Day 78 The wonders of the Old city!

Thursday 07/96/2018 Rooms Monika 1 Ulica od Nuncijate, Gruz, Dubrovnik, 20000, Croatia

Today we are off to the old city and using our brain we used the bus 🚌 to get there.... the bus takes us passed the Wharf and docked today are 4 ships, ohhh nooo..... that means people bulk people! 2 of the ships are huge, 1 medium size and the last one a smaller one... still means heaps of people....

The bus gets us basically to the front gate of the Old City 🌃 and yep there are people everywhere! O chance of taking pics without people today...besides people the heat is really quite bad today... gone from freezing in the UK to cooking in Eastern block....

The old city is truly amazing to see, we had planned to do some tours and walk the wall... well the wall costs quite a bit to walk and all the tours are very expensive, so we opted to walk around and explore what we could by ourselves... that took us the whole day....

The city as we walked around reminded me so much of Venice the way it was designed, but this one was more organised than Venice.... reading up on it later that afternoon I found out it looks like Venice because it was the Venetians who designed and built it... so there you go I wasn’t imagine it as I walked around....

The back alleys were great right away from the maddening crowds, just a few like us exploring the outer areas... many of the buildings are accomodation for tourists, but a good portion is lived in by locals... interesting really.... little cafes and Restaurants hidden out of the way still a but pricey, but a bit cheaper than along the main walk ways... Tourism is such a huge rip off.... bleed the suckers dry attitude by nearly every tourist spot all over the world... it actually takes the joy out of a lot of these places when they charge so much... like here, we would have done some tours but it was just too over priced and at the end of the day yes you get to hear the history with a guide telling you all the facts, but just being in the moment and enjoying what it has and seeing what it has gives me more pleasure than hearing all the facts... I know not everyone thinks like me and fir many it’s about the facts,... but thanks to Wiki I still get them anyway....and so do you ha ha....
So for those of you who want the background it is here, if you don’t just skip it...it will be below!
I do enjoy knowing the history just not when looking...

We ate at morning tea time so only need a drink and something light later... the heat today has been a killer so by the time it was around 4.30 pm we had, had enough... we had been up nearly every back alley, ducked in and out of a few Churches and anything else that was free, walked out onto the jetty to see the Firtress from a different angle...found dozens of Cats, quaint cafes hidden in the back blocks, watched the people walking the wall, squeeze our way through, past and around 100’s if tour groups... so I think we have done it justice....

As we were leaving we ducked down to where the locals were selling antiques, all over priced but some really interesting items for sale... have decided Tour leaders off buses are a pain, they think they have the right to take over spots where it is meant fir everyone... I have been on enough tours now to have had the same attitude, we paid fir this so we are entitled, but when your on the other side of it and it with anything in life really, you are just as entitled to view things, do things or just be there... I don’t usually get upset when taking a picture with 100’s around, that’s just how it is... you put up with it and take the shot or wait for a gap and shit quick... but I encountered a tour guide by herself in front of a fountains, she obviously was waiting fir her group to come back, there wasn’t another soul around, I stood trying to take the shot around her she could see what I was doing but would she move, not on your nelly.... so I just said well if you won’t move you get in the pic, took it and left fuming... not because I had to take it with her, but because she felt she was too good to move 1 foot out if the shot... and being on tours I know that’s how they all think... I guess in life and I know I struggle with it too a sense of entitlement like we are owed something in life and we can take it at anyone’s expense...

I know it was a stupid picture but it wasn’t the picture that burred me up it’s entitlement.... guess I was doing the same taking the picture, a lesson in life we don’t always get what we want or ask for... it’s the simple lessons that have the big impacts... God’s way if teaching us to be more giving of ourselves in all situations... I will confess the older I am getting the harder it is to do, but with God working on me constantly I pray I will get past it and have a more serve time heart....

Finished we jumped on a bus for home or so we thought..... ha ha, did a big round on it in a completely different area, so eventually John asked the driver how to get to where we needed to... it would seem we needed bus No 3 we weren’t 6 no where near where we were going.... but we could go back to the Fortress on this bus and start again... ohh buggar ahh well we are getting to see the sights... by the time we hit the Main Street we decided to get off go find Lidil, I had planned Bruschetta we needed a couple of things to add to it, I had spotted a Lidil sign as we went through town in the bus, so I said let’s head to a Lidil,... to get it, little did I realise it would turn into a mammoth task to find it we walked all over the place looking fir it no luck and no stores around to get what we wanted, so ohh noooo, we were near those dreaded steps again and well you didn’t go back 500-600 m to the bus do you, no you head up 500-600 m up hill on those heart killing steps... but we made it and lived to tell the tale that’s the main thing.... once home we decided to look fir it in the car, so back around the big loop you have to go on to get back down to the wharf area where I spotted the sign, found it and it said 7ks.... really so we follow the signs that lead us and down that dangerous Hwy back to where we came into Dubrovnik... it’s steep, narrow and filled with traffic.... it said only 7ks but this 7ks is a darn out right crazy drive... worse part was we had to come back along it after... we found Lidil and they didn’t have everything I wanted,., fortunately there was another shopping centre close by and lucked up the last if our needs and headed back praying the whole time the landlord hadn’t locked the kitchen, they lock it at 8pm, it was 3 minutes to 8 when we pulled up.... I ran up the stairs turned the handle... yes still opened thank goodness... got it all made and we sat out having our Bruschetta watching the world go by literally go by the traffic zooms past our door very fast even for being in a high mountain road..

That was our Dubrovnik adventure and even if we didn’t do the expensive tours I feel satisfied by what we have seen and done... amazing place worth even the killing ourselves on those rotten stairs...

Dubrovnik (Croatian: [dǔbroːʋniːk] (historically Latin: Ragusa) is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva County. Its total population is 42,615 (census 2011). In 1979, the city of Dubrovnik joined the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. The prosperity of the city was historically based on maritime trade; as the capital of the maritime Republic of Ragusa, it achieved a high level of development, particularly during the 15th and 16th centuries, as it became notable for its wealth and skilled diplomacy. In 1991, after the break-up of Yugoslavia, Dubrovnik was besieged by Serbian and Montenegrin soldiers of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) for seven months and suffered significant damage from shelling.After repair and restoration works in the 1990s and early 2000s, Dubrovnik re-emerged as one of the top tourist destinations in the Mediterranean.
Republic of Ragusa: After the fall of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, the town came under the protection of the Byzantine Empire. Dubrovnik in those medieval centuries had a Roman population.[After the Crusades, Dubrovnik came under the sovereignty of Venice (1205–1358), which would give its institutions to the Dalmatian city. After a fire destroyed almost the whole city in the night of August 16, 1296, a new urban plan was developed. By the Peace Treaty of Zadar in 1358, Dubrovnik achieved relative independence as a vassal-state of the Kingdom of Hungary. Between the 14th century and 1808, Dubrovnik ruled itself as a free state, although it was a vassal from 1382 to 1804 of the Ottoman Empire and paid an annual tribute to its sultan. The Republic reached its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries, when its thalassocracy rivalled that of the Republic of Venice and other Italian maritime republics. The Republic gradually declined due to a combination of a Mediterranean shipping crisis and the catastrophic earthquake of 1667 which killed over 5,000 citizens and levelled most of the public buildings, and consequently negatively impacted the whole well-being of the Republic. In 1699, the Republic was forced to sell two mainland patches of its territory to the Ottomans in order to avoid being caught in the clash with advancing Venetian forces. Today this strip of land belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina and is that country's only direct access to the Adriatic. A highlight of Dubrovnik's diplomacy was the involvement in the American Revolution. In 1806, the city surrendered to the Napoleonic army, as that was the only way to end a month-long siege by the Russian-Montenegrin fleets (during which 3,000 cannonballs fell on the city). At first, Napoleon demanded only free passage for his troops, promising not to occupy the territory and stressing that the French were friends of Dubrovnik. Later, however, French forces blockaded the harbours, forcing the government to give in and let French troops enter the city. On this day, all flags and coats of arms above the city walls were painted black as a sign of mourning. In 1808, Marshal Auguste de Marmont abolished the republic and integrated its territory first into Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy and later into the Illyrian provinces under French rule. This was to last until 28 January 1814 when the city surrendered to Captain Sir William Hoste leading a body of British and Austrian troops who were besieging the fortress. After this it feel into Austrian Rule then, with the fall of Austria–Hungary in 1918, the city was incorporated into the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). Dubrovnik became one of the 33 oblasts of the Kingdom. When in 1929 Yugoslavia was divided among 9 Banovina, the city became part of the Zeta Banovina. In 1939 Dubrovnik became part of the newly created Banovina of Croatia. During World War II, Dubrovnik became part of the Nazi-puppet Independent State of Croatia, occupied by the Italian army first, and by the German army after 8 September 1943. In October 1944 Yugoslav Partisans occupied Dubrovnik, arresting more than 300 citizens and executing 53 without trial; this event came to be known, after the small island on which it occurred, as the Daksa Massacre. Communist leadership during the next several years continued political prosecutions, which culminated on 12 April 1947 with the capture and imprisonment of more than 90 citizens of Dubrovnik. Under communism Dubrovnik became part of the Socialist Republic of Croatia and Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In 1979, the city joined the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. On October 1, 1991 Dubrovnik was attacked by JNA with a siege of Dubrovnik that lasted for seven months. The heaviest artillery attack was on December 6 with 19 people killed and 60 wounded. The number of casualties in the conflict, according to Croatian Red Cross, was 114 killed civilians, among them poet Milan Milišić. Foreign newspapers were criticised for placing heavier attention on the damage suffered by the old town than on human casualties. Nonetheless, the artillery attacks on Dubrovnik damaged 56% of its buildings to some degree, as the historic walled city, a UNESCO world heritage site, sustained 650 hits by artillery rounds. The Croatian Army lifted the siege in May 1992, and liberated Dubrovnik's surroundings by the end of October, but the danger of sudden attacks by the JNA lasted for another three years. Following the end of the war, damage caused by the shelling of the Old Town was repaired. Adhering to UNESCO guidelines, repairs were performed in the original style. Most of the reconstruction work was done between 1995 and 1999. The inflicted damage can be seen on a chart near the city gate, showing all artillery hits during the siege, and is clearly visible from high points around the city in the form of the more brightly coloured new roofs. ICTY indictments were issued for JNA generals and officers involved in the bombing. General Pavle Strugar, who coordinated the attack on the city, was sentenced to a seven-and-a-half-year prison term by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for his role in the attack. The 1996 Croatia USAF CT-43 crash, near Dubrovnik Airport, killed everyone on a United States Air Force jet with United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, The New York Times Frankfurt Bureau chief Nathaniel C. Nash and 33 other people.

The bus The old city, the walk back sights bruschetta for dinner...もっと詳しく