(Dubrovnik, Croatia)

While I was excited about moving on to Croatia from Bosnia & Herzegovina, I was a little worried about the process.  I had heard some traveller stories about the border formalities, especially as Croatia has recently joined the European Union.  However, I was even more concerned about what kind of bus driver shenanigans I would be subjected to this time, especially once I saw the “well used” vehicle that was taking me to Dubrovnik.  Fortunately, the driver mostly stayed on his side of the road and didn’t try to overtake anybody on blind, downhill, cliff-side hairpin turns. I arrived in Dubrovnik with a great sense of relief.

Nothing prepares you for Dubrovnik.  It has the same “wow factor” as Venice, one major difference being that Dubrovnik has hills instead of canals (and apparently it had canals once too).   Dubrovnik also has these incredible walls that completely surround the old city.  You walk on them just like the Great Wall of China.  The Dubrovnik walls are HIGH – I’m usually pretty good with heights, but in some places there were huge drop-offs on either side and not too much in the way of railings or space to manoeuvre.  It was almost like being on top of the Mostar Minaret again.   However, this also means that you can get some pretty sensational photographs.  I must have taken about 200 in the hour or so that I was walking on top of the walls.

I could go on and on about the visual impact of Dubrovnik.  The main street in the old town is made of marble.  Most of the side streets are incredibly steep and narrow staircases.  Clearly, this city was once very powerful.  In fact, it was apparently the first nation (called Ragusa at the time) to recognize the independence of the U.S.A.

Dubrovnik also has a tragic recent past.  It was bombarded during the breakup of Yugoslavia and a huge number of buildings were destroyed.  However, it was rebuilt incredibly quickly and there really aren’t any physical signs of the war.  The reminders are much more subtle here than in Bosnia & Herzegovina.

I also visited the Fort of St. Lawrence (Tvrdava Lovrijenac) later in the day.  It’s somewhat reminiscent of a smaller, emptier Fort Henry (for those of you from Kingston, Ontario), so it wasn’t too exotic for me on that level.  However, it provides an outstanding location for photographs of the city and the incredibly blue Adriatic Sea.  The photo at the top of this blog posting was taken from the Fort.

I’m staying in a “soba” here – a room in a private house, as opposed to a hotel.  In this case, the owner doesn’t live here but stops by from time to time in order to check people in and out.  I have to share a bathroom with one other person on my floor.  While a private bathroom is a nice luxury to have,  doubling the cost of your stay really can’t be justified for the sake of some convenient plumbing.  (Dubrovnik is a very popular destination; hotel rooms are both scarce and fiendishly expensive in the old town.)  The alternative was to stay in a nearby town and commute into Dubrovnik.  While I would consider that in a more modern city with less character, Dubrovnik’s old town is so unique that I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to stay in it.  I will not be traumatized by sharing facilities for a couple of days.  My expectations for food are also lower here, as the tourist volume drives up prices…and often puts downward pressure on quality.  I know that I will eat better in other Croatian towns.