Charm lies within Dubrovnik's walls

Not so long ago a city torn by civil war, Dubrovnik, Croatia, has regained its standing as a favorite tourist destination along the Adriatic Sea.

By Kathleen Ochshorn, special to the Times
Published September 16, 2007

Tourists walk along the wall that rings the Old Town section of Dubrovnik, Croatia.
	[AP (2005)]

In recent years, Dubrovnik and nearby Cavtat, with its port full of multimillion-dollar yachts, have become the playground of the rich and famous.

But the area has long had its admirers. In the early 19th century, the poet Lord Byron called Dubrovnik "the pearl of the Adriatic." Playwright George Bernard Shaw once said, "If you want to see heaven on Earth, come to Dubrovnik."

Dubrovnik feels like a pint-sized mixture of Venice and Prague. Like Venice, it is dominated by water and has remarkable architecture and stone streets. Like central Prague, it embraces the West and capitalism, yet it has an eastern European feel. Also like Prague, there's a steady diet of classical music available in the churches and squares.

The city's Old Town is a single pearl, exquisite but tiny, a pedestrian-only district you can walk across in 10 minutes. And walking is a real pleasure. In the evening all ages come out to enjoy the Stradun, the main street lined with late Renaissance houses. Tourists and townsfolk sit in cafes or promenade back and forth, perhaps enjoying a delicious gelato as they stroll. Clusters of teens flirt. Birds flicker and crisscross on the breezes overhead.

Because Dubrovnik is a classy spot, it even attracts classy buskers. We caught one remarkable jazz clarinetist whose smooth notes filled the market square each evening.

From conflict to calm

The city is perched like a red-roofed ruby set within a wall jutting into the Adriatic. Walking the paths on top of the ringed wall is a must. Luckily, my colleague Audrey recommended that I go first thing in the morning and bring plenty of water because the wall can get crowded and hot. The wall was erected in the 16th century and includes several towers and fortresses. It reaches 80 feet in places and provides soaring views of the red-tiled roofs of the city and the sparkling sea.

This beauty belies the area's complicated history and recent conflicts. It has been just 12 years since peace accords were signed to end civil war there.

Dubrovnik is now a frequent destination for cruise ships, whose travelers are carted by bus to the walled city or by water taxi directly into the port of the old town. While this is one way to see the sights, these visitors are stuck wearing a number denoting their tour group and led like sheep by a tour guide, who will stop briefly at monuments and describe them through a portable microphone. These cruise ship folks are often dragged around during the middle of the day, when the stone streets are sizzling hot. And they usually miss the dazzling, breezy evenings in the city, when a walk down the Stradun or dinner on the waterfront can be a piece of heaven.

I'd recommend staying inside the Old Town, which has several lovely hotels, like the elegant, expensive Pucic Palace. Other large hotels are stretched out along the beaches outside the walls. Camping and hostel-style accommodation are also available outside the Old Town. And sometimes residents wait at the bus stop to offer singe-room accommodation in their homes.

The tourist Internet site web.tzdubrovnik.hr has useful links for both hotels and apartments. The tourist office near the Pile Gate may help you find last-minute accommodations too, but I'd book in advance during the summer months (May, June, September and October are the best months to travel to avoid the heat and the crowds).

The office also offers cheap rates for computer use and phone calls home. I enjoyed talking with the young women at the desk who were fascinated that I was from Florida. One woman asked me, "Do the alligators try to get into your house when they're hungry?" and "Who killed Gianni Versace?" For a moment I struggled to remember the fashion designer gunned down in Miami in 1997.

You may be able to rent an apartment directly through the Internet. I simply Googled "apartment in Dubrovnik" and found a list with photos and names for the apartments. We ended up with "Apartment Edith," which belongs to a charming woman, Mrs. Nela Juricev, who lives with her daughter in the summer and rents her apartment. She doesn't accept credit cards and asked us to mail her a money order deposit, something Dubrovnik Tourism, understandably, says not to do. But it worked out fine: She arranged a taxi to pick us up at the airport and then she led us on foot to her place, proudly passing her curious neighbors sipping coffee at Kafeterija Opera in the process.

The flat had one bedroom, a living room-dining room, a small kitchen, a large bath with one of those European washer-dryers, a single machine that does it all but takes a couple of hours. It was 70 euros (about $95) a night in the high season. It also had air conditioning that came in handy a couple of days. The market and waterfront were just a three-minute walk away.

To market with the locals

While most people in Dubrovnik speak English, shopping in the market will put you in contact with some farmers who do not. The sheep's milk cheese was distinguished for me by a "baaaa" bleated by one farmer. On my way to the market early one morning, I strode alongside a woman who appeared to be in her 90s, her face and hands scored by decades in the strong Adriatic sun. She was dressed in a long cotton dress and apron and carried her few wares covered by a cloth in a woven basket. When she set up her goods at a small table in the square, I purchased her delicious homemade goat cheese.

The produce in the market was excellent, with the exception of the necklaces of figs that appeared to be dusted in flour. They looked lovely; perhaps you're supposed to wear them. But they taught me the meaning of the expression "moldy fig."

Dubrovnik is now lined with jewelry, leather goods and clothing shops geared for tourists. Some sell junky T-shirts, but many have worthwhile, inexpensive treats like necklaces and earrings made with Croatian and Italian glass. Fine art galleries and local designer boutiques are also popping up.

The tourist board does try to keep things hopping in the summer with groups of costumed renaissance singers and historical re-enactments, like knights jousting for a fair lady's heart. The singers and actors are surprisingly good and keep the young folk charmed.

Restaurants serve mainly local seafood, with ink-colored squid risotto a particular favorite. Two restaurants with outdoor seating right along the harbor are popular with townsfolk and tourists. Gradskavana, with its elegant Bar Arsenal where soccer will no doubt be shown on the flat-screen TVs, has wonderful seafood and steaks; a delicious dinner for two can run about $40. Next door is Lokanda Peskarija, also good, and cheaper, where seafood is served in a large, black pot. Check out the fine mussels and beer.

Cheap pizza places are becoming popular. Other less successful restaurants compete aggressively for the trade, with teens wielding menus attempting to corral you into their small places in the side streets, especially off the Stradun.

Once the imposing walls of Dubrovnik were built to fend off invaders, but now they beckon the international traveler. Come, they seem to say, and give yourself over to the sensual pace of this Adriatic paradise.

Kathleen Ochshorn teaches English and writing at the University of Tampa, where she also edits fiction for Tampa Review.

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IF YOU GO

Helpful reading

- Time Out: Croatia (2006, $19.95). Portions of the book are also available for free online at www.timeout.com/croatia.

This guide includes a good history of Dubrovnik and listings for accommodations and restaurants in various price ranges.

- An interesting history: Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation by Laura Silber (former Financial Times Balkans correspondent) and Allan Little (TV Books, 1998). This book describes the early years of the fall of Yugoslavia in fascinating detail.

[Last modified September 12, 2007, 15:04:38]