Previous Adventure: Are those Swallows?

DUBROVNIK

Three parties are meeting at the Rome airport, booked to Dubrovnik. Boarding passes in hand two are ready, the third ran by us in search of hardcopy paper ticket confirmations which should have been expressed to each home. Well, we didn't see them until late the next night! Once in the ancient walled city of Dubrovnik you realize the town is not flat rather built much like and amphitheater with high walls graduating to a flat interior whose travertine tiles are polished daily by visitors roaming the town.




Croatian people were curious about my ethnicity. I didn't fit with the busloads of Japanese tourists nor American or Europeans but it sure made for lots of stares and glances. Funny really.

The highlight of this trip was a tiny little place in which you enter through a small gate in an actual western facing wall landing you on the other side with a fabulous view of the Adriatic. Cafe Buza or Buza Bar is simply terraced with a narrow areas for 2 or 4 top metal cafe tables, some shaded umbrella areas, a menu of a few sodas, cold beer and basic white or red wine. You see, that is not the draw here. It's the speedo clad men diving off the rocks into the sea, the vantage point of huge cruise ships, schools of kayaks that looked like gliding insects from above, the spectacle of people watching people, and the "swallows" (that's code name for bats) flitting just above, in and out of the walls at very sweeping pace.

Cinghale Goulash, fresh fish, seafood and wonderful cheeses though truly, everything paled to the Buza Bar scene!  The sunset was breaktaking.

Memories of a Montenegrin Massage

MONTENEGRO

Three hours south of Dubrovnik due south of the former merchant island of Sveti Stefan was "Footprints in the Sand" Villa overlooking the breathtaking Adriatic with incredible vibrant deep pink to orange sunsets and crisp crystalline waters. The white knuckle drive while incredibly scenic with sweeping blind curves intermittent with an occasional sheep herder in the streets herding his flock in between giant dump trucks constructing yet another Seven Star hotel to accommodate the Russian rich. Rumored to be the playground of certain organized crime groups, Montenegro has accepted the investment of foreign monies to help their ailing financially strapped country. Since my visit their in 2007 the reconstruction of a former Stalin hideaway Seven Star Hotel may be completed now.

Along that drive we spotted Hotel Splendide offering several unique spa treatments so I booked for a Polynesian aromatherapy wash and hot oil body massage and a facial. Travel partner Debbie and I went our separate ways for treatments; my facial was fine but uneventful. Before the body work guests are escorted to huge cavernous room with thirty lounge chairs facing the water/garden view ~ though still under construction ~ for relaxation. Once my name was called, I was ushered back at reception to wait for my the specialist who turned out to be this wonderfully pleasant young fellow who I was sure was the assistant simply escorting me to the actual masseuse. When he asked me to "take clothes off" and handed me something in a cello package I began to sweat. This little package were white paper undies that were sure to be less than attractive. So he left the room, still hoping the real masseuse would walk in as I crawled sheepishly onto the table ~ oh yea, and there wasn't a sheet for cover. Egads! He came back with a white facecloth folding it is just so and placing it strategically on intimate parts. The treatment was not particularly relaxing but added entertainment value to storytelling of international travel!