Chapter 13: Dubrovnik Is Beautiful

The small walled city of Dubrovnik has exploded in popularity among tourists in the past few decades, especially after being showcased on HBO’s Game of Thrones in 2011.

It was a shock for us to discover that there is no train station in Dubrovnik; it’s so far down the narrow Croation coast that most visitors fly there. Travel is further complicated because the city is cut off from mainland Croatia. Bosnia and Herzegovina was given a small ten-mile slice of the Adriatic coast after the breakup of Yugoslavia, and all land travel must go through border control to get into Bosnia, then back into Croatia.

There is no love lost between the two countries over these borders (and other matters) – our tour guide in Dubrovnik told us that Croatians would rather their daughters marry men from Antarctica than Bosnia. There’s a cottage industry of local gossip rags which specialize in catching influential Croatians sneaking into Bosnia for its cheaper groceries and auto repair, this apparently being one of the worst social sins a Dubrovnikian can commit. One politician, when confronted with photos of his car crossing the border, speculated that his wife must have stolen it.

Croatians are currently constructing the Pelješac Bridge to connect Dubrovnik with Croatia’s mainland and bypass Bosnia’s coastal strip, over howls of protest and legal threats from Bosnia at the likely blockage of large ships from its harbor. Croatia has given Bosnia the finger and claimed that the bridge is entirely on Croatian soil and territorial waters and, anyway, if a big ship wants to come into the area, it can simply use the nearby Croatian port of Ploče.

All this to say…we took a ferry.

Rachel and I stayed about a mile outside the city, in an apartment with a beautiful view of the marina.

We’ve come to understand that a good balcony is worth its weight in gold.

Walking down the coast towards town offered us a view of the outskirts of the city built into its hills.

The Old Town is surrounded by over a mile of stone walls, 15 to 20 feet thick, which famously have never been breached (although the doors were flung open to Napoleon in 1806 to preclude the inevitable siege). After being shelled during Croatia’s War of Independence in 1991, the city suffered significant damage, and Old Town was left to rot, with vines and moss creeping over its fortifications. Thirty years later it’s one of the Mediterranean’s top tourist destinations, and the locals will endlessly express to you how delighted they are to have tourists visit their little city.

Locals told us that tourist season had peaked in August, and, while still busy, the crowds milling on the slick cobblestone streets were apparently nothing like they were back then.

The city originally became wealthy by building ships from local oak trees (the word “Dubrovnik” means “city of oak”). Ships were built behind the three vaults you see above, whose openings would be sealed with brick during construction to prevent foreign spies from stealing ship-building secrets. Notably during these pandemic times, the city implemented one of the first quarantine areas during the spread of the Black Death in the 1300s, which consisted of ushering incoming travelers to an uninhabited island nearby, then picking up whoever was still alive thirty days later.

A few days into our stay, Rachel and I took a boat tour of nearby islands with a local fisherman as a guide.

Toni took us to the Blue Cave, where we swam through the narrow opening seen over my head above. It opened up into an ethereal cave, maybe 50 feet in diameter, lit only by the sun bounding off the white sandy bottom.

We motored to another area with a few narrow caves, and snorkeled in the clear water after being instructed to avoid the spiky black sea urchins prevalent on the rocks.

Finally we were dropped off at a sandy beach with a small bar on the cliff above, where we bought local beer and wine and grilled calamari.

A few days later we did the most popular tour experience in Dubrovnik – sea kayaking.

We kayaked about five kilometers total, out around Old Town and to a nearby beach. Trouble was, as this was the only beach within kayaking distance of the city, it was quite crowded.

Our last day was Friday, and we relaxed a bit and had a drink at Dubrovnik Beer Company, just a short walk from our apartment. The next day we would be up early, and on to Slovenia.