Croatia/Italy Day 1(ish)

I’m counting today as my first day in Croatia. I did arrive yesterday, Wednesday March 21, but all I did was travel.

The trip to Croatia was one of the longer I have had to do. From the time I left my house to the time I got to my hotel, I had been traveling over 24 hours. The flight from Boston to London was a red-eye, on which I got almost no sleep. A three hour layover in London followed by an almost two hour flight to Zagreb, where we had to abort our first landing due to heavy winds (more on this later). A final flight from Zagreb to Dubrovnik, where my checked-bag actually made it, a short argument with the rental company about insurance and a thirty minute drive to get to my hotel. Which, by the way, sits on a road about 6 inches above sea level.

I was so exhausted by the end, I only dozed on my flights, that I skipped dinner and passed out around 8pm.

Now back to the winds. Apparently, I decided to arrive during some sort of storm. The day I arrived the entire country was experiencing winds up to around 30mph. The area around Zagreb looks like it is also experiencing flooding, I could see towns from the air nearly surrounded by water. Throughout yesterday and all of today the winds have kept up. The trees outside my window are constantly moving in the heavy winds. This would be bad enough but mostly annoying, yet it decided to rain all today. With the winds, this means that the rain isn’t just coming down it’s coming sideways and crossways and I think it came up a few times!

Knowing what the weather was doing outside, I took my time getting ready in the morning. Breakfast was a sparse affair, there were only two of us in the dining room. The agent at the front desk was very helpful and not only got me a pass for several of the museums but also excellent directions for the bus! Now, one of the reasons I chose my current hotel, Hotel Lapad, was because of reviews I had read that the bus could be taken easily from near the hotel.

When I arrived at the Old City of Dubrovnik I realized that my hotel was somewhat shielded from the worst of the winds. When passing by a break between two buildings I found out just how strong the winds were and any thoughts of using my umbrella all day were thrust out of my mind forcefully! By the end of the day I had passed by countless broken umbrellas and the garbage bins were full of them.

The Old City is completely enclosed by some impressive walls. I entered through the Pile Gates, which I have heard can have a queue at them to get into the city at peak season; no thank you.

These gates lead to the Big Onofrio’s Fountain, not to be confused with the small one because it really does exist. During the hot months this is a popular spot to stop and cool off. Today, not really much chance of anyone wanting or needing to cool off; not with the winds trying to blow you back through the gates!

Just out of sight from the above view was my first indoor stop; a Franciscan Monastery and home to the third oldest continually operated pharmacy in the world.

There may have been some signs concerning photography but I assume those only applied to photos taken in the pharmacy.

You really can’t explore the monastery with the exception of the cloister and pharmacy museum. I believe it still functions as a monastery. The cloisters were moderately ornate compared to some I have seen but they had a big advantage as I was not getting rained on or blown around. The museum, of course, did not allow photography. A few interesting items stood out for me. First there is a painting of Jesus where they have X-rayed it and found that it was painted over an image of Mary with baby Jesus. When you look close you can see the edge where adult Jesus was painted in. No idea why this was done, maybe someone was lazy. Another interesting feature was a hole in the wall that they will not repair where a missile came through the ceiling and lodged in the wall during the Homeland War, 1991-1992. The final item are the remnants of the missile that hit the monastery.

With the card I purchased at the hotel I had access to a group of museums and since it was a lousy day to be outside I decided to hit as many of the others as I could.

My next stop was the Ethnographic museum. This is where I realized, again, that I really need to exercise a whole lot more. The walk up to the museum was not particularly hard but it did involve up, which I am opposed to. Once I caught my breath I was able to wander through a museum about local life with around 40 school kids who did not want to be there. Lucky for them I don’t think there teachers wanted to be there any longer than the had to either. Aside from an exhibit on the practice of medicine through the ages, the museum was fairly light on detail and context for most of the museum items.

Next I headed to the Natural History Museum. This was the strangest natural history museum I have ever been to. The main stairwell was dedicated solely to the history of the museum with the displays painted in bright colors and on objects, like plates, that have nothing to do with natural history as far as I can tell. I think the museum is supposed to be oriented to kids, with all it’s painted shapes and varied coloring; it definitely doesn’t come across as stuffy as some natural history museums.

Since I had not had much to eat for breakfast I was getting pretty hungry by this time. I wandered of to one of the side streets hoping to find a reasonably priced restaurant to eat at. I found and Irish pub. One of two in Dubrovnik! They had a strange mix of Irish and Croatian dishes but it was pretty crowded so I took that as a good sign.

Lunch was an extended affair thanks to a large group of Italian teenagers whom sat down just before I arrived. There was a delightful breeze that would run through the place every time someone opened a door I couldn’t see and every time someone opened the door I could see they would be greeted with jeers from the shivering teens. I kept my coat on through lunch, thank you packable down. I had some pork dish with some really great risotto as the side. The risotto had a lighter cheese sauce than I am used to and went really well with the pork. The one Coke I got was waaaaaaay over priced at around $4 for one small bottle.

I’m guessing that lunch ended about two hours after it began, again lots of Italian teens had placed their orders just before mine. So, after mentally preparing, I headed out into the wind and rain once more. The next museum was supposed to be the Rectors Palace but this is apparently closed all winter, yippee. Instead the next museum was the Maritime Museum.

This museum was pretty interesting as I am used to New England museums that focus a bit more on the whaling history. Also, Dubrovnik as a trading port was in direct competition with Venice during its height of power. They had some interesting models of ship types that would have used the port.

As well as being located in one of the defensive forts that make up the walls of the city.

It was actually their shipping industry that helped the town reconstruct after the shelling during the Homeland War. Still the museum could use some more help as there were multiple towels and buckets to collect the water seeping through the walls.

I next wandered up to the Dominican Monastery and I had to take a picture of the railing leading up to it. The railing was ornately done but after it was completed some of the young men in town would come to watch the young ladies walk up the steps to church for a chance to see their ankles. To combat this, the monks redid the railing with a rather hideous ankle guard.

The cloister here was a bit more spartan than the Franciscan but the garden space was a bit larger.

At this point I was getting pretty cold in addition to being wet so I headed back to the bus for a ride back to the hotel. I think there were even fewer people on the way out than when I first arrived so I probably wasn’t the only one giving up.