Last year, I went to Europe for the first time after COVID-19 outbreak and quite enjoyed. In the past few years, I had to repeat short trips. However, since the trip was a relatively long duration and visited locations without much of direct flights, I had to be creative in making travel arrangements. I liked working on travel plans, so the whole process was a fun indeed.
Perhaps they have fundamentally opposite nature, what I enjoyed during the trip were the religious sites and the liquor. In Bulgaria, I stayed in a Bulgarian Orthodox Monastery. Greek Orthodox churches were worth seeing for different architectural styles from the Bulgarian. In addition, both countries have cultures of distilled spirits, and I enjoyed them. In Germany, where the last country I visited, I was able to visit an old-fashioned beer hall, even though I was in Germany for less than a day.
As a whisky lover, Scotland comes first in my mind when I think of European distilled spirits, but it has already been about 15 years since my last visit there. The industry was in recession when I had interests on whisky for the first time, but in recent years it has become very popular and the price has skyrocketed. Furthermore, Isle of Islay, a famous Scotch whisky producing island, used to be a remote island where seemed almost the farthest land on the earth. Now, the island has become a famous tourist destination, and I cannot find it as interesting as used to be.
Geographically, next to Scotland is Ireland, where is also a famous whiskey-producing country. I am not familiar with Ireland, but I know Irish whisky prices are not as high as those of Scotch. Looking at map of Ireland, I see that it has scenic coastlines and many ruins of old Celtic churches. Moreover, perhaps I have strong images of the chaotic times due to the influence of the novels I love to read, but I think that the country is full of cynical, gloomy, and alcoholic middle-aged men.
Cynical, gloomy, and alcoholic.
This would be the perfect place for me. Checking on flights, I found that if I take a red-eye flight on Japan Airlines to London Heathrow, I can get to Dublin in the next morning. On the way back, I can fly or take ferry & train to London, stay overnight, and take another red-eye flight back to Tokyo. The schedule seemed pretty good, I made a reservation for the airline ticket.
Normally, I would have completed all the arrangements as soon as possible, but things were different this time. My insomnia had been worsening in the first half of this year. Despite I had too much free time in late nights, I had not done anything for several months after I got the airline ticket. In fact, I checked few points such as distillery tours or ways to travel from Ireland to London during such late-night times. However, they did not go any further. I had wasted time without making any reservations or even making any plans at all. One of reasons might be a rental car to get around Ireland, as I did not like driving. Yet, it was almost the first time for me to do nothing on travel plans for such a long time.
Around that time, I had to take a training session at work, it said insomnia was not good for mental health. I have been lethargic at work from time to time, but I should have taken as a bad sign that I was lethargic on travel. It may be necessary to take some countermeasures against insomnia that has worsened. As a new approach to my insomnia, I decided to change the destination of my summer vacation.
I needed to go to a place where I could feel positive. Let me go to somewhere refreshing and full of dazzling sun, opposed to cynical, gloomy, and alcoholic.
If I am looking for dazzling sun in Europe, I should look for it in southern part of the continent. Since I visited the Aegean Sea last year, the Mediterranean Sea or the Adriatic Sea would be a good idea. Few years ago, I visited Dubrovnik, Croatia and took a day tour to city of Kotor in Montenegro. I remembered that I liked Kotor but did not have much time there. I should be able to expect dazzling sun of Adriatic Sea.
I checked the airline tickets again and found that All Nippon Airways offered red-eye flights for both out/in Japan. For the most efficient way to get around, I decided to go to Dubrovnik first, and then take a bus to Kotor. On the last day, I fly from Podgorica Airport in the capital of Montenegro to Vienna, and catch returning flight to Tokyo Haneda.
On the first day of summer vacation, I arrived Dubrovnik via Frankfurt. A clear sky over the Adriatic Sea was supposed to be waiting for me, but the sky was full of clouds. When I arrived Dubrovnik, it was the first time I had seriously looked at the weather forecast. It said that cloudy or rainy weather was expected throughout my stay.
I left my luggage at the short-term apartment and immediately went to Walls of Dubrovnik while there were still few blue skies. The Walls is the most famous tourist attraction in the Croatia’s the most famous tourist destination. The entrance fee was quite high, 35 euros, or equivalent more than 5,500 yen owing weak Japanese yen.
After paying the admission fee, I heard a thunderous roar from somewhere. Looking at the land side, there was still blue sky, but looking out to sea from the top of Walls of Dubrovnik, it was cloudy, and what looked like a rain pillar could be seen in the distance.
Then, a thunderstorm came. It was a heavy rain shower with strong winds. There was no place to avoid them on Walls of Dubrovnik. I just had left my suitcase at the apartment and came to the Walls without doing anything, fortunately I still had my umbrella in my backpack. I found a place with a slight shelter from the wind. I ended up standing under torrential downpour for about an hour, my umbrella was broken and I was soaking wet on the first day of arrival.
Finally, the rain stopped and I resumed sightseeing of the Walls of Dubrovnik. The first round was not much for photography, so I decided to go on second round. Apparently one admission fee only allows one round. Considering the weather forecast was not promising for the next few days, I thought I should have done two rounds on this day even though I had to pay the entrance fee again. It was highly likely that first 35 euros/5,500 yen was complete waste of money.
The initial choices were Ireland where was cynical, gloomy, and alcoholic, or, Adriatic Sea where had refreshing and full of dazzling sun. In order for me to turn over a new leaf, it seemed like an easy choice. However, this visit to Adriatic Sea might not much different from going to Ireland. In fact, it might have been worse because the expensive entrance fee was wasted.
