We arrived at night (20/12) and I was happy about that because there were Christmas lights up and the whole city wall (which is 1.94km long, all the way round) had lights up. It was also the night of a charity concert to raise money for clearing landmines in the area. It was right in the main square and it really was special. It was great music - ranging from more folk music to reggae to classical. The vibe was really positive and the ambience was great.
Chrissy lights in Dubrovnik (view down to old town).
Concert rocked!
The highlights of the town for me were the city wall walk and the memorial to those killed in the Serbian-Croatian fighting in 1991 (pic below, showing all the photos of the victims as well as a slideshow of photographs taken of the city and surrounding hillsides burning). Very touching and quite shocking that this was going on so recently. I do recall some TV footage about the fighting in the former Yugoslavia but I was only 11 when Dubrovnik was attacked, so don't remember much.
On the city walls which are apparently quite famous (website about them here).
Somewhat intrusive to have a great big city wall in your garden, all the nosey-parkers can look in.
The major lowlight was the poor Mondeo being kidnapped - technically it was towed by the cops for being illegally parked - but it may as well have been classified as kidnapped. We had to pay a sizable ransom to get it back. 300 kuna to towing bloke and 400 to cop - about 100 euro ($170AUD) all up. We discovered that the traffic cop rides around all day with his towtruck buddies picking up unsuspecting cars. A nice little money earner indeed!
After spending time (a couple of hours) researching road signs, visiting locals to see if this was a common ocurrence, expressing our displeasure to the hostel who had, the night before, told us gaily 'yes, park anywhere', debating with the towtruck office guy, negotiating with the cop, stating that we love Croatia but this type of thing doesn't encourage more international visitors, trying to get a student discount, offering about 412.35 kuna in the hope they'd take that, and a bit of teary-type action (yes, I've discovered I can do this in these situations) - we eventually realised that we couldn't change the outcome. 100 euro down the drain but we then had our ticket to freedom! Off north we went, to a tiny little, blink-and-you'll-miss-it town called Slano. Rented a great apartment from a lady and her son and enjoyed the luxury of having a kitchen!!!! The moment of freedom for the Mondeo.
We stopped in Slano because we knew we were missing stunning Croatian coastline. And it didn't disappoint the next day as we drove north (22/12)!! Stunning views of rocky headlands, mountains, clear & azure water, and picturesqueak villages perched beside the sea. Is this the Amalfi Coast of the future?
Along the way we crossed the border into Bosnia for about 20km. We had to stop. Checked out a local supermarket where Johnno found a whole shelf full of fireworks. He bought an armful of them - rockets and crackers (and who knows what else). So the rest of the joyous and relaxing coastline stops were punctuated with small explosions.
A pretty coastal town.
Oyster and mussell farms (Croatia), plus a fort and city wall on the hill in the background.
Groupie pic in Bosnia!
Johnno planning to test how much a cracker will shift an old plastic bottle... Hmmmm
We made it to Split with glorious sunlight to spare. We checked out the harbour and the old palace, which really only has walls and basements remaining (most of the buildings have been modernised). The next morning Lei checked out the markets as she was 'in the market' for a new jacket and I checked out the markets for the sake of it! They were great!!!!! So much fresh produce and people everywhere, buying up for Christmas I guess. I spent a bit of time enraptured by the flower market. I have never seen such decoration!!! And the scent - walking among the roses, lillies and whatever else was there (I'm no green-thumb) - was just delicious.
A row of gorgeous flower arrangements (starting at around ~$5AUD???)
One of my favourites.
I also walked right into a 'moss market'. The girl in the pic seemed shocked that I was gobsmacked by the idea of slabs of moss for sale. She told me simply 'they're for Christmas' - and I volunteered, tentatively: 'to go under the Christmas tree????'. I have now determined (through particularly little analysis but the realisation that travel breaks through ignorance) that Christmas is a VERY different affair on this side of the world :) :)
Moss anybody? Oh and you can also buy sprouts... meant to be grass-like maybe?
Colourful fruit and veg.
Perhaps this photo is not as 'nice' as the flowers, but I love it. This bloke was friendly and blew me a couple of kisses which made everyone in the vicinity laugh! And that was a mighty big hare!
Our final supper together (as I was leaving Lei and Johnno to head back to Edinburgh for Christmas) was at a share-table place. I loved my dinner of gulash, calamari & veges plus a beer, plus we shared a litre of wine and all for less than 10 euro (~$16AUD) each!
And now it's off to Rijeka, Nth Croatia, where Lei and Johnno will drop me (to get to my flight from Trieste, Italy tomorrow). They are continuing on to Ljubljana, Slovenia and then through Italy, Switzerland and France to get to the UK in the first week of January (fingers-crossed).
Din-dins.
The Split harbour.
Split palace basement halls - now the site of Christmas booksales.
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