I left my new "sobe" (private room) angry and bitter. After all the time I have put in traveling, I still should know better than to trust a cab driver to find me lodging. After a very nice stay in Hotel Lapad, I decided to call Borin, my cab driver from the airport to Dubrovnik, and accept his offer to find me something near the city at "1/10 the price" as he had told me. My first mistake was that I should have known that there would be a finder's fee or a trumped up fare to the place, and thought I didn't see the finders fee I am sure it was there, judging by the bargains he found for me. The trumped up fare was there, to be sure, in the form of 80 kuna, or $10. The fare to the airport was twice this, but took almost 30 minutes, while this took five. After exhausting myself by climbing up the stairs to the first sobe he found, and then arguing over the price for a place that I really had no interest in staying in, I finally succumbed to a worse deal after the second sobe shark latched on to me during the feeding. When I finally dropped my bag down the stairs, and went in to take a shower, I was almost not surprised to see there was no shower curtain, and the floor was completely soaked when I finished my shower. This, despite pointing the head to the wall the entire time, and turning off the water to soap up and down. This at a price of 150 kuna, or about $20, which is low all considered, but the same price I would have paid for breakfast, a stellar view, and a decent bathroom at the first joint.

The walled city of Dubrovnik would have none of this, and instantly banished all of those thoughts leaving me in awe. I decided to leave the sobe and get some dinner. I walked down a few stairs to see the entrance to the city looming above me. The view from the bridge was stunning to say the least, as I looked out over the small inlet where lightly illuminated boats hovered, protected by another arm of the city. I walked down countless cobblestone streets, jaw gaping, running my fingers over the limestone walls which towered sometimes over a hundred feet above me.

I decided to stop for dinner at the Dubrovnik Terrace. Almost empty it was, but fun. As I waited on my order, I watched Wheel of Fortune in Croatian. Unlike the American version, I didn't know any of the answers. The man waiting on me, as if to challenge the old world inside the city, had programmed his phone to ring with the song to Brittni Spears "Oops, I did it again." American culture pervades everywhere, unfortunately. I ate a sea bass, which he promised had been caught the same day. It was good. A glass of wine was only 12 kuna, which amounted to about $1.50.

Today I swam in the blue water of the sea, avoiding sea urchins and feeling the squish of the sea kelp underneath my feet on top of the volcanic rock. Dubrovnik is truly beautiful.