Blogs from Dubrovnik, Dalmatia, Croatia, Europe - page 8

Mostar? Nope. Here is the deal: It is low season. Great for no crowds and no heat. Not so great for some things, like tours. We had booked a shared tour for 3 to Mostar for $170. We would depart Dubrovnik at 7am, and be back at about 6pm. Well, they did not have enough bookings, so they canceled the tour. We knew this was a risk of low season. Funny thing is they offered to give us the same tour privately for three times the price. No thanks. They also offered a tour to Kotor instead of Mostar, but I just had not researched Kotor so we declined. We did get our money back of course. I looked into going to Mostar by bus on our own for the day, but it was not possible. ... read more

The old town of Dubrovnikis surrounded by a wall. For a fee, you can climb to the top of this wall and walk around it's entirety. First, I was sort of turned off that you had to pay to do this, but after doing so, I think it is 100% worth it. Your ticket also gets you into the Fort Lovrijenac, which is another must see. We awoke early today, in order to be on time for our free tour that was to begin at 9am, from the tourist office. The tour was a walking tour, given by Maja, a local of Dubrovnik. The tour was through the old city, and lasted 1 hour. It was mostly stories about the Homeland War in the 1990s. I found it fascinating to learn of more of the recent ... read more

Great writers have a talent for placing their stories in spectacular locations that stand up to the masterful mix of words they are attempting to blend on a printed page. They use their imaginative powers to construct a town that serves as the canvas for the conversations and actions of their characters. The setting of a well told tale is sometimes as important as the stories themselves and can even become a character itself. It’s likely they set their story in an ancient storybook of a town nestled tightly by a beautiful blue sea. The sea should be warm and calm and dotted with luscious islands colored dark green by thick foliage. Steep hills of jagged rock should rise sharply along the shore from the crystal waters. These rocky hills should show the wear from ions ... read more

Day 237 Sunday 11th September 2016 – Mostar to Dubrovnik Up and in the garden for breakfast surrounded by all the fruit trees and no cockatoos or possums shredding them which happens in my garden at home. It has been a lovely stay but it is time to move onto Dubrovnik in Croatia so did the 15 minute walk up to the station for our 12.30pm bus. Again there is no seat allocations and to make things worse the bus was coming from somewhere else so a lot of the seats were already taken and people had their bags on the seats, I managed to get two seats together but others were having trouble just getting a seat as people refused to move their bags so they could sit down. Basically really rude but ... read more

First cab off the rank this morning is the Rector's Palace in the Old Town. I'd always thought a rector was a religious figure, but apparently not so, or at least not here in Dubrovnik. The Rector was effectively the town's governor during the 450 years of the Republic of Ragusa. Barbie says she read that they changed the Rector every month to avoid corruption, and the new Rector was decided by a meeting of the townspeople. This sounds like an interesting form of democracy. I wonder if the townspeople ever got tired of having to go to meetings every month. I hope there were enough people here to make sure that no one had to be Rector twice. The Palace was built in the fifteenth century, and is on three levels around a central courtyard. ... read more