Dubvronik. The capital of Croatia. This is such a delayed post and I don't even know where to start! It's by the Adriatic sea, and in the southern part of Croatia. For this trip, I travelled with Jos and her friend, whom she calls affectionately "Uncle LH". haha And Uncle LH doesn't like to take photos so most of the time he was our photographer.We were in Dubrovnik for a full day, and started our trip by joining their local walking tour titled Walls and Wars. We walked the 2km wall surrounding the city (somewhat like a mini great Wall of China- which also made me think twice about going to the Great Wall of China) listening to our private guide. Nobody else turned up for this tour and we weren't complaining. hehe
Love these boats bobbing on the clear waters
At the old harbour
The main square
Narrow alleyways in the city. Lots of nice looking al fresco dining places.
We listened to the history of this young nation, where the unrest started when Emperor Tito died in 1980. We listened about the war which happened in 1993, when Dubvronik was under attack from her neighbours. "The Shelling of Dubvronik" lasted 7 months and lots of buildings were damaged and destroyed. Today, under UNESCO's directive and assistance, this beautiful city is restored to its former glory, refusing to kowtow to the ugliness of the war. It was interesting to listen, yet unimaginable knowing it happened just in the last decade. It was an afternoon of modern history lesson.
Because the former Yugoslavia is now made up of many countries, it's interesting to me to read how this former empire split up into these countries they are today. And because it is very modern history (and still evolving) with certain areas still "fragile", until today people have conflicting views of why certain wars or fighting happened, and even one country is still not internationally recognised as an independent nation. I realised that because after my trip when I was discussing with my colleague about this topic, she disagreed with what the tour guide told us because her friend knows this Serb lady who gave a different first hand account. Oh well, everyone is entitled to their views I guess. We were just happy to be there to enjoy the weather, the beautiful place and seafood! :)
An overview of the old town. You can't really tell that a war had happened here because of the restoration work.
The walls of Dubrovnik
See the old vs new tiles above.
After the war, as part of the restoration work, UNESCO had specified that roof tiles had to be of a particular kind, and all window panes had to be in dark green in the old town.
A lady selling her wares
They left the bullet holes here on purpose as a reminder.
A cool beach bar on a cliff; looking at the main street from above.
The main street of the city is made of marble flooring and an interesting fact about it- it was super slippery to walk on! I almost slipped many times, and we were saying to imagine walking on it when it rains. To show what I mean, I took a night shot to show you how shiny the surface is.
The slippery marble floor in the day and at night.
Dinner was at this amazing restaurant by the old harbour recommended by Lonely Planet. We knew it was a good start to the next 4 days already. (And indeed it was.)
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