We’ve been slowly working our way down the map as our invasion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire comes to an end, trying to hold on to warmer weather even as the sun continues its annual migration to Africa, and the days shorten.
At times we’ve felt a bit like migrants too; other than Vienna, we’ve not spent more than three nights in the same place. Thirty nights; twelve different accommodations. We’ve travelled by plane, train, bus, car, bicycle, car ferry and catamaran, plus a lot of walking. Last night there was a thunderstorm, and I could hear raindrops falling on the awning below our window. So we’re starting to think about home again.
The Alpine Swifts have also been migrating; I could hear their distinctive call high overhead when we were at dinner, a call the Merlin app describes as “an extremely shrill, chittering scream.” The swifts seem to prefer the light at dusk, and when I leaned back from our table and looked straight up, I could see them darting and criss-crossing through the evening sky.
The catamaran from Korčula had dropped us at the Dubrovnik docks, and we took an Uber cab to Pile Gate, the main (western) point of entry to the old walled city. We’d booked an AirBNB apartment tucked into the old city’s south-eastern corner, which turned out to have windows with white shutters looking out on the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and a café / restaurant conveniently located just below.
Tourism in Dubrovnik
During the day the streets within the old town of Dubrovnik are filled with tourists, and it’s only later in the day that the city starts to feel like a place where people live. Even at this late stage in the tourist season, it was shocking to me to see just how inundated Dubrovnik can be by tourists. If you stand, mid-morning, just outside the Pile Gate, you’ll see a solid line of buses snaking up Ulica Iza Grada, slowly inching downhill to the point where they can disgorge their hordes. And if you stand still at any point within the old walled city during the day, you’ll quickly lose count of the tour groups as they pass by in what seems like an endless parade.
Each group has their leader with his or her “baton”, something that their followers can focus on as they follow dutifully along the route: a furled umbrella; an extendable wand topped with tiny flags; or, most often, what looks like an oversized ping-pong paddle, with a label identifying the cruise line and the specific shore group: “Viking Jupiter 25”; “Norwegian 23”; etc. When you see this, you think: “My god! So if this is shore group 25, there must be at least 24 other such groups in town!” Everyone in each group wears a small device around their neck, hanging from a lanyard, and an earpiece so that they can hear their guide’s narration.
One web site I found listed every cruise ship expected in Dubrovnik in the coming days. On the day I looked, it said that two cruise ships were arriving the following day, with a total of 4,880 passengers; and on October 19th, four cruise ships, with a stunning 10,799 passengers between them. And this at what is supposedly the end of the tourist season. The population of Dubrovnik itself is only 28,428, so you can imagine the effect. Thank goodness J&I won’t be here for that.
To satisfy the needs of this near-infinite supply of tourists, the souvenir shops of Dubrovnik offer a near-infinite supply of souvenirs; here is a small selection of the items on offer, from the very tacky to the slightly less tacky:
Fans of Game of Thrones will know that a number of key scenes from the series were filmed in Dubrovnik, others in Split. For the most part Dubrovnik played King’s Landing; when your story is set in a medieval-like walled city by the sea, you can’t do better than Dubrovnik. As a result, Game of Thrones references are found everywhere, and I counted no less than three full-sized replicas of the Iron Throne. Souvenirs of the series are easily found in the shops of Dubrovnik, so if you want a miniature version of the Iron Throne, or a 16GB USB flash drive shaped like Daenerys, Dubrovnik is where you’ll find it.
In the afternoon and evening, when the tour buses have vacuumed up all the cruise ship passengers and returned them to their staterooms, Dubrovnik begins to catch its breath; it feels like a lived-in city once again, rather that a walled-in shopping mall. The streets at night have room for people to manoeuvre, and the pavement gleams from the constant polishing by tourist feet. From our café table at Amoret we watched the local children come and go; a circular portal across from us is a favorite spot to play.
Out and about in Dubrovnik
There’s no denying that, despite the hordes of tourists, Dubrovnik is a very photogenic place. Here are a couple of galleries of photos taken during our wanderings in and around the city over the past few days.
Inside the walls
Dubrovnik has an abundance of churches, in almost every denomination, as some of the following pictures show.
As you walk around the city you’ll find reminders of the bombardment of Dubrovnik just over thirty years ago during the Croatian War of Independence. The city was shelled by forces from the Yugoslav National Army and there was significant loss of life, and considerable damage to historic structures such as the library and cloister of the Franciscan friary.
Outside the walls
Our wanderings outside the city’s walls were guided, to a certain extent, by an assignment given to us by D, a Vancouver friend, who had spent some time in Dubrovnik in his youth. He’d asked if we might find time to revisit a few of his old haunts, so that he could get a sense of how things had changed in the intervening years.
Vita peregrinatio
Our invasion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is nearly at an end. Our return flight from Dubrovnik leaves at some unholy hour in the morning. It’s been a wonderful adventure, which we’ll reflect upon for quite some time.
What do you do when you come to the end of an adventure? Part of you starts thinking about home, of course, but another part of you starts thinking about the next adventure, because we always hope that there’s another one down the road. A favourite quote from Jack Kerouac comes to mind:
Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don’t be sorry.
from Desolation Angels
Thanks for following along and sharing in our journey.
Danube to Dalmatia 
Safe travels home. I loved following along. Can’t wait until your next adventure! xo
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Thanks so much for sharing your adventures!
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It’s been great to live it all vicariously. I’m in awe of your planning skills and your adventurous spirit.
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