Dubrovnik, Croatia
Trip Start
Oct 03, 2008
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15
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Trip End
Nov 02, 2008
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27 October - Dubrovnik, Croatia was a fortified trading center during the Middle Ages. The inhabitants walled themselves behind defensive structures and built a city of stone buildings and streets paved with stone. Safe it may have been, but it lacks any warmth and natural life within from soil, plants or trees. It was self-ruled until Napoleon added another layer of fortification, namely a fortress above a fortress which subsequently dominated the first. After trekking through the labyrinth of block walls and streets we paused at the harbor and saw a unique and unexpected site: Allan and Helen Hambleton from Australia walked up and greeted us. We spent time catching up on events from college days in England as we strolled out of the old city and into the new. Modern Dubrovnik sprawls along a rocky and somewhat barren landscape bordered on one side by steep mountains and on the other by falling cliffs and the clear blue Mediterranean ocean. I left the group and walked and jogged through the city. While life and commerce seem to be viable here, again no friendliness was apparent anywhere. Nevertheless it is a treat to visit this unique region of the world where some friends and acquaintances once lived.
