4 nights in Dubrovnik, Croatia
Peeking through little stone windows became a hobby of mine in Dubrovnik. "Once you see one stone wall and one red roof, you've seen them all," joked the tourist from LA, his shiny Canon 5D camera hanging unused around his neck. Maybe. I've seen enough white stone and terracotta tiles to fill a dozen SD cards, but the beauty of Dubrovnik comes from taking a closer look...
Succulents sprouting from rock cracks, the hodge-podge of puckered cobbles, wonky shutters coated in flaking paint, lean feral cats sloping along the walls, street stalls draped in beautiful hand-crafted jewellery that reminded me of more expensive antique pieces, freshly laundered washing strung up between buildings, the screech and swoop of the alpine swifts that appear every evening like clockwork.
Let's take a wander.
Dubrovnik is a perfect storm of height and depth. The higher you get - walking the old walls or riding the cable car above the city - the more you want to sink back into the thick of the city and vice versa. The labyrinth of meandering streets and endless steps swallow you up entirely, yet from above the city seems so exposed and vulnerable.
We took the cable car above the city to see the old walls encased in mountains. Here the scars of war remained. Walls riddled with bullet holes - the poignant and recent memory of a war that took so much. The peace and beauty is an almost startling contrast.
Eventually I tired of the constant cycle of pizza and pasta in the Dalmatian region of Croatia. Unlike in Split, where the Croats tend to leave you in peace, Dubrovnik relies on tourism, and we endured the constant invitations to enter this restaurant or that, all revealing identical menus on identical streets. Hunger eventually drove us into Moskar, where I indulged in a traditional fish stew, brujet, and Frank devoured a plate of sea bass. Despite the slightly eye-watering bill, it was divine.
The waves slap and crash against the rocks of Dubrovnik, and we were keen to see the imposing old walls from the sea. We took a kayak out to a secluded cave and snorkelled in the clear blue water.
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