This Country Wasn't Even on Our List (But Stole the Trip)

Hey, have you ever wanted to travel somewhere so  badly that you made some regrettable decisions to   go there? Well, that's essentially what we were  confronted with. If you're new here, I'm Josh and   this is my wife, Kalie. For the past two summers,  I've shut down the idea of taking this cruise   because of cost, timing, and the logistical  nightmare for us to get from Porto to Rava,   where the cruise leaves from. But this year, Kalie  won. And here we're about to board our flight to   Italy where little did we know but one of the  ports of call would blow our minds and ultimately   steal the show for us. So here's our ridiculous  route. We need to go from Porto to Milan, then   catch a train or bus from Milan to Bologna where  we'll stay the night before catching the train in   the morning to Ravenna. We haven't booked [music]  any of the transportation in advance because we   didn't want to get stuck with a ticket if the  flight was delayed. We're playing it loose here.   We just got off the the plane and we had about 15  minutes to book a flick bus, which we're going to   do that because it makes more sense financially  to do the bus to Bologna. We honestly couldn't   believe our luck. We were basically straight off  the plane [music] and on our way to Bologna doing   everything from our phones. I even had time to  pull out my laptop to get [music] some work on   YouTube done. And then this happened. All right,  we do genuinely have to go fast here. Uh cuz   we booked it, but we booked it last minute.  Got a couple of minutes to get there. I can   see the station in front of me. We've got to  find the platform so we can catch our train.

Okay, we hauled here. Hauled butt here and it's 10  minutes late anyway. So, we're good. We'll grab a   snack, I think. Good job. See you. Basically ran.  All right, time update. Now it's 15 minutes late,   but funny enough, the bus is now over  [music] 2 hours late. So, all right. So,   you're going to try to get a refund? I am. I don't  know if we can. Partial refund. Yeah. I don't know   if we can because we obviously took it halfway.  So, we took the first leg, but I mean, come   on. [music] If it's like super delayed, I'm going  to see if I can get something out of it. 15 16 16 All right, we've arrived. We're here earlier  than we thought we would be. Worth it. There they are. An hour. We've gotten to Bologna.  Actually, a lot smoother than expected. Yes,   we changed course midstream, but it was  definitely the right call and not as bad   or as stressful as you might think. And  at least weren't in a familiar city to   us. I vaguely remember because it's the  trains for the long distance one. So,   and last time we were here, we were actually  driving. We did not drive here. She is mistaken.   All right. Wrong part of the Italy trip.  Same trip, different location. back. Yes,   we took the wrong exit from the station [music]  thinking we were clever, but at least we got to  

see this lady with a cool haircut. We've arrived  back at Mercure Bologna Centro after staying here   less than 3 years ago. It's a nice comfortable  hotel right across from the train station. Okay, I wouldn't normally share this, but  this is [music] awesome. We stay in a core   hotels and sometimes they give gifts. Other  places give better gifts than others. Anyways,   this place has given us cherries uh in a  syrup and it smells amazing. Have a look.   See if you can get in there. Now, I I don't  have anything to actually get a cherry out,   but I'm just going to taste the juice. Juice.  Syrup, I think they call it. Cherry juice. Cherry   syrup. I want to try it. Oh, he's Italian now.  [laughter] Ooh, smells really good. Mama Mia! So   good. So good. I'm sticking my fingers in there.  I washed my hands. Are you getting it? Yeah.

No pits. You're bold. White  shirt and everything. Got it. The menu is like an encyclopedia [music]  with various volumes and additions.   Kalie and Cia are still forensically studying  the menu as if there's a quiz later. All right,   so Kalie's already eyeing up the dessert. Um,  yeah, we ordered a little clunky in Italian   English, but the desserts look good. Saving room.  Are you? Oh, yeah. And you? Yeah. I guess medium. The next morning, while Kalie was [music]  asleep, Cia and I went on a common side   quest of ours. We went hunting for a  specialty coffee [music] shop. We like   to try local roasters or cafes that are on the  official best 100 cafes list. We've arrived at   Forno Brisa. This is a very cute space with  friendly baristas that spoke perfect English.   If your Italian isn't up to scratch,  the bakery items looked incredible,   and the main event is certainly their coffee.  It was pretty quiet on the streets this morning,   but plenty of people came inside for a coffee.  You've got coffees? Coffee? Yeah. So, batch brew  

or Yeah, batch. Both are really good. [music]  I could do either, but I chose the batch proof. How do you How do you rate the cinnamon  roll? I told you. Oh. Uh I know I was   recording. Are you recording? Uh it's really  good. I like it. Good choice. See you. Time   to check out and make our way to Ravenna and  then the cruise [music] ship. All right. So,   right across the street to the station. So easy.  Getting a takeaway coffee as you can hear in the   background. And then we'll head to the port. We've  [music] got less than 20 minutes. Doing fine. So, ironically, Kalie did not order it to go. So,   forgot to say that he adjusted. He adjusted.  So, he put it in to go. There we are. All right. Train's already here. Open  seating. Should we just get on? Yeah.

plenty of time. We've got a good view. Simply the best. I would say simply  one of the best. Not the best.   Okay, we've arrived in Ravenna after basically  24 hours of traveling to simply reach the city   where [music] we start our embarkation and we find  everyone else has arrived at the train station,   too. All right, it's a really long line. Um,  not sure if we're going to make it on this bus,   but then we're not sure when the next one is.  So, we got to figure out how to get to Fort   and Uber. Uber was €69, which is crazy. We did  not make it, so we're in line. Supposedly the   next one's in an hour. We'll see. All right. I  could not film on the bus there because the bags   were sitting on top of me and my phone was  kind of stuck right in my pocket. But here   we are. Uh we are walking about 8 to 10 minutes  to get on the ship. [music] How you doing? Oh,   it's hot. [laughter] Other than  that, you know, it is what it is.

wants to lie. Chaos. We're being a not a good  port. [laughter] No, they struggle logistically.   It's bad. After a very chaotic onboarding,  [laughter] we finally made chaos where a lot of   people told the workers how to do their job. But  to be fair, they could have done it better. Uh,   no. But we're on. We're good. It actually doesn't  seem super busy, which I think is hopefully nice.   Maybe it won't feel busy because of how many  packages are actually on the ship. But yeah,   we're going to grab something quick to eat  because later we have dinner reservations at   one of the specialty dining places. We  get three of those on this cruise. So,   we had we're doing one [music] tonight.  So, we'll unpack. We'll go check out   the kids area and then probably be  ready for dinner. But first, lunch. All right, Kalie, what do we think of the  cruise so far? Good. We were talking about   the ship layout. [music] I like the ship layout  and the different offerings. We're comparing it   to our last one. You know, good pros and cons,  but see, I think it's good. [laughter] But yeah,   overall it's good. And we just had dinner at  Cagny's. The truffle mashed potatoes. That   was on the other one, too, though. So, they're  really good. And see you. It's all good. Oh,  

cool. You pull the funny voice when  you were just speaking normally. Good morning, Dubrovnik. This is a bucket list  city for [music] us since watching the hit TV   series Game of Thrones. Last summer, we were  in Zagreb, which left us [music] itching to   experience Dubrovnik. Okay, very first  impressions. It's simply stunning. So   beautiful. The drive-in was incredible. It seems  like everything really has been fixed up. Uh,   you know, we were talking about going to the  old city. We weren't there yet. Everything   still kind of looked old, traditional, uh, but in  great shape. So, let's go explore the city. All   right. We are always on a side quest to find  a specially coffee cafe. So, let's find it.   Valencia and I were looking outside of the ship  window thinking, is it hillier than Porto? Here,   we're going to get our answer today. More stairs.  We could do this. It's just a few steps up.

We've made it to this very trendy  looking cafe with adequate AC,   clean design, even cleaner bathrooms,  [music] and delicious pastries, cookies,   and coffee on offer. At a fairly  standard specialty coffee price,   it is less than other cities we've been to lately,  as most of the times lattes are over €4. [music] I am looking at my tooth. Now that we're  caffeinated and since we're outside of the   historic center, [music] let's get into the  heart of the old city quickly. All right,   this is really cool. I can definitely see  how they filmed Game of Thrones here. So,   if you like Game of Thrones, then this is  definitely a place you want to come visit   because of the small little windy roads  and the rock. Like, it's really cool. Since we're residents of Portugal, we are able  to use Staysure Expat insurance when we travel.   What's amazing about this is we can actually use  it when we travel to the US, which not all travel   insurance allows since we are US citizens. And  when we took our recent trip to the US, I had to   use it. Thankfully, it was nothing urgent and I'm  okay. But it was reassuring to have insurance in   the US. So, what exactly is Staysure Expat? It's  a travel insurance provider that specializes in   pre-existing medical conditions, but you don't  have to have a pre-existing condition to use.   It's just comforting to know that if you do have  one, you can get coverage. They offer travel   insurance policies in English and are tailored  specifically for expats living in Portugal,   Spain, and France. Operating as part of the  Staysure Group, the company has an excellent   Trust Pilot score in a dedicated English-speaking  call center. If you're planning a cruise like us,   make sure you add cruise cover to your policy  and you're all set to travel with peace of  

mind. It's easy to get a quote online from  staysure.com/expat. And honestly, I wouldn't   travel without insurance because just like me,  you might need to visit a doctor unexpectedly. most people visiting Dubrovnik for the first  time would come through this gate [music] Pile   Gate. It basically drops you off in the heart  or at least the center artery of the old city. For those of you that don't know [music] us, we  don't like to collect big items when we travel.   So, our souvenirs are postcards. [music]  Do you have any cash? Since having a kid,   we've started to let Valencia choose them. Woo! Hillier than Porto.

All I can think walking through here is  shame. Shame. [laughter] Shame. Although   don't think this is where the scene was. No.  This was definitely not in the Game of Thrones,   but it does make the old city more  livable. How cool is this? That's unreal. The climb up to the medieval foundry  is certainly worth the view. However,   it's up here that we realize we're in the  wrong spot. At €40 per person for the entrance,   we'll pass. So, we headed down Ply  Street, [music] catching nice views   along the way as we peaked down  all the perpendicular streets. At the far east end of this street, we saw this  church and then we checked out some interesting   handmade crafts. Saw a few more landmarks  in this cluster before getting to the old   port of Dubrovnik. CIA did a tremendous job  walking in the hot sun, so we let her cool   off with some ice cream. And here's how the  local pigeons [music] cool off. It's free.

Some of the most beautiful [music] shots we could  get were over here by the old port. We really   enjoyed walking around this area filming and  relaxing. So hopefully the Shania Twain blaring in   the background uh it doesn't cause any issues. But  one thing that we've noticed is like the distance   between points is not very far. [music] You could  have some level change that makes it challenging.   But like the old [music] city is pretty compact,  very walkable. We're going to take a a walk around   the the fortress walls here and see what we can  see. But wow, by the water, absolutely beautiful. All right. It's actually really cool walking  around the wall because here there's spots   for you to get in the water. The water feels  really nice. There's like a water polo. People   are playing different sports and swimming,  laying out. So, this area is pretty cool.

This is a stark contrast to last  summer when we were in Zagreb. I mean,   both of these cities are in Croatia,  but the feel is completely different.   Very vibby. I like it. [music] Now back  to some more Game of Thrones scenery. After a couple of hours walking around  in the hot sun, we came across the Jesuit   stairs. That's when I noticed Zox Box. All  right, we're going to rest our legs and   check out this rooftop terrace that's  up here. Hopefully, it's a good view.

What are you getting? Radler.  All right. Beer for me. After leaving [music] Zox Box, we spent  more time in the shade of the buildings   and explored the streets south of the Stratun  street, which really divides the old city in   half. [music] We saw this little art  gallery that looked colorful and fun,   so we decided to pop in. It did not  disappoint. We weren't supposed to   take pictures or videos of the works, but  [music] Sea wanted to buy these earrings,   so we got a quick clip of them. Britto is my  favorite artist. And you saw a piece that looks   similar to his, right? Yeah, it was downstairs.  Downstairs. I don't know his name though. I'm not going to [music] lie, we had an awesome  time exploring the Brick. It was so different   from Zagreb, despite being Croatia. [music] Its  coastal vibe and the historical center give it   a different feel to the country's capital. I'm so  glad that we finally got to visit. I would like to   see Split now to compare it to Dubnik, but that's  for [music] another trip. Sea was tired of walking   around, but I wanted to get back to the old city  during the golden hour to capture a few more shots   for you and me, of course. It's later in the  evening at this point, and the crowd [music]   around Pile Gate is still pretty big. People are  now dressed for the evening and ready to enjoy a  

nice meal out. Now, as I enter the gate, there's  a musician playing the Game of Thrones show tune. Where was this earlier? It was at this point that I heard a tour guide  explaining a few scenes that had happened around   this section of streets. Some of the infamous  brothel scenes took place right here. It was   very interesting to see in such a historically  preserved part of town, real life still plays out.   Dubrovnik has been everything that we had hoped  for, but it's time to call it a night and prepare   ourselves for a city that we had never heard of  before researching this cruise route. In a weird   way, we're off to a better start this morning  because we're tendering [music] to the port in   Kotor, Montenegro. Normally people complain about  having to tender, but essentially we're getting a   free boat trip to the bay that other people that  travel by land have to pay real money for. Here   we are in Kotor, Montenegro. It's the first time  Josh and I have been to Montenegro, so new city   for all three of us. And of course, we're going  to find a cafe. Let's find some good coffee here.

The options for specialty coffee were pretty  slim. But one of the recommended [music] cafes   was actually inside the old city, which meant that  we started our time in couture going through the   main gate. Famous for its cinnamon rolls, Too  Hot to Handle Coffee Roasting Co. sounds like   it'll have specialty coffee. But we found out  differently. Ah, coffee. It's good. Josh got hot,   which is crazy. It's way too hot for  that. But I got iced better. All right,   quick backstory on the coffee. Uh we talked  to the kid that's in there uh who is is yeah   kind of front of the house and he said that the  coffee that is too hot to handle comes from Izmir   but the current stuff that they have because  they couldn't get it in to this coffee shop   is Ili coffee. So big commercial coffee. We'll  still be on the hunt for specialty coffee here. With our first beverage down the hatch,  we decided to do some sightseeing. [music] At this point, we're starting to see the  blend and the line of where the tourists   are and where real life happens in Kotor.  So, we're at a coffee kiosk. Yeah. I was   going to look and see if there's  any other seating for more around.

Okay. Some quick first impressions.  Truth be told, we haven't seen much,   but I think we've seen most of the town, though.  I mean, we got to get back to the old city. No,   that's a bit unfair to say we've seen most of  the town. Okay. Uh, yeah. So, some quick first   impressions. We've been to several places already  and they've asked for cash. Yeah. So, it's one of   those, but they take euro. Yeah. Uh funny exchange  we saw is there was a minimum payment of cash   uh at at the coffee shop, one of the coffee shops,  and the lady was like, "Yeah, um this is 550. If   you don't have cash, I'll charge six and give you  50 cents in return." That works. [laughter] That   works. That's how it's done. Uh, another first  impression is it's beautiful around the water.   I think the setting of the mountains and the  homes is just it's beautiful. Stunning really.   It It is. And the infrastructure looks good. Like  the houses look really solid. I don't think that   you'd have mold issues. I'd be curious about  that. But just [clears throat] like it doesn't   seem as if you would. There are wildfires around  here, so you can definitely see and smell that   there there are fires. There's smoke in the  air. Uh, another first impression is that so   far the people have been pretty friendly. Nice.  A different type of service style, I think. So,   service can be a little clunky. For example, you  get a coffee, hot coffee, fill to the top, no lid.   Yeah. Do you have to ask for a lid? I don't know.  But they don't offer it. That was hot. Not double  

cup. Double cup. I'm glad they don't double cup  it. But [sighs] yeah, sleeve. So, just different,   right? I would say another thing too that's kind  of surprising is there's a lot of traffic. Like   there there was a massive line backed in like  just to get into a parking lot. There parking   lots and like lots of traffic. Well, I didn't film  this, but there were two guys faffing about with   like the ticket thing to make the arm go up, like  the ticket dispenser. So, there were issues with   that. Yeah. But, okay, let's go explore more  of the the city and see what it has to offer. It's pretty pretty quiet here, so all  the cats are sleeping. We saw two.   one was sleeping by a bench,  which is pretty rare to see,   but but we were sitting and we need to be  quiet cuz it was one of my favorite color cats.

It's been nice that here in Ashton de  Brock, they have a lot of these water   filling station so you can fill up your  water bottle, which is good cuz it's hot. You know what time it is?  It's postcard purchase time. The stairs are crazy. And actually to get up  to the fortress, I read it's over 1,000 steps,   like 1350 or something. But even here,  it's like really uneven and slick. So,   you got to be motivated and careful. And  maybe not with the six-year-old. [laughter] Hello. Woo! Oh man. Hold your breath. Don't want   to get stuck. I'm kidding. See,  which is the real [laughter] one. There she is. We've spotted another  rooftop bar. [music] We've survived   one of the smallest elevators that we've ever  been in. And now we're entering the relatively   fresh air of the outdoors. I am really scared  of this. It was right by me. Now it flew away.

After taking in the view and resting our feet a  little while on the rooftop, [music] we decided   to head back down to the street to explore a  bit more. The laid-back vibes of the city and   the people really put us at ease. We found  ourselves enjoying it a little more than in   Dubrovnik because the crowds were little less  [music] overall and having gone in with such   low or basically no expectations, tour exceeded  our expectations. [music] It's a place that's   visually stunning around the bay and a spot  we definitely want to come back to and get   to [music] know better. The cruise isn't over, but  we've added another country to our have visited   list and checked [music] off a bucket list city.  Tomorrow we're off to Greece where in the course   of four days we'll visit four different islands to  round out the cruise. Until then, check out what   YouTube recommends for you to watch next. [music]  See you in the next one. Now, let's get moving.