Fresh Waters

Our lunch in Makarska yesterday made last night a rough one. I was running a fever fighting off something awful that no doubtedly came from bad food. We spent 6 hours on the bus today with two one hour stops and I began to get really loopy (this is probably when I’m most zany or fun, depending on your perspective). Our guide Martin can talk about local villages and history for 20 minutes at a time without stopping. After these many days, I’m beginning to wonder just how someone is able to do this- I mean without any pauses.

Our long journey ended in a place it was cruel to wrench us away from the next morning, the Plitvice Lakes (16 naturally terraced lakes), another UNESCO site. View the full collection of photos here.

Aspilatos and Diocletian’s Palace

We headed north today along the Adriatic coast past the Naredva River Valley and Bacina Lakes with a stop in Makarska on the Makarska Riviera. In passing through Croatia, you spend about 15 minutes passing through Bosnia-Hercegovina. We ended in swanky Split, the site of Emperor Diocletian’s palace as well as a popular locale for modeling agency scouts to find their fresh, young, tall, gorgeous talent. Split is the name of a town that has no meaning, but it is a derivation of the Greek “Aspilatos.” Emperor Diocletian was a Greek and his 1,702 year old palace walls are an odd and disturbing combination of ancient UNESCO historic site with a retail and modern area above that’s home to residents, shops selling tourist crap and local jewelry. The upper story has become a “modern art” gallery used by graphiti artists. More about Diocletian and his Dalmatian empire (Dalmatia was a Roman province) here.

Our accommodations at the President Hotel revealed a huge suite with a TV bigger than our front door at home, a sitting parlor, a water bed (ow, my back!) and a very funky Orgasmatron-like shower with a Jacuzzi and other water jet orifices inside all sprouting water out at various settings.

Walled City of Hrvatska (Croatia) Dubrovnik

We walked the walls today- it was hot and muggy and wonderful exercise to look out on the Adriatic from many vantage points.
It was so hot a long afternoon siesta was the reality. In the evening, we came upon some Croatian barbershop of sorts on the streets of the city- it was a lovely and splendid way to taste music of Croatia. All the fish we have had here has been the freshest and most wonderful I’ve ever had in my life. Those Adriatic waters are special.

View the full collection of Croatia photos here.

Eine Kleine BoatMusik in Croatia's Mini-Europe

Spoken English as I know it is leaving me. After several days with Martin, our Slovenian accented guide along with other local guides such as Ljubisa in Belgrade, I have to stop myself from saying over lunch to Dave, “Is nice, yes?” I am sponging up the accents of the natives, despite the other Americans on the tour. It's a relief. Maybe I'm getting more cultured in the process as well?

Our day included a walking tour of Dubrovnik, a city with a history of buying its freedom from the Turks. 4 ½ centuries old, Dubrovnik is Europe’s best preserved city some claim. But it is overrun with tourists and like Venice, few actually live there. The lands surrounding the drive into town rise steeply up out of the water and definitely compare with equal beauty to Norwegian fjords and California’s Big Sur. The Adriatic Highway is Eastern Europe’s version of U.S. Highway 1.

It’s little known fact that Dubrovnik is also sinking. The city has a closed sewage system that is still in use and dates back to the 14^th century. It has a sloped design so it is higher in the middle and drains down on the sides. The city also has the oldest pharmacy (still in operation) in Europe . Many ancient beauty of the city is the result of the Venetians. Our guide Antea admitted to being a trained economist (tourism has become everyone's industry here) who said, “I spent five years studying how capitalism cannot work. I’d prefer to be a good guide rather than a bad economist.”

Of all we learned, what I found most interesting is that those entering the city used to be quarantined for 40 days before being allowed to enter (during plague times). Anyone incubating the plague would show symptoms within those 40 days. As a result, a black market of people buying their way in sooner than the quarantine time allowed evolved. [cough, cough]. Our last day in Dubrovnik we walked the city walls, getting great views of the Adriatic.
 

As for the animals there, sunset into the early evening is a time when river swallows fly back and forth around the city like Star Wars tie fighters and X-wings. Instead of the rush of space sounds dubbed in by Skywalker sound, they cackle their joy and fly in groups that peel out in patterns. I’m not sure if they’re recreating or actually catching bugs up above the city walls.

Animals here roam the city, are thin and have medical needs that appear to not be getting met. Kittens are (a mother cat plays with her kitten here outside our hotel) common and dogs are not neutered.

In the evening, we caught a Mozart performance aboard the Tirena- which went out into the harbor, killed the engines and filled the night with sound. Touristy, but lovely.

Montenegran Muscle

We flew from Belgrade to Podgorica, Montenegro today- a short hour-long flight. After that, we were on a marathon bus ride up into the black mountains. At first Podgorica seems like the Caribbean- lots of scrub brush and arid land- but the terrain quickly gets really steep. We headed some 8K feet up into the mountain-locked and very poor city of Cetinje, formerly the capital where Montenegran rulers presided from. 

Visiting King Nikola and Queen Milena’s castle, the strong noses and smallish eyes in the royal portraits struck me as possibly more like my heritage than anything on this trip (I am second generation American with a Slovakian grandmother on my Dad’s side). The Montenegrans were known for their warrior prowess and their ability to keep both the Romans and the Ottomans out of their mountain city called Cetinje, which used to be the ruling capital of the country. 

Getting through Montenegro and into Croatia included a grueling number of miles on the bus, including an adventure of about 9 different tour buses, some cars and a couple of trucks trying to pass each other on hairpin turns and switchbacks for the mountain road approximately 8,000 feet up (a 20-minute delay). With 4 male drivers outside having a chat about how to make the passing of our bus with one heading the opposite way, a local woman appeared threatening to take charge. Afterward, we were still high enough that some severe fog rolled in for a couple miles, but our driver was a hero.

The hills were peppered with terracing and old stone walls and structures, evidence of past attempts to live and farm the area’s incredibly arid land.

We stopped for a marvelous local lunch at Zorka’s Place. Ham smoked on site, homemade wine, cheese and bread were all made there in the mountains and were sold to us by the proprietor’s two sons. Proudly showing off his sons, the proprietor insisted on also showing us his smokehouse and pouring up a spicy digestive not offered to other tourists (lost on me but Dave says it was lovely; strong, a nice burn and all the better for having been a gift given). We came down from the mountains to overlook the Bay of Kotor , finally ending in Dubrovnik. View the full collection of Montenegro photos here.