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Saturday, August 14, 2010

Day 47: Dubrovnik, Croatia - A Magical Little Place


Old city in Dubrovnik.

I asked my host what I should do in Dubrovnik. He said I should go to the old city and "stay a little while." With a population of only 43,000, at any given moment there are probably 5x as many tourists in Dubrovnik than residents, and almost all of them are concentrated in the old city. No matter, it's still a wonderful little spot on the Adriatic coast.
 

More old city.

After wandering around and seeing the city during the day, I elected to walk around the city walls, an activity my host insisted I should not miss. He was right. Dubrovnik's old city from up above offers wonderful views, especially since all buildings adhere to uniform building codes. I stopped at a seafood restaurant by the harbor and ate what must have been a cauldron-sized portion of black squid risotto.


Old city from the walls.


Old city harbor.

In the afternoon, I burned off some of my lunch by visiting the old Dominican Monastery, which doubles as an art museum. It wasn't spectacular, but was nice nonetheless. The setting of the monastery was probably prettier than any of the pieces of art it held.


Dominican Monastery.

In a way, Dubrovnik, and maybe Croatia in general, feels like a bizarro version of Italy. The two countries are even shaped similarly. Croatia has adopted an Italian menu, many of its tourist sites are Italian/Roman in theme, and of course they share the same sea. The only Eastern European sensibility the Croats have adamantly adhered to is portion size for food. I'm eager to discover what is endemically Croatian.

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