The city walls of Dubrovnik are worth the climb despite the hefty price of nearly 30 euros.
We arrived as the gates opened at 8 a.m. and followed the queue up the stairs to the raised path encircling Old Town. The walls wind up and down around buildings, viewpoints and cutouts along the edge of the harbor. The best part lies near the end at the top of the stairway. Standing on the ridge looking south over the tops of church spires, you are afforded a matchless panorama of red-roofed trapezoidal roofs, all bundled safe together within the city walls and looking as cozy an egg sitting between a fat penguin’s feet.
… you are afforded a matchless panorama of red-roofed trapezoidal roofs, all bundled safe together within the city walls and looking as cozy an egg sitting between a fat penguin’s feet.
The reality is that this city suffered from war not that long ago. A museum at Sponza Palace displays the portraits of solders, memorialized as the Defenders of Dubrovnik, who died during the Croatian War of Independence from 1991-95. One thing that surprised me was how quickly the economies of some areas of Croatia had bounced back since the war. The region, which was part of the former communist state of Yugoslavia, went through decades of political turmoil. But it was revitalized after loans from global financial institutions financed new roads and modern ports. Better infrastructure, coupled with being one of the locations for Game of Thrones scenes, has made tourism to Dubrovnik explode. Now, like Venice, it is more like a Disneyland than a community where real people live.
Tourists need not know anything about the not-so-palatable facts of the not-so-distant past if they don’t want to. In the tourist areas, the streets are clean, with plenty of cute cafes with delicious food and ancient ruins to distract the eye and evoke a romanticized past (though of course, it wasn’t like Roman rule was a utopia, especially for those who weren’t a male Roman citizen). The experience of Croatia, summed up in Italian-inspired food, ancient Roman history, medieval streets and deep pools of clear turquoise water, really is top quality. We flew in and out of the landmarks of Old Town, such as Rector’s Palace, St. Ignatius Church and Buza Bar. The whole feeling of simply walking around, sometimes with a gelato in one hand, was what stayed with me.
I remember when I floated on my back, weightless, I looked up at the blue sky and thought, nothing in the world could be better than this.
I’ve rhapsodized before about swimming in Croatia, but I have to go on one last aside about the perfect spot in Dubrovnik. Next to Old Town there are a few pools, but the best cove I found that wasn’t too far away was at Bellevue Beach. It’s a public beach that is one part sand beach, one part deep pool for diving off rocks and one part cave. I brought some wine, a little cup from my Airbnb and my goggles and spent the better part of the afternoon under the sun with the fish in the cool water that was so clear you could see 10 feet down. I remember when I floated on my back, weightless, I looked up at the blue sky and thought, nothing in the world could be better than this.
