The final days of the sailing have now arrived, we motor down to a beautiful small island Lopud where we swim and wave board, its only a short swim into shore, the main hotel is an old communist guest house being refurbished in its classic Brutal style..the boys love it,
I think it should be a pile of rubble, the lovely little bay is also ruined by an ugly Thomson holiday destination 300 room hotel built totally out of character with the rest of the setting, white rendered pre cast, it even made the communist guest house aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
PP managed to find a shop and in Annesperanto with a tinge of Russian made a nice purchase.
We wandered up the hill to a unique special exhibition – the My black horizont upon entering a large room it is pitch black with a thin strip of light at the edges, this changes gradually from white to green to yellow to black and gradually stairs/holes/walls/shapes appear – when you leave it, it is explained that there is nothing in the room, the walls are pure black and everyone sees something different – it is your imagination which provides the shapes – spooky.
Back down for a swim and listen to the hawks vs the blues…listened..had beer had a swim came back and listened. Went for another swim then another beer… PP said this might be a challenging game…the only challenge was to listening to it…. went for another swim, lots of fish nibbling away, it reminded of the beauty tanks in Gabicce Mare where people put the feet in tanks and all these fish ate the dead skin – sardines for dinner?? – we headed off to Zaton our final destination.
The motoring under the walls of Dubrovnik was spectacular, we later found out that the walls were constructed before the invention of canons and it was protection against the high wave swells and not as a military defence.
Tried to take some photos of PP with the wall in the background, she wasn’t happy with the shots delete delete delete delete….stop worrying about the background just focus on me…so I tried to ignore the 700 year old castle wall!!!
Final dinner in Zaton…whilst mooring we went past a small boat at anchor with the largest fat man in the world naked in the back… no photos…
We all went for a farewell dinner in a little restaurant Konoba Ankora, it looked a nice location near the water, what we had failed to realise was that our chosen seating was right next to the open cooking oven which elevated the record high temperatures to that of a BlueScope blow furnace….I just had to kept drinking to keep the fluids up.
….it started well and then it had a Fawlty Towers feeling…we all ordered oysters…after 15 minutes the waitress said no oysters and walked away.. we then tried to order other Entrees…..with mixed success…PP’s large squid unexpectedly arrived and then after a while most people were eating except me..I wasn’t much bothered, PP finished and they then reset in front of PP again we has a horrible feeling that she had double ordered the squid…she ordered a small bottle of champagne and a full bottle turned up, R offered to help her drink it.
We waited in anticipation for our meals, my pasta turned up as well as all the others in random order, it was at though the cook was cooking one on one. M was back in fine form telling a tale about her mother who was know as Zara for her religious prophecies, when someone lost something she was asked to pray to St Anthony, Patron Saint of Lost Thing, sent $50 to Franciscans and then it would appear… this was prompted by the absence of my watch… She also foresaw pregnancies…… note to self, keep clear of Alberta – there are strange things happening in them parts….
R also told a story about when he they organised a Tarts and Vicars party to celebrate a special event, no surprise everyone turned up dressed as beautiful tarts except 1 vicar among 100 guest
N got weepy and stated playing crap music so I went to bed.. cooler this evening and I had to do my impression of a daddy long legs hanging off the wall of the small cabin as PP decided to sleep in the cabin tonight.
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is both a seaport and the centre of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County. Its population was 42,615 inhabitants according to census data from 2011. Dubrovnik is nicknamed “Pearl of the Adriatic”.
The city of Dubrovnik (Latin: Ragusa) was built on maritime trade. In the Middle Ages it became the only city-state in the Adriatic to rival Venice. Supported by its wealth and skilled diplomacy, the city achieved a remarkable level of development during the 15th and 16th centuries. Furthermore, Dubrovnik was one of the centres of the development of the Croatian language and literature, home to many notable poets, playwrights, painters, mathematicians, physicists and other scholars.
Today Dubrovnik is the proudest feather in Croatia’s tourist cap, an elite destination and one of the most beautiful towns in the Mediterranean.
Dubrovnik used to be an independent republic, surviving mostly on trade. It managed to survive many centuries, with constant threats to its territory, particularly from the mighty Ottoman Empire and Venice. As early as 19th century, it was discovered by celebrities as a place to be seen. George Bernard Shaw once said that “those who seek paradise on Earth should come to Dubrovnik and find it”.
Royalty, presidents and diplomats have all favoured the city. The late Pope John Paul II was a fan of Dubrovnik and was even made an honorary citizen.
I am providing this information as a counter balance, Westeros is a fictional place and Kings Landing was the creation in the mind of a fat man who can write a good story..why oh why then are there twice as many Game of Thrones tours than historic tours of Dubrovnik ..and giggly American girls saying I wonder if this is where Tyrion said blah blah blah… and this is were Joffrey did this blah blah….
HBO have destroying 1,000 years of history and don’t care with tons on licenced merchandise and I could even sit and get my photo on the Iron Throne, there was an enormous queue, which is next to the – Art Museum of Modern Art which displays the growth of literature experienced in its renaissance “rebirth” in the 15th and 16th century… this is one of Dubrovnik 13 museums which were empty except for Australia seniors on the cruise ships avoiding the heat and talking about the weather.
No mention in the literature section of George R R Martin or displays in the museums of dragons and armies consisting on willyless soldiers….. and white walkers and for your information Ned Stark started work in The Bill in 1984 then starred in Red Riding Hood and was the bad brother in Lord of the Rings who beat up Frodo….he was not the Lord of Winterfell in the same way that Donald Trump is not real.
Rant finished
I lost track of how many Game of Thrones tours being conducted in English, Spanish, French Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Hollywood American that’s where all the big difficult words are taken out…and replaced with goodies and baddies…there was also a group tour being conducted in Annesperanto.
Despite all that and tons and tons on tat sold in Dubrovnik but made in China it is an amazing city which unfortunately been significantly Disneylanded
However there is plenty of opportunities to eat well, we ate at Cele – Placa 1, Dubrovnik twice, nothing fancy, but best location in town, drink lots and watch human nature unfold before your very eyes. Lots to write about but my key observation are;
- The walk of the wall is outstanding
- Gold medal effort by the American that took his push chair on the wall walk….4,000 steps and 2 km, the wall is very narrow and in some places only allows room for one person…that made it interesting
- Went past a jazz club, heard the well known jazz number ”Ring of fire’ in Croatian
- The selfie stick should be banned
- I think I have assisted Campari in achieving record sales in July
- The war museum and art galleries are extraordinary
- As my next career direction I think I will be an oligarch
- To complement my new tattoos I think I will also include a small pony tail as well as have 2 little diamond studs in the ears – this addition can be attributed to 55+ year old English males on holiday where this is the norm and who say guv, wsshup and carnihuvchupswitmyfush
On the way into town we jumped into a cab and the friendly driver said in very good English…”are you enjoying your stay in Dubrovnik” I was about to answer and PP said I’m sorry I don’t understand, we speak English..he said “I though that was what I was speaking”…I said yes dear he was……I think she was looking for the Annesperanto sub titles…..I shook my head, maybe too much sun.
We had a wonderful day Kayaking with Adventure Dubrovnik well it was more like Cleopatra entering her royal barge and the Sumerian slave in the back paddling for 3 hours through a 1 meter swell and a head wind, when some assistance was provided by Cleopatra’s weak left arm it resulted in the kayak adopting a crab like sideways approach to its movement to the ever growing swell, great day.
Managed to hit a record 20 photo bombs in one day focusing o the selfie stick users, mainly Chinese groups and young Americans on the GoT tours, PP said it was silly, so managed to maneuver her into a bomb shot as well without her realizing until after it happened.
Lots more swimming and then a quiet dinner before leaving early the following day, as we were checking out, one of the aforesaid antipodeans… I am guessing a retired accounts clerk from the Swan Hill Building Society who lived with her mum until recently and has a face like the proverbial cats axxx…pushed her way to the front of the queue and said “
The towel rail in my bathroom is wobbly and it’s a serious OHS problem” – this is in a country where smoking is compulsory from 13, the last Prime Minister is in prison for murder and corruption no one wears helmets on bikes, motor bikes, you sit on seat belts and the key pastime of 10 year olds is jumping off 15 metre cliffs into a rolling 2 metre swell off rocks…nah a towel rail wobbling doesn’t rate.
Arrived at the airport, flight delayed by an hour..and we are flying a DASH… ooops
But no problem Vicki is being cloned as we are heading to the Aegean Airlines aircraft and I hear – Γεια σας, ευχαριστώ being uttered from the seat next to me.