To be honest it actually started on thursday evening. Little had I know that Katja was actually part of a planning committee that was organizing a "beer diploma" night for the student faculty at her university. What is this "Beer diploma" you may ask? well it involves going to a "willy wonka" style brewery just across from the university and enjoying the fine beverages they brew. As part of the festivities you must bring drinking games to the table, to which I did North America proud by introducing flip cup the southern Germany.
A solid meal of meat, a few kegs of delicious beer and many rounds of flip cup later I received my official "Beer Diploma". Needless to say we didn't get home until 2 am, where I was to wake up at 5:30 the next morning to catch the high speed train to Frankfurt. Three hours went by much faster than I needed it to, but I was awake and chipper as I rode the tram to the train station and waited for my Inter City Express train.
An hour and eight minutes later I was engulfed into the madness of Frankfurt Airport. I can't say I am much of a fan of Frankfurt airport as it is such a hectic crazy bustling beehive of activity. As a traveler moving around the airport, you move from staircase to escalator to lineup and then into more lineups. I checked in, got slammed with an 80 euro baggage fee for being eight kilos over weight. It sure stung but was really the beginning of a hectic series of events that would get me to Dubrovnik. I managed to stand in the only slow moving security line which was operated by a hulk hogan look-alike who felt the need to manually expect every single bag that went through the X-ray machine. Both my bag and laptop were manually searched, then I was "randomly" selected for an explosives swab test and lead to a back room for swabbing and inspection of my camera equipment. Ugh.
Fortunately that was the last of my difficulties and I proceeded to board my flight to Dubrovnik. It's strange because to be honest I felt like it would be a massive event to return to Dubrovnik. I had imagined everything to feel like I had been away for years. What made it stranger still was the fact that when I did return, it felt like I had never left. Most things looked the same, the city smelled the same and the streets were still just as crowded with mindless cruiser tourists as before. It felt pretty good to be home, like nothing had ever changed. Dubrovnik was still as beautiful as ever.
Meeting old friends again was same as ever, a welcome beer here and there, seeing the apartments they had moved into and securing my own accomodation took up the first few days of my return. Walking dogs, babysitting and eating the food of dubrovnik all become part of the routine before my work was to begin at the hostel.
Finally having started to get over my jetlag, I have been out and about and have started my shifts at the hostel. Yesterday Sanja and Ruza opened the first launderette in Dubrovnik so I finally have a nice place to do my laundry while I live in the old town.
Anyhow the last few days have been fantastic with great weather, swimming, good eats and reacquainting with old friends. I have finally managed to get some good photos of the city and my hike up to the local mountain so I shall update the blog frequently as to rub it in your faces how beautiful it is here. Stay tuned folks!
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