As we really want to learn more about the history of the area and the war, we ask Tea for a bit of a history lesson. She is amazing and I would recommend her to anyone visiting this area. We sit down and she draws us a map of eastern europe and gives Brian, mom and I a lesson on the history of Yugoslavia. It is truly fascinating to me and I can’t wait to get home and get some more books about all of this. After visiting all of these countries I really feel the desire to know more about what they have undergone.
The one piece that I will share is the reason for why Dubrovnik is separated from the rest of Croatia with a sliver of Bosnia between it and the rest of Croatia. Dubrvnik was initially its own free state and in the 1400’s the Turks were invading this part of Europe. The turks (Ottoman Empire) had a new set of rules around war that was terrifying to Europeans, and so the people of Dubrovnik (Ragusa) sent representatives to speak to the Sultan. In the end, they ended up paying an annual tribute to the Sultan (a “donation”) that would give them freedom from being attacked. In the 1600’s the city would suffer a huge earthquake and economic downturn and it ended up selling two pieces of its land to the Turks in order to protect themselves from the ongoing fights with the Venetians. This meant that forces would need to pass through Turk land in order to reach Dubrovnik. The sliver of land to the north of the city now belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to the south is now know as Montenegro. I may not have all the facts quite right but that was the gist of it and I found it all very interesting. Dubrovnik really has flourished over the year and has been a major port for import/export.
It is a high class place and certainly the most expensive and high end city we have visited so far. Everything is top dollar including food.
After our history talk, we take a short walk through the streets of the city with Tea pointing out this and that and sharing little anecdotes. We finish at a small gallery where we may or may not have picked up a little something for the walls.
It’s now time to get out of here…we take a few quick photos of Brian and the girls in the Game of Thrones throne and then can’t stand the heat any longer and get into the car to head towards Budva. This is a short drive and we cross the border within the hour and arrive into Budva by early afternoon. We take a short ferry ride across the inlet to save us some driving hours and generally the drive is uneventful but beautiful.
When we arrive in Budva, our apartment here is absolutely lovely and the host is very gracious, but unfortunately the AC isn’t working. We get the rental cars dropped off and we lounge around a little until we can’t stand the heat any longer and then we head down to the beach for a swim which is refreshing, but the beaches in the main part of town are truly disgusting with cigarette butts everywhere.
We stroll down a little further to a neat place for dinner and have a lovely meal. The kids enjoy the various aquariums around the restaurant but the heat is still a factor so they are tired.
After dinner we stroll along the main pedestrian boulevard which is honestly a bit of a circus. There are nightclub after nightclub with very scantily dressed women out front to lure you in and music pounding out at an alarming decibel. They seem to be in competition for the loudest music. It actually would be a lot of fun in a different lifetime! We tell the girls how much fun they will have at places like this when they get a little older!
Once we are back at the apartment it is still unbelievably warm. We have a horrid sleep with windows wide and our bodies desperate for any kind of small breeze that may come our way. It is a restless night for all.
No comments:
Post a Comment