Dubrovnik Days: Day 1, Arriving and Parrots

A post by Alison and Laura

Laura: Last weekend the five of us--including my sister--drove to Dubrovnik, a medieval walled city in the southernmost part of Croatia.  Dubrovnik is probably the most famous place in Croatia; many Mediterranean cruise ships stop there, and people from all over the world have commented on its beauty.  The nineteenth-century poet Lord Byron, for example, called it "the pearl of the Adriatic."  We now understand why.

Alison: Our apartment--which had WiFi (I was happy about that)--was really nice and old.  It was inside the walls of the city.  From our room, Caroline and I had a view of a big church and a cat (the cat was more important, of course).  We got some well-deserved sleep after the long drive and were ready to start our first day in Dubrovnik.

Alison: Since we were already inside the walls, there wasn't that much walking to do to find tons of cool old buildings, cafes, souvenir stands, and...parrots.  Caroline and I were watching these people who had a lot of parrots.  The guy saw that we were interested and put one bird on each of our arms.  

Then gradually the man put more birds--one by one--on Caroline and definitely started attracting a lot of people.  Finally, he took the bird off of me and put it on her.  

Obviously, he was doing this to attract more people because Caroline is six and looked cute with those birds, but as time went on, she was not too pleased about having four or five birds draped around her body.  The man was trying to get people to put money in his bucket.

Laura: As Alison's tale and the photos just showed, there were too many tourists--and too many people trying to make money off of the tourists--in Dubrovnik.  It's been nice living in Croatia NOT in tourist season and going to places off the beaten path.  But our sense is that it's always crowded in Dubrovnik (it's not even high season yet).  It was very strange to hear as much English, not to mention Japanese, Chinese, German, Italian, French, etc., as we did there.  In Rijeka, we almost never hear any English unless it's being spoken to us.

Alison: Yes, there were definitely way too many tourists for me.  Even Rijeka, which is considered "small," drives me nuts with how many people are around.  I'll be happy to go back home where there are no crowds.

Laura: Despite all of the tourists, souvenir stands, etc. in Dubrovnik, the city is nothing short of spectacular.  The Old Town, which was where we stayed, is surrounded by thick medieval walls.  We walked the walls and enjoyed beautiful views of Old Town and the Adriatic Sea.

Looking at the Stradun (Dubrovnik's main promenade) from the city walls

Walking the walls

Alison and Aunt Kathryn on the walls

Another view from the walls

A view of Old Town from a road outside of Dubrovnik

It's hard to tell from these photos, but during the Homeland War in the 1990s, Dubrovnik was bombed over and over again by Yugoslav troops.  You don't really see much evidence of this now, except that many of those orange tiled roofs had to be replaced.

Laura: While Alison kindly did a bit of babysitting in the afternoon, the three adults headed off to a few sites.  We went to a Franciscan monastery, an old pharmacy (700 years old and still in operation!), a 15th century synagogue (the first Jews in Dubrovnik were fleeing the Spanish Inquisition), and a gallery called War Photo Limited.  The gallery showed moving and deeply disturbing photos of the wars in this region in the early to mid-1990s.  One exhibit--on the systematic killing of over 7,000 Muslim men and boys in Bosnia over the course of a few days in 1995, in the worst genocide in Europe since World War II--was especially difficult to view; I eventually left because I couldn't deal with it any more.

Alison: I might want to note that while Mom, Dad, and Aunt Kathryn were gone, Caroline was dancing to her favorite selection of Korean pop music as recommended by Greta (our tutor).

Alison: Come back later for Day 2 of Dubrovnik Days!