After a smooth day at sea considering our last full day (where the seas were really rough) and a slight detour to accommodate a passenger who had to be evacuated due to appendicitis, we arrived in Croatia this morning. Opening up my window you could see the small portside community. Our tour today took us from the port to the Croatian countryside along the border with Montenegro, and then into the old fortress city of Dubrovnik.
The trip along the windy coastal road was incredible. Along the way, looking into the water, was a huge private yacht. I can’t imagine how much that thing was worth. After about a half-hour trip we stopped off at a small countryside restaurant along an old Roman aqueduct where we had some traditional cured ham, homemade (and milled by the restaurant’s water wheel along the aqueduct) bread, and local wine… Nothing like me drinking at 9:30 in the morning, but do as the locals, I guess. The scene there was very tranquil and serene with the water flowing by. After about 20 minutes there we boarded back on the bus and headed into the old town of Dubrovnik.
Considering that, unfortunately, Dubrovnik was at was as shortly as 15 years ago (it was under occupation by Montenegro and was shelled by Serbia), tourism here is a new but growing industry here in Croatia. But, because of that, it seems not to be as chockful of the crummy tourist shops that I’ve seen in every other stop (though Dubrovnik had it’s fair share). It does look like many, many tourist traps are on their way as our guide noted that, because property values and costs in the old town are so high the locals are selling out to restaurants and shops and then moving outside of the walled city. So there was a lot of construction in the old town of new places to draw in tourists.
But, currently the old town structurally is identical to how it was 500 years ago. I believe the guide said that only one other building was erected inside the walls that was “newer”, though it was still built 200 years ago). It was a very cool scene and to one side of the city were mountains and the other side was the water. But, as our ship is leaving much earlier than our other stops, our tour of the old town was pretty short (a little more than an hour). Tonight we head out of Dubrovnik and head back to Italy, this time to Venice. Then, Friday morning our cruising portion of our trip is over and we head by train back to Rome. Should be fun…
P.S. – Random Eurotrip Moment: Croatia is the only Eastern European country we visit on our trip. So I found it funny that the first car that I noticed as we were on the bus leaving the port was an ‘80s Nissan Pulsar with a cab-back. In the movie Eurotrip, when the kids get stock in Slovakia (another Eastern European, former Communist nation), they’re helped by a local with an ‘80s Nissan Pulsar with a cab-back painted to look like the General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard. Unfortunately, the one here was just a boring silver. Oh well.
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