Dubrovnik...and a Great Dinner

I arrived in Dubrovnik, Croatia excited for a tour and we rode with our guide, Mario, out to the country where we got bikes to go for an 8-mile bike ride through a valley in the Croatian countryside!  I was excited and had a really nice time going through the vineyards and exploring a monastery where we tasted fresh figs and hugged a tree that was said to give us positive energy!  Ha ha!  We ended with some wine tasting and it was a nice little morning tour, but I was glad to have some extra time in the actual town of Dubrovnik which is famous for its perfectly in-tact walls that surround the city and for its clean, beautiful old town area.  I had a good time looking around and enjoyed one of the best pizzas I’ve had on the trip for lunch.  The place was packed with tourists, though, and I was sort of over the exploring for the day, so I headed back to the ship.

We are privileged to have dinner upstairs in the main dining room a couple times a week and that night I was excited to have dinner with Elena and two couples whom we had met earlier in the cruise.  It’s always better to have dinner with people you already know you got along with well.  Anyway- we had a great time with Peggy, Bruce, Rosalie, and “Uncle Lou.”  Ha ha!  We started with drinks beforehand and soon realized we weren’t going to have time to eat if we didn’t get to the dining room.

After sitting down we began to look over a great menu and I knew I was in for a treat.  I was saying that couldn’t decide between two main courses and Rosalie had the solution!  She insisted that I go on and get an appetizer and then instead of getting a soup or salad as a second course I just get one of my main course options for the second course and the next main course as my actual main course!  Ha ha!  I tried to persist and say “No no- I shouldn’t” since I didn’t want the waiters or kitchen to be frustrated with me, but Rosalie insisted and said that she was doing that, too.  Anyway- by the time it was all said and done 4 people at the table had done the same thing and Rosalie had also ordered a bowl of pasta for the table and exclaimed that we wanted 6 lobster tails for everyone at the table!  Ha ha!  I was dying laughing, but more than willing to eat the lobster and certainly didn’t complain with such incredible company.  The whole table was laughing ALL NIGHT and it was so refreshing to get to really joke around with people and have such an amazing time at dinner.  We pretty much closed the restaurant down after crème brulee for dessert (of course) and called it a night. 

It’s nights like these that I am so thankful for a job that provides me with opportunities to meet such wonderful people.  The past week has been filled with great characters, but this table full of people was certainly a highlight!  Peggy, Bruce, Rosalie, Lou- if you’re reading this…you are already missed!  Hope you are well and traveled safely!

Tripp