On our second day visiting Dubrovnik we visited several of the museums in town. The highlight was the Regents Palace from the days when Dubrovnik was a seafaring city state. It is not a particularly large palace by European standards and while the artwork was interesting and some of the old furniture and antiques were fun to look at the highlight for us was tucked away in a back corner of the museum and was a collection of photos from the War of Independence as the Croatians call it.
Today Dubrovnik is almost Disney like in its appeal as a medieval town brought to life but the vibrant tourist city is a very recent development. In 1991 during the breakup of Yugoslavia after the fall of the communist government, Dubrovnik was under siege for over 100 days, and under artillery fire for over 200 days. The part of Croatia Dubrovnik is located in is a very narrow panhandle along the coast. In some places it is less than 1km wide, and at its widest it is about 25km’s. Today the border is with Bosnia, but in 1991 Bosnia was still controlled by the Serbs, and the Serbs wanted to retain Dubrovnik in greater Serbia. They attacked towards the coast and succeeded in cutting Dubrovnik off from the rest of Croatia for over 100 days, and since the Serbs still controlled the old Yugoslav Navy this included from the sea. The relatively small garrison of Croatian troops managed to hold on to the city despite heavy artillery fire. The siege was lifted after 100 days, but the Serbs remained within artillery range for another 100 days and continued to shell the town periodically. Looking at recent pictures of wartime damage of a city you are actually visiting really drove home the story of the battle. It was a very moving experience for both of us.
The other story we learned in the Rectors Palace was the story of Saint Blaise who is the patron saint of Dubrovnik. Most Catholic cities have a patron saint, but Saint Blaise is really popular and his image pops up all over the city. We had a good time the rest of the day pointing out images of Blaise to each other as we walked around, including one live fellow who we felt looked like Blaise.
After the Rectors Palace we enjoyed a stroll along the harbor and a walkway at the base of the fort. One thing you find every where in Europe are incredibly beautiful harbors. The one here had crystal clear green water and the walls enhanced the beauty of the harbor.
As we have been traveling in Dalmatia we have been seeing on restaurant menus a dish called black Risotto that is a specialty of the region. I have been meaning to try it for a few days and today we found a place that specializes in it. The dish is made with the ink from cuttlefish which turns it jet black. I really enjoyed it and another thing from my Dalmatian bucket list is now complete.
By this point we were ready to head back to the campground which involved a relatively short walk to the bus stop. But as you can tell from the photos, Dubrovnik is built on a pretty steep hillside. While the distance was short the climb was substantial and neither of us were looking forward to it, in the end we made it to the bus stop where we enjoyed a multi-national group of people guessing what time the 2:30 bus would arrive, the answer was 2:47, the Croatians have a Mediterranean sense of time like the Spanish and Italians, it drives the Swiss and Germans crazy.
