Dubrovnik, Croatia

Days 4-6 of our trip through the Balkans found us in Croatia. Our hostel turned out to be a full on family owned affair. Mostly because, I think, it was the off season, we were treated as VIP's. This means we were on the floor that they live on and our common area room was their living room and kitchen! Basically the mom got 3 more kids for 3 nights. Firstly though in case you missed it, I posted a separate blog just before this one that is a tiny story about the trip between Sarajevo and Dubrovnik. Upon arriving at the bus station, we were met by a couple people who were staking out the station for backpackers. We unfortunately had to tell them that we already had a place but thanked them for the offer. Our host came and picked us up, was very nice and excited to meet us. Something we were told about but not offered in Sarajevo was the welcome drink and when we reached the apartment, honey brandy was poured into my small pewter shot glass. I may have found my favorite hard alcohol. It was so sweet, smooth and easy to drink...I bought a half liter off of them before I left. :) This family was amazing and so loving. They just loved having us there.

We were situated 30 minutes by foot away from the old walled city. The afternoon/night we arrived was stormy and rainy, complete with lightning. But the next day dawned bright and fair and huddled nearly all day at a comfortable 15 degrees C. We walked around one of the hills and then made our way very nearly along the coast down to the old city. We had purchased the night before a loaf of fresh bread, some pepperoni meat and a smoked cheese and we ate this in a garden area on the coast around 1130. Wandering through the city, we noticed (as it had been mentioned to us by our hosts) how the city is half venetian and half ottoman in that the lower part closest to the coast is more haphazardly arranged, unlike the upper area which is very even and uniform in building distribution. A little treat awaited us at noon in one particular square of the old city: feeding time for the pigeons. It seems that everyday (unless the pigeons can really tell the difference between days) at noon, the church bell rings and somebody from one of the restaurants surrounding this particular square comes out with a huge 5 gallon barrel full of feed and just throws it onto the ground. The pigeons know this and they wait. They were on every roof but I only noticed the several dozen on the ground around the central statue. Noon tolls and every stinking one of them takes off at once while simultaneously the ones from the roof and any straggler in the city comes rushing into the fray, all hovering and flapping 7 feet off the ground. I thought they were spooked until a man came out and dumped the feed. Instantly the air was clear and a mass of distracted pigeons was on the ground. Crazy. I'd never seen pigeons act like that before.

We did not take the tour of the wall but we did find a portcullis if you will in the wall that led to a stepped area outside on the rocky coast. It was so beautiful with sun out and the sea blue and calm that we took our siesta there. We doubled back there for the sunset and my hopes were high with the clear skies for a chance to see the green flash. Alas, there were some clouds far out at the horizon that obstructed the final setting. Oh well, it was still beautiful from that spot.

The next day was cloudy and much cooler so we hiked down to the bay near to where we were staying. It was a nice walk around the bay looking at the boats. They had some older style boats moored there as well. We wandered again to the old city, had coffee and ice cream at a cafe we'd seen in pictures (a weird feeling being at a place one had only seen in pictures) and then went outside the wall at our spot again. That night we enjoyed a gnocchi dinner, more honey brandy, the Croatian Who Wants to be a Millionaire(in Kounas) and then a movie with the family called Bottle Shock, starring Chris Pine (the new Kirk), Bill Pullman and Alan Rickman. It was actually a very well done and interesting movie about the Napa Valley in the 1970's. We had wine while watching it and it just seemed right.

Lastly, our host's son took us up to the old fortress on top of the hill, which gave us a magnificent view of not only the city below us, but Bosnia and Montenegro as well. I'm learning a lot about the history of this area and that tour was very insightful. I found a piece of shrapnel while walking around. It's hard to believe what the state of these places was less than 20 years ago. All in all, Dubrovnik is a beautiful city, even in the off season and if we had been staying directly in the old city we may have wanted to stay longer. As it was we felt good about all we had seen and gotten to do, not to mention the incredible hosts we had. As before, I'll post some pictures as a separate post and you can search for a link here or by keyword Dubrovnik. Cheers!