After Hivefest in Split, I went to Dubrovnik for a few days. On my last day I decided to venture outside of the Old Town to get away from the crowd. There was a cable car ride up the mountains with scenic views of the Old Town that sounded really nice. I checked the price, it was €27 for a return ride, that's €54 for the two of us 😵💫
Then I found a scenic walk from the Old Town to a village called Bosanka near the cable car station at the top of the mountain. It was a 45 minute walk, and there was a really nice restaurant nearby for lunch. I'd much rather do a lot of exercise and spend the €54 on a good lunch. Off we went!
The ascend from the Old Town to Bosanka was around 300m, which meant a lot of steps. The first couple of sections were through the residential area, cutting upwards across the two main roads. It was a steep climb on the stairs straight up, like stairways to heaven 🪽 It was quite hard work and I forgot to take any photos of it. After the most strenuous part, it got much better, I even got to add a Worldmappin sticker en route!
Lunch
I arrived at Bosanka around noon time. That's my destination for the scenic lookouts but that has to wait till after lunch because I was quite exhausted after climbing for well over an hour. I had booked lunch at a traditional Croatian restaurant called Konoba Dubrava. I found out after the trip this restaurant is quite well known and appeared in quite a few travel videos.
The restaurant is a bit out in the sticks. If you're driving, it's only 10 minutes away from the Old Town, and the latter part of the drive is along a small single lane on the side of the mountain overlooking the sea. This is the road outside the restaurant. There's a bus from the Old Town but it doesn't run very frequent. Or if you catch the cable car up, you can walk from the station. It's about 25 minutes with views like this most of the way on flat land. Or, you can walk up the mountain like we did.
This is a beautiful restaurant with lots of open space, and a massive fig tree outside with loads of ready-to-eat figs. We got a much needed welcome drink when we sat down. It was a home made cherry liqueur, which apparently is a famous local drink. It was quite sweet and intense, but nothing that would knock me out as it was just a small shot.
The restaurant does a popular dish called Peka. You have to pre order it as it takes 3 hours to cook. According the the restaurant website "Dalmatian Peka is the oldest way of food preparation in the Adriatic, especially on the countryside. It consists of a blend of vegetables and meat or octopus made in a pot or tray, and put into the embers of a fireplace until baked to perfection.". I made sure I ordered peka when I made my reservation but other diners weren't so lucky. A few tables were so disappointed when they found out they couldn't order straight from the menu.
I asked the waitress if I can see how they make the peka, she was really nice and took me into the kitchen. There were a few big pans with all the meat inside. They sat on top of the real wood fire stove, covered with a bell. Hot burning coal was spread on top of the bell cooking the meat all round. The guy in the kitchen lifted the bell to show me the meat inside and the waitress told me my meal was in there, and it would be ready in 15 minutes time. It was so tender and soft and the potatoes were the best I've ever had. If you ever have a chance to come here, make sure you remember to pre order the peka, you won't be disappointed.
Scenic outlooks
After lunch we were ready for more exercise to burn off the meal. We walked through a little village called Bosanka. It was very peaceful here, with just a handful of houses. Then I came across a sign and was horrified to learn about its terrible past.
I am unfamiliar with the details of this part of history, but I cannot imagine what it would be like to have your home and village wiped out by an invasion. Sadly this is still happening in this day and age around the world.
There were what looked like remains of a walled entrance after I walked past the village. One side was still nice and complete, whereas the other was partly broken. I don't know if the damage was from the invasion three decades ago or just normal wear and tear. I couldn't find any information about it.
We continued walking towards the viewpoint. There was an unusual looking structure that was also partly damaged. I've never seen anything like it and was wondering its purpose. I had considered walking over to check it out, but there were too many goats there... If anybody knows what the structure is, please let me know, I'm intrigued.
The viewpoint is only a little further away. In fact, you can get a magnificent view all along the road here. This island is called Lokrum and is a short 10 minute boat ride from Dubrovnik old town. You can also see the island in my other photo with the WorldMapPin sticker and you'll get an idea of how high I've ascended.
And finally, this is the view of Dubrovnik's old town that I've come to see. It's really quite breathtaking and a sense of achievement since I walked all the way up instead of catching any public transport. This is as far out as I dared to stand, there's no railings or anything, and I was feeling a bit jelly legs already!
I got a better view of the old town by zooming in on my phone, and could clearly see The Wall and the Fort Lovrijenac, both which I had been the previous days. They will be for another post. Stay tuned!
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