Dubrovnik, Croatia

07.09.09

(Today I hung out with Megan- she grew up in Sonoma attends UC Davis.)
This morning we walked along the city walls of the Old City of Dubrovnik- the walls were the only thing left over from before the war. Their withstanding the war spoke not only for their physical sturdiness but also represents the power of local diplomacy. They are 1940 meters long and include fortresses, towers and bastions. One of the fortresses has an aquarium in it along with a concert venue for the Dubrovnik Summer Festival (starting tomorrow). The view from on top of the walls was amazing and the sea breeze blowing off the Adriatic was a nice respite from the sun-filled streets of the Old City. When we got on the walls we passed Lovrjenac Fort in the West; it has a huge plank built from its top, extending high over the small harbor at its cliff's base. In the upcoming Cliff Diving Competition people will execute Olympic style dives (flips and everything) from this huge "diving board". When we reached the section of the walls facing the open sea, we saw a sea kayaking group (one of our friends was in it) paddling around the base of the sea cliffs underneath the walls. For the whole stroll we could look either out towards the sea or into the city and into the local peoples' lives. It seemed like a living museum, looking down into backyards filled with flowers and hanging laundry. The window sills were filled with flower pots, homemade wine (?) aging in the sunshine, and sometimes a cat or puppy. All of the narrow alleyways were filled with clean laundry and plants filling the balconies. The easy bird's eye view into these peoples' homes made it take a few minutes for it to sink in that people actually live in this quaint town.

After finishing our morning walk on the walls, we took a boat from the Old City dock to the island of Lokrum, right off the shore of Dubrovnik. The island used to have a Benedictine Monastery (1023), was purportedly used as a refuge by a shipwrecked Richard the Lionheart on his return from the Crusade (1192), and was the home of Maximilian (1839). The Island has a botanical garden and is a UNESCO Special Forestry Reserve. The garden had a lot of palms and cacti mingling with the trees and the rest of the island had shaded forested paths that were a welcome break from city streets. We spent a good amount of time at the Mrtvo More (Dead Sea) swimming and reading our books in the shade. This small inland lake is connected with the sea; it was very calm and its saltwater pool was filled with locals. Then we moved to the "beach" near the small port of Lokrum. Most people were lying out on the large rocks that composed the shoreline, others were swimming and snorkeling in the clear blue water, and more were lying on their personal boats anchored in the small harbor. I snorkeled around a little bit, noting the types of fish and sea floor life for my oceanography paper, and enjoying the clarity of the sea.