The bus ride to Dubrovnik along the coast was as beautiful as it was scary. The road runs along the cliffs that drop off into the Adriatic Sea and when taking them at 70-80 miles an hour, it is a little unnerving to say the least. Surprisingly, the careless driving was not the scariest part of the trip. We had to pass through the border into Bosnia for a little while which went fine. The sketchy part came when we stopped at a rest stop just a few miles past border control. Once we got there, Austin and I got off the bus to stretch our legs and “see” Bosnia. When we got back on, a man came out of the restaurant, opened a hidden compartment by the stairs we were sitting behind and pulled out 4 cardboard boxes, then walked quickly back into the restaurant. He was not on the bus before or after that stop, so Austin and I may have been involved in our first international drug trade. In combination with the man breaking the window of the tourist information booth and this, Austin and I have (hopefully) experienced the strangest parts of our travels.
Everything we read and heard about Dubrovnik said to just stay at stranger’s houses. They will find you at the bus station or at the harbor where the ferry drops off and try to lure you in by offering you a place to stay. We had decided previously to pass on the hostel and have a bit of an adventure. That being said, the first lady that approached us offered us a place right outside of the city walls so we took it. Austin snuck a picture of her license plate before we got into her car (with her and her large “friend”) just in 
case they tried to kidnap us. But they didn’t. The apartment wasn’t what you would call nice, but it was a place to stay and it was close to the old town so it was really all we needed. It did have some noteworthy design touches including an exposed wire and light bulb which composed the whole light fixture above the bathroom sink, and the ceiling was given texture in a somewhat unusual fashion: textured styrofoam glued all over the apartments ceiling. We were planning on staying longer in Dubrovnik but once we decided to take the ferry instead of the bus back up the coast, we only had one day but that was probably enough anyway. During the day, we did a lot of sitting in the sun, reading our books, and eating sandwiches. We also walked around the city on top of the walls which is a must-do in the city.
When we were going out to dinner for Valentine’s Day, we stumbled on a parade. Somehow when Austin and I travel, we end up finding special celebrations and festivals without knowing anything about it. Carnival is celebrated in many places in Europe and Croatia is actually one of the countries that celebrates it most extravagantly. It is unlike New Orleans’ version of Mardi Gras mainly in that it seems much more organized. They represented a bunch of different slavik countries who all had a specific theme with ornate costumes, a special dance and song/skit. Dubrovnik was another pretty city that would have been nicer if we could have done some swimming, and not worn our winter coats the whole time but regardless it is beautiful and looks just like a scene from a movie.
Frau Flinn's Adventures in Deutschland 