September 9th, 2011
Dubrovnik, Crotia

Old town Dubrovnik is extraordinarily cool, if very touristy and crowded. It is rumored that nobody lives in the old walled town as there is a decent-size small residential town outside the walls.  I spent the morning exploring the old town and sitting in spots that offered a modicum of peace combined with people watching and read.  Utterly, totally relaxing.  Stumbled on a book called Balkan Ghosts by Robert Kaplan, which was a delightful find for lazy reading in Dubrovnik.  Kaplan is a superb writer and someone who is not afraid to take strong political stances.

Regarding the centuries old conflict between Orthodox east and Catholic west:  “The Nazi occupation detonated these tensions.  In primitive ferocity – if not in sheer numbers – the massacre in Catholic Croatia and neighboring Boznia-Hercegovina of Orthodox Serbs was as bad as anything in German-occupied Europe.  Forty-five years of systematized poverty under Tito’s Communists kept the wounds fresh.”

The entire old town is inside the 600-700 year old wall and there are no motor vehicles allowed inside.  The stradum is the main street, with numerous tiny alleys leading off of it.  I was surprised both by its size and by the large number of residents.  I think this is probably about as close as you can get to imaging what it was like to live in a medieval walled town.

Most the the town was rebuilt after a quake in the 17th-Century and about two thirds of the roofs had to be replaced after the Serbian siege in 1991-92.  Other than the newer, more colorful, tile roofs, you can see no evidence of the Serbian shelling.

The two are kind of a vertical V, with the bottom being the stradum (used to be a canal that separated the two sides, with steep lanes leading up to the west and the seaward part of the wall, and the steeper-yet lanes leading up the other side toward the mountain side of the wall.

The stradum (and entire old town) will fill with throngs of tourists by day, disgorged by the hundreds from buses and cruise ships.  You have to enjoy it early, then find a quieter location to read and sip juice or water (mit gas!)  The stradum, looking SE this morning:

Many, many, side alleys and streets run more or less perpendicular to the stradum.  Cafes, shops, tiny markets, even a barber, a bank or two, a tailor, etc.  There must have been a school there somewhere, as I saw numerous kinder with book packs hurrying along.

Residential streets (sometimes complete with laundry):

Commercial streets:

Looking down toward the stradum and the buildings on the sea wall beyond:

West, with a Catholic church and the harbor wall behind it:

With steps leading up to the mountain side wall and the fortress on Mount Srd on top of the hill.  I’m trying to get the gumption to hike up there, where Croat forces held the Serb army at bay, despite the Serbs shelling the fortress and the city.

As mentioned, I was surprised at the number of residences and local business in the city.  There is life here beyond tourism, if you look for it.

A small open air market.  A grizzled old lady selling various and sundry items insisted I taste some candied fruit, then went on at some length in friendly Croatian, likely extolling the numerous virtues of her goods, though she could have just as easily been talking about the oppression inherent in the system, for all I understood.

More proof that people actually live here:

This cat, in the open air market, proved quite entertaining to the tourists.  He understood cover and concealment (well, cover, anyway) and would strike out quite acrobatically at the pigeons.  He never really came that close to getting one, but it was good sport in any case.

The locals have crafted kitschy guard that marches solemnly up the stradum to the beat of a drum ever hour or so, with no particular schedule and certainly no historic meaning.  I think it’s just a bunch of high school kids getting paid minimum wage to march around is garish uniforms.  Note the little tourist boy on the far right…

Who ran full-sprint the entire length of the stradum to get in from of these guys and get a good look, then didn’t seem quite what to make of them:

Lastly, here was a true anachronism.  A baker who pushed his wares around in a cart, selling to local cafes and markets whatever they wanted to buy that day.

I’m off now to see Mount Srd.  I had intended to hike up and take the cable car down, but I’m not sure where the trail head is.  I’m thinking finding my sobe from the trail head might be easier than finding the trail head from my sobe and my usually cheerful and friendly hostess, Dijana, is not around to point me in the right direction.