2004 Europe

Old City Dubrovnik, Croatia



May 11 – Dubrovnik, Croatia this AM. When Yugoslavia split up Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia and Macedonia were formed (reformed may be a better term as most had existed in the same place before Yugoslavia was put together and recognized as a nation in 1919). We are on a tour that heads out into the countryside. We’ll be going through a little strip of Bosnia-Herzegovina. It seems like way back when Dubrovnik was an independent republic they were bordered on the north by the Venetians and on the west by the Serbs. The Venetians were a very aggressive bunch and much more powerful than Dubrovnik. The Serbs were also powerful, but more peaceful and not as aggressive as the Venetians. So Dubrovnik gave the Serbs a little strip of land on their northern border that allowed the Serbs access to the ocean and provided a buffer zone against the Venetians for Dubrovnik. They knew the Venetians would not mess with the Serbs and they were correct. After Yugoslavia was broken up the Bosnians kept that little strip as part of their country. Pretty smart, huh?



This place is beautiful. It water is clear and clean. There’s no major industry anywhere near here. The coastline is a series of bays and coves, with several major islands just offshore. I didn’t get any pics of them but I got lots of video. We were headed to the Nevreta River and a river cruise on a small boat. The trip through Bosnia was a hoot. The border crossing stations are only about 2 miles apart. Guys in ties and blazers looking very relaxed staffed the Croatian checkpoint. People in military uniforms looking very official staffed the Bosnian checkpoint. The contrast was quite striking. The two checkpoints on each border were sort of like a highway tollbooth with about a 10-foot strip in between. The booths looked like two gas pumps at opposite ends of the same island in a filling station. Going out was the same thing but the opposite order of course. It was a hoot!! The ship gave us our passports just in case either party wanted to check them coming or going but no one seemed in the least bit interested.



The drive up the coast was spectacular. The little villages, coves, bays, islands dot the coastline. Think of an Aegean-style Washington coast. Just gorgeous! Easily the prettiest place we’ve been this trip. After we crossed a little chain of mountains we encountered a wide, very flat valley they call ‘Little California’. It really did look like parts of the Imperial or Central Valleys, lots of agriculture. It’s crisscrossed with a system of waterways that serve two purposes, irrigation and transportation. Most of the fields are not accessible by road. The farmers use a little skiff to get to the fields and transport their crops out. Their major crops are figs, tangerines, tomatoes, onions, grapes, apples and potatoes. They grow other things in small plots for local use. They are quite proud of their locally produced grape brandy.



We arrived at the Nevreta River and loaded on to two, curved sided, wide, shallow draft skiff style boats they call trupices, a larger version of the boat the farmers use. Each held about 20 people sitting along the gunnels. There was very little freeboard left when we got underway. Our pilot gave us some of the local brandy from a plastic water bottle. It tastes just like Italian grappa. He also gave us dried figs, tangerines and apples. The figs were a big hit, they tasted just like the middle of a Fig Newton but not quiet as sweet. Only a few people ate apples. I peeled and ate a tangerine. It was very good. It dawned on me that a good squeeze of tangerine juice might improve the flavor of the brandy so I squeezed some in and that produced a fairly smooth, citrus taste that was not all that bad.



The trip up the river was interesting. It was like Imperial Valley meets the Everglades. The river is lined with tall grass and has lily pads along the banks. Every now and then the grass parts and you can see the agricultural land along the banks. The river is very wide and flat and the passageways keep shifting. We traveled up the river for about 45 minutes when we arrived at our lunch spot, a restaurant only accessible by boat. We had a good lunch, either fish, with risotto fruti de mare or veal and mushrooms with spaghetti. Both came with salad and a flan like desert that was much thicker than the traditional flan and very good. I think the fish was some sort of perch. It was a white fish and it was delicious.

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The trip back was a little adventure. The channels of the river change with the tides and we were no longer in one that would get us to where the bus was waiting. Our pilot tried to push his way through some grasses to get into the proper channel and the trupice got hung up. He powered forward and then back trying to get unstuck but he wasn’t having much luck. He had us move aft to take some of the weigh off the bow and after about 10 minutes of racing the engine back and forth we came loose. Problem was that the trupice would no longer go forward. He lifted the outboard motor up and found that the propeller was fouled with all sorts of grass and roots. He pulled most of it out and then lowered the motor and raced it full speed forward until finally it took off. The remainder of the trip back to the bus was uneventful.



The bus ride back retraced our steps along the coast until we got to the Ston peninsula, the second largest in Croatia. There we turned onto the peninsula to go to the village of Ston. It’s a medieval, walled seaport. Much of the wall is still intact so we climbed up it for a view over the city. It was very pretty. There was an interesting church on the square that had been badly damaged in an earthquake some years ago and has not yet been restored.



After that it was back on the bus to the ship. The sail-away from Dubrovnik was spectacular. The captain sailed out of the new harbor, around a little island there and then parallel to the coast right past the old walled city. It was fantastic. The city looks much as it did when Dubrovnik was an independent republic. The forts, monasteries and churches are all still looking very good. This made us late for dinner so we ate at the Lido buffet. A nice relaxing end to an excellent day. They had a seafood cocktail appetizer, a mixture of muscles, shrimp and calamari. I put on some of their tangy (horseradish) cocktail sauce. Yummmmmm! No Melissa not, Ick!)

We will lose another hour this evening as we head to Greece but we decided to stay up for the show anyway. It was a comedian, Dwayne Cunningham. He did observational humor about life and life on a cruise ship in specific. It was funny!

(c) 2004 Rod Longenberger