Author’s note:
This post covers the day of July 28th. I wrote it while on the airplane flying
to Cologne, Germany on the 29th.
Yesterday was an early start, getting back to our tradition
of previous days. We got up at
6:30 so that we could catch a ride with Vincent, the son of owner of the house,
into town. He works as a beverages
sales rep to hotels and bars in the area.
He dropped us off in front of the Pile Gate at around 8.
We went straight to buy tickets for the walk around the city
walls, which was a good choice, because by the time we finished at 10, the line
for tickets was close to 100 people long.
The city is beautiful, all construction is in the same style
because an earthquake destroyed the city in the 16th century (I
think, don’t quote me on that date).
The city is incredibly fortified, belying centuries of trying to exist
peacefully on the coast while larger empires sought to include them in a
territorial expansion.
After walking around the city’s walls, we walked through the
city streets, which was nice because it was getting quite hot, and the shade
was far more plentiful in the narrow streets. There are no motor vehicles allowed inside the old town, so
it makes for a very enjoyable place to walk around, even though it’s quite
obvious that this is a part of town that exists solely for tourist dollars and
euros.
We then went into the War Photo Limited museum, which has a
permanent exhibition on the killings in Bosnia, and a rotating exhibition,
which at the moment happened to be about Srebernica (spelling?). So, we certainly learned quite a bit
about the war in the Balkans and the tragedies that occurred.
After the museum we snagged a quick lunch. Prosciutto-type ham and cheese
sandwiches on some really great homemade bread.
After lunch we went to ride the cable car up to the top of
Mount Srd, which overlooks the city.
The ride wasn’t that great as we got stuck in the middle and had no
views, but the vistas from the top were amazing. We hung out there, finding new viewing points, and just
admiring the scenery for a long time.
Then we headed back down in the cable car and walked around
the city for a bit more. We went
to the tourist office to figure out what bus to take to get back in the
evening. We grabbed ice
cream. Then we took a rest in an
Irish bar to watch some Olympics, women’s team handball Croatia-Brazil and the
cycling road race.
We then went to have dinner at the top-recommended
restaurant in Lonely Planet. It
was very good. I’m not sure if it
beat that lunch in Porec, but it was close. This restaurant is run by two women, one chef and one
waitress. And its kitchen is
completely open and looks just like a kitchen you would have in your
house. No fancy appliances, no
crazy chef secrets here. We chose
to just get a bunch of different small dishes: ceviche; lamb in honey and
lavender; squids filled with ham, wine, and lemon; salmon carpaccio; beef
tartar; and monkfish wrapped in bacon.
All good. And a wine called
a Posin, I think, from the island of Corcula nearby. We ended with dessert.
Smith chose the crème Dubrovnik style and I opted for the chocolate
soufflé. Smith’s was good, but I
think I chose correctly there.
We left dinner at 7 and found our way to two recommended
bars that sit on the rocks just outside the city walls overlooking the
Adriatic. We chose the one that
had more space and sat there drinking beers as the light dimmed. We couldn’t see the sun set because it
was hidden behind a tower on the city wall, but it was a nice way to end the day
nonetheless.
As darkness was falling we walked to the bus station and
took a pair of busses to get back to the house we stayed at in Zaton. I then had to pack up, while Smith
caught a ride with the owner of the house to go to an ATM because they wouldn’t
take Visa. By 11 I’d finished
packing and we ran down to the water to go swimming one last time.
And so the day ended.
It feels like it was the end of the trip because everything else is
finding my way home. But we do
have a little epilogue in Cologne to look forward to…
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