasing something, I was proud that I only bought two books that we have no room to carry. The Potters definitely topped us with their book purchases and as all the browsing took a lot out of us, we decided that a stop for a beer was in order.

We sat around for an hour or so, nursing our beers and plotting the next step…which called for food, and copious amounts of it at that. Natasa walked us through some parks and the side streets of small neighborhoods until we came upon a little restaurant just down the hill from a cathedral. We sat down just as it started to rain, and had a lazy lunch of Gorgonzola gnocchi, cheese lasagna, pizza, grilled mushrooms, and good company.

Given that we were incredibly exhausted by all of this walking and eating, and that the sky was threatening to pour on us, we stopped into one of Natasa’s favorite cafes and had coffee and soaked up the late afternoon scenery.

On the walk back to the apartment Natasa was hit with the pastry bug, this happens to be one of my favorite bugs ever, and we stopped for cheese, ham, and apple pastries, and then for some pure sweets of walnuts, raspberries, tiramisu, and cream. Needless to say that while this was a great dinner – we were going to get hungry again for some “real food”, so as the day’s football match was winding down we all ate pizza that Allen was kind enough to get from the restaurant down the street. Full bellies and elevated sugar levels eventually knocked us into a stupor and we headed off to bed, ready for a full day of exploring tomorrow.