Go Blue. An unhaunted house and many squirrels

 

After our failed attempt to catch up with Rebecca for dinner, we decided to give brunch a try. I found this cute little spot called Stray Hen Coffee, which had an "interesting" (read: borderline irritating) system in place. No reservations. Instead, you wait in line to place your order at the counter, then pick your drinks up yourself and hope to snag a table. The best part? When I went to pay, they hit me with a screen full of tip options — 18%, 20%, or more. I almost asked if the tip was for me, given all the self-service involved! I mean, I did place the order and fetch the drinks pretty well. Honestly, I think I deserved at least a 20% tip for that performance.

After brunch, Scott and I wandered around downtown and the University of Michigan campus, enjoying the fall weather and watching squirrels furiously burying their food for the winter. It was like they were hosting their own tiny, frantic treasure hunt. We also swung by our old neighborhood for a quick nostalgia-filled stroll.

On the way back, we made a stop at the Dexter Cider Mill. I’m telling you, nothing says fall like a dozen fresh cider donuts, crisp apples, and a gallon of apple cider. We left the place fully loaded with goodies and continued on our way home, where Marcie and the girls had prepared an amazing seafood dinner. Ever tried sheephead fish? Or was it sheeplegs? Either way, alongside crabcakes and shrimp, it was delicious.

That night, it was time for the weekend's main event: my very first haunted house. Now, haunted houses are a pretty big deal in the States, and Jackson is home to one of the most notorious. Scott, Rubie, Grace, and I were all geared up to face the thrills. Marcie was genuinely surprised I even dared to go, but I wasn’t too worried just yet. While waiting in line, we overheard people saying that some visitors couldn’t handle it and had to take the emergency exit. There was even a Trump supporter in front of us warning about tight spaces, but after checking out some of the “wider” guests in line, I decided I’ll be just fine.

The haunted house was a four-story abandoned building decked out in classic horror. Each room was like a scene straight out of a nightmare, with spooky setups, loud thunderous sounds, and actors jumping out at every turn. While I definitely got startled a few times, it was more of an entertaining thrill ride than an actual "haunting." In the end, I survived my first haunted house unscathed and un-haunted.

Croatia Full of Life. When the airline shortens your holiday

 

We had planned to spend three days in Dubrovnik, but LOT, where we bought the tickets, forgot to tell us that they had canceled the return flight, and basically we could either fly back three days earlier or stay in Croatia until spring. Neither option worked for us, and LOT refused any communication, so we bought new tickets with Finnair one day earlier than originally planned.

So we only had today's full day in Dubrovnik. We started the morning with a walk in the old town, enjoyed all those streets and stairs again, bought some art and this year's Christmas tree ornaments (in the old town they have a Christmas shop open all year round, where they paint the Christmas tree ornaments by hand on site). We took a quick break in the apartment during lunch and then walked to the sea.
For the evening, we had a table booked at Dalmatino, where we also spent the last night of our honeymoon four and half years ago, but since Scott thought that this dinner deserved a dedicated blog post,I will not list all these wonderful dishes here. Stay tuned

Before dinner, we managed to watch a very beautiful sunset.

Azur of Montenegro. First class food poisoning.

 

In the morning, it turned out that breakfast was offered a la carte, not as a buffet. We had an omelette (Scott) and an energy breakfast (me) and also wanted croissants (to share). It turned out that you have to pay extra for the third portion. The food arrived at the table in speedy 35 minutes. Good thing we were the only guests. My energy breakfast had to be: corn flakes, raspberries, banana, Plazma bisquits, milk, yogurt, honey. A bowl of muesli and a bottle of milk arrived on the table. When the young man said bon appetit and started to leave, I asked, where is the rest? After that he also brought honey, jam and one banana.

The whole way through Montenegro towards Bosnia and Herzegovina was driving through thick fog. Sometimes it was just between and above the mountains on the side of the road, sometimes you couldn't see further than 10 meters from the car.

There is an incredibly beautiful view of the mountains between the two borders, we took pictures and then drove to Bosnia and Herzegovina. My stomach had already started to hurt, and I blamed some specific circumstances. But a 15 minutes after arriving in the country, I started to feel nauseous, dizzy, sweat was flowing so that my hair was soaked. My stomach hurt even more and my hands started shaking. I didn't feel good at all. Finally we arrived in Trebinje, I went to the first bar we came across and after using their toilet we sat on a piece of wall next to the car. That's where I also left all of my breakfast. Since it seemed to me at that point that I could more or less sit, we started to drive towards Croatia again, because we thought that since I was feeling lousy, I would much rather feel lousy in the European Union, and not in the middle of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Three kilometers later, however, a new stop with the same intention was needed. It seemed that after that the whole mess was more or less over and I felt fine.

The border crossing into Croatia went smoothly and we drove straight to Kupari beach to enjoy the light blue water and white beach.

Our apartment in Dubrovnik is on the fourth floor with a view of the old town, the sea and the sunset. We walked around town, oh my gosh, I didn't remember HOW many stairs there are. And HOW expensive is the food here in the old town.

The Peaceful Pearl. Crossing bridges.

 

Loyal readers surely remember me writing about the rickety bridge we had to cross on the way to the winyard around a week ago. Well, it bothered Scott that we didn't even take a picture of this bridge, and today, driving from North Macedonia through Albania back to Montenegro, we decided to make a quick detour to the said bridge. The pictures and videos speak for themselves.

We made good time while driving and before reaching the border of Montenegro we started to discuss what if we canceled the accommodation in Montenegro and went through Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina to Dubrovnik in the same go. This idea seemed perfectly fine until we reached the border. There was total chaos at the border, and it took more time to cross it than all the previous ones combined. We decided to stay in Podgorica for the night afterall.

In the evening, we walked around in the capital - the only capital of this trip, we saw some awesome bridges and finally went back to the hotel.