Dubrovnik - a port in a storm

The clouds roll in over the Adriatic and lightening is approaching from the sea.  Birds hover over the old town castle walls as if to shelter from the buffeting winds.  The storm should hit in about 20 minutes. 

Welcome to Dubrovnik.

 

The old town is a fortified city  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walls_of_Dubrovnik . 
Rich in history - dating back to the 7th Century and never successfully breached. Attractive in a functional way – the walls reflect the light due the sandstone they are crafted from.  The terracotta roof tiles of the buildings snuggled into the town make a nice contrast against the light stone. 

While a storm is coming, it is still a warm and dry 28 degrees.  

There’s something about the sea. I’m not sure if it’s just me or a Kiwi thing – but somehow being in sight of the sea is something I find incredibly calming and soulful.  I prefer to be on or in it – but satisfy myself for now by dining just outside the castle entrance, on one of the walls and looking down to a tumultuous sea that has turned from azure to black, matching the clouds overhead.

While it’s nice being near the sea again, there’s something that bugs me about Dubrovnik.  I am pleased that I have chosen an AirBnB apartment that is outside of the old city.  The location is high in the rocky hills and overlook the busy new port below – and a view of the old houses on the other side of the bay. 

 

So…what’s bugging me?  Have you ever got a beautifully wrapped present – so nice on the outside that  it heralds something amazing on the inside?  You can substitute the word present for anything really, a new car, a girlfriend/boyfriend, whatever you want.  Such was the promise of Dubrovnik.  So I found the Dubrovnik old town.  I guess I had built up such an image in my head that the reality was a bumpy landing.  The buildings and architecture are beautiful, in a functional way, not in an ornate way that was apparent in Prague or Budapest.  However, the buildings are really shells, now inhabited by various hermit crabs in the form of souvenir shops (mostly tacky and cheap) and eateries.  Anything left of the original culture of anything with a whiff of culture comes with an additional price tag for entry. 

I email Carolann my usual “arrived safely” message and head off into town.  As a postscript to the email I mention that I will keep an eye out for King Joffrey (of Game of Thrones fame given that Kings Landing and some other settings from the series are actually based in Dubrovnik Old Town).  In Carolann’s usual inimitable style I get  a one line response “If you do see him, kill the fucker.”

The best part of the location is walking the castle walls (which takes around an hour).  It provides a fantastic view out on the Adriatic and a smattering of nearby small islands. Look inward and you see the old town inside the walls – quite wonderful (you can’t see the “shopping mall” complex that it’s turned into from above – just a throng of busy people.  Occasionally looking down on the town you see a basket ball court (basket ball court Lannister perhaps?)  -  I saw two full size courts tucked away just below the interior wall. – on the outer perimeter of the town. 

 The other great locations for seeing the old Town are

1.       either from the cable car (definitely worth a trip up – I did it at sunset so I could see it by (fading) daylight and at night lit up by light, or;

2.       From outside of the walls.  I did this from one of the furthest beaches along the point (one that the locals tend to use) and from a Kayak.  Both really worthwhile.

 Dubrovnik is not just about the old town, so I go for a drive and check out some of the local beaches and go for a swim.  I am in love with the Adriatic (and the Andaman for that matter!).

I find Dubrovnik expensive and incredibly touristy.  Before I left, my itinerary was planned around 5-6 days in each of my chosen locations.  I have a hard start and stop for this leg due to flights.  Before I came, I took a chance that Dubrovnik was probably quite small and 3 days should do it – I split the difference (no pun intended – no, I did not  visit Split in Croatia) and hired a car so I can drive over the border to Montenegro and spend 3 days there.  You see plenty of tours advertised in Dubrovnik, one of which is a day trip by bus to Montenegro.  Having experienced both, my preference is certainly the latter and it would probably be better (in my books) to be in Montenegro and do a 1 day trip to Dubrovnik!  (some may burn me at the stake for saying that).

The night before I leave,  another storm rolls in.  Thunder like canons, the lightening arrests the sky.  There is something quite magical about watching a storm over water (or anywhere), particularly when you are tucked up safe inside or at least out of the rain.

 

Fond memories of the castle (and a bit of imagination to edit out through a virtual photoshop the modern mall it’s turned into)  and my first swim in the Adriatic, I hop in the car and head to somewhere that’s not well known and a bit of a hidden gem.

 

What about the people – meet anyone interesting?

As fate has it (and seems to on this trip) yes.

I don’t spend much time with my hosts at this location.  It is run as a semi-commercial B and B (though the booking was through AirBnB).  It is a modern apartment high on the hillside overlooking the harbour.  A 2 minute walk to the bus that leaves every 30 minutes and takes you all the way through town and finishes up at the old town.  The host was listed as Antonja (youngest daughter).  I don’t get to meet her, but instead meet Marijo, the son and his mother.  They are both great.  She doesn’t speak any English though is incredibly hospitable.  Marijo has all the maps of the town out and the bus timetable for me. 

 

I ask about the Game of Thrones tour – turns out he is an electrician and used to work on the set so gives me some insights as to where to go and what to look for. 

The next day I am talking to his mum.  She has a new guide for me to look at.  Flicking through it, she pauses on a page, a melancholy look comes over her face.  She points at a handsome middle aged man, a waiter in the picture then at her wedding ring.  OK, husband?  Yes, she shakes her head  “Gone, 2 years now.”  I automatically assume the divorce scenario, though  Marijo who has just come home looks over our shoulders.  “He died of a heart attack 2 years ago.  He was 56 years old.”  Marijo said his dad was put on a waiting list after they detected the problem.  They never got to see him in time.  They both quickly move onto another subject and the clouds clear and their smiles come out again. 

The apartment upstairs has a number of what I thought were props to make it look like a family holiday home. After our discussion, I take another look and they take on a new meaning.  They are not props at all but photos of a wedding and of two fun loving kids in their pre teens balancing on their Dad’s knee.  I look at the beautiful couple in the convertible on their wedding day – adding a few years and a lot of recent heart ache and I can see the lady I was talking to not 15 minutes ago, smiling back at the world with her life partner beside her. 

 On to the living

Another person I met on this leg has crammed a lot of living into her less than 30 years and is following her dream.   It is my last day and I decide to take a kayak tour around the castle and to one of the local islands.  It sounds great.  There are a lot of people on the tour, the kayaks are sit on tandems and I am paired with a young lady.  On this trip I meet many people from many exotic locations.  This one is no different.  “Hi, I’m Andrew”.  “Hi, I’m  Katie.” “Where are you from  Katie?” “New Zealand, from Queenstown.  Now living in London.”  The guides didn’t have a clue where we were both from  - so complete coincidence that we got paired up.  A great conversation with a great and talented person.  Katie can also paddle as she grew up around the water and used to do some down water river kayaking – good that we can both paddle as the conditions weren’t the best so nice to be matched with someone who knows what they are doing.

Katie has a double degree.  The one she is not currently exercising is her engineering degree.  The one she is exercising is her music degree.  Discovered busking by one of the original mentors of “The Chills”, she has been adopted by a record label who have sponsored her to London for writing and performing and pulling an album together.  Keep an eye out for “Katie Raven”.  In the year of our Lorde and given other contemporary doyen’s that hail from NZ (like Gin Wigmore), the fact she has a record label sponsor in London speaks volumes.  She is looking at releasing her first album around September (or at least in the next couple of months 

).