Dubrovnik, Croatia

     At times, this trip has worn us thin. 5 weeks is a long time to spend on the road living out of suitcase. While I know others will laugh at a mere 5 weeks, I think for most of us that sounds like a long vacation. After lugging our bags across Belgrade, we packed into a bus bound for Dubrovnik. It was the only direct link between the two cities. The train option would have taken us to Bar, Montenegro or possibly through Sarajevo, Bosnia. The bus was full of loud and obnoxious people talking too loud the entire ride. We managed to sleep a bit but it was never comfortable. Every time I woke up, my neck and back ached more than the previous time. After winding through back roads, passing through Sarajevo, we came to a town near the Croatian border called Mostar. On the side of the road, an old man with a van was waiting to pick up the people on the bus headed to Dubrovnik. We all hopped in and off we went. The ride would have been nice had we not had to pee the entire time and the driver didn't look for every bumpy road in the country. After we crossed the border into Croatia, the overcast weather disappeared and sunshine and blue skies prevailed. We stopped for an hour at a gas station waiting on one of the Split-Dubrovnik buses to pick us up. We arrived 2 hours late, hot and irritable. We waited for a bus that took us less than half way to our hostel and had to walk the next 20 minutes but we finally made it. Since the day was almost done, we decided to go to the beach instead of the old town and relax.

     On Friday morning, we woke up late and spent the morning lying in bed catching up on much needed sleep. One thing Izzy has been frustrated with on our trip is the Europeans reluctance to use air conditioning when the heat of hell itself is making its presence known all around us. Bathing daily to rid ourselves of the stickiness is simply a must do. After having leftovers for lunch, we hopped on the local bus to Dubrovnik old town. Our first trip took us the wrong way. The downside of things being lost in translation. We finally arrived in a sea of people. It was insanity.

     Dubrovnik has an interesting past. Originally known as Ragusa, the legend goes that the city was founded on a large rock to provide Dalmatian refugees protection. Newer excavations around the city point to a more advanced civilization that was present at the current site of the city. Dubrovnik fell under Byzantine control for a while and continued to operate as a port. After the Crusades, it became part of the Venetian empire. This is easy to see as the city has a bit of the feel of Venice, just not nearly as confusing and labyrinth like. We started our tour of the city by walking down the main thoroughfare.

     Dubrovnik was an early adopter of what are considered to be modern laws. They opened their first pharmacy in the early 14th century and its still open. They abolished slavery practice in the early 15th century, 4 centuries before the Brits or US. The city later became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and fell under the control of the Nazis after the Austro-Hungarian Empire fell apart. This was a difficult time for the city. Local citizens were executed with no trial. Later, when Croatia became part of Yugoslavia, the current name of Dubrovnik was adopted. It later suffered some destruction when the Yugoslav wars broke out after the break up of the republic. The Serbians laid siege to the city as they claimed it was part of Montenegro. In 1992, it was freed by the Croatian army.

     Occasionally we had to suffer from big hairy men thinking a speedo was the best idea for playing soccer volleyball. Yikes!

     Just outside the city walls, there are a lot of great places to swim. As we would discover along the Dalamatia Coast, there is no such thing as a sandy beach. And that is quite nice!

     It was quite hot and we really wanted to go for a swim but Izzy forgot to wear her bathing suit. Instead, we walked around the twisting and winding streets. There are still lots of locals that live in the city and carry on about their daily life without much bother from the tourists. Except of course for the occasional public urinator. 

     While walking through the streets, we spotted a lot of people walking along the top of the old city walls. The wall runs about 1.24 miles (2km) around the city. It has various small towers and big towers that were used to defend the city. The view from up there is amazing and you can see some of the small islands that you can visit while you are visiting.

     Below is a place at the entrance of the city where you can get fresh, cold water to drink or refill your empty bottle.

     The only thing about the walk is there was nowhere to hide from the sun. There is a place halfway along the walk to stop and have a drink or use the bathroom. 

     After our walk around the city walls, we went back to visit a couple of the spots we'd missed earlier and to put our feet in the water and cool down a bit. We ate dinner at a small pub and returned to our hostel, one of the best we've ever stayed in. Near our hostel is a long street with lots of restaurants. We found a girl selling small doughnuts with lots of fun toppings. We ordered some with cinnamon and sugar and watched the sunset, it was great.

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