We have settled into a campground in the small village of Orasac about 12km’s from Dubrovnik which will be our base while we visit the most visited place in Croatia. It has a nice view of the Adriatic and is quite full as their are not many camping locations available near Dubrovnik and several of them have closed for the season.
Our drive down was easier than it would have been 4 months ago because Croatia opened a new bridge in July. Before the bridge there was no direct route to Dubrovnik that did not involve crossing into Bosnia. As a result of the settlement of the breakup of Yugoslavia Bosnia was given a very small access to the Adriatic. Their Adriatic coast is 12 miles long which is the second shortest national coastline in the world. The problem is that it cut Dubrovnik off from direct access to the rest of Croatia. The border crossings 12 miles apart often added two hours to what should be a 2 hour trip.
The Croatians have been working on a bridge to by pass the Bosnian coastline since 2007 and finished it this year. It was quite expensive to build as it had to be high enough to allow ocean going vessels to go under it so that the Bosnian port could receive ships. We really appreciated it today.
Yesterday we met an American couple at the restaurant in Milna #1 who told us about the fantastic oysters in Ston. Ton mentioned she had also read about the oysters in Ston and many claimed they were the best in the world. As a son of the Chesapeake Bay I took that as a challenge and told Ton I would be the judge of that.
Luckily we had to pass directly thru Ston on the way to Dubrovnik. In addition to having the “best” oysters in the world Ston also had a very valuable salt flat that caused it to be constantly fought over in the middle ages. So to protect the town they built this elaborate 3 plus mile wall around the town and a hill next to the town. It is supposed to be the second longest wall in the world after the Great Wall of China, but that claim like their claim to have the best oysters in the world is disputed.
To give Ston oysters their due we picked the best restaurant in town and ordered an excellent meal with three oysters on the half shell to test their claim. While the oysters were quite large and tasty I do not accept that they are the best in the world and will put Chesapeake Bay oysters up against them for quality and taste.
Having said that Ston was an interesting city and the meal was great continuing our streak of not having a bad meal in Croatia.
