Day 11: Exploring the Old Town

Beth and I got up early and slipped out of our hidden palace, onto the busy main road leading down to the Old City.  The 400 meter downhill walk is on a narrow sidewalk on either side of the street.   It wasn’t busy that early in the morning, but when it’s busy you can practically feel the tour buses rubbing your shoulder as they speed by.   The non descriptive doorway leading to our Oasis feels a little like the door Gene Hackman’s henchman used to enter his lair from the side of a subway tunnel.  I’m just hoping Lex Luther doesn’t press the button to spring us into traffic!

We entered through the Pile gate into the old city - wow.   It was everything I’d expected and more.   The inner city is quite the living city, with tourist points of interest in the center, and residences and even basketball courts near the outer walls.   The main “strip” is called the Stradun and it almost bisects the city in two.  The wide pedestrian boulevard, paved in shiny limestone pavers, actually used to be a canal separating an island and mainland, but eventually the two sides merged and began fortifying the walls to protect from Venetian and Ottoman empires.

I grabbed a cheese burek (like my Mom’s tiropita, but on steroids!) and Beth got a chocolate croissant for breakfast.   We ate while walking, enjoying the peace and quiet of the city before the hordes planned their attack mid morning.

I led us directly through and out of the city into the old city harbour.   The view was nice and I was amazed at the lack of people.   We worked our way along the piers outside the walls, along a narrow pathway that led between the wall and the Adriatic.   

We saw two older people - one woman sunning herself and a man fishing.  It seemed very.... real: local, I guess.   While the old city is very, here’s that word again, touristy, there are flashes of everyday life here that seem to ground the city into reality rather than just a set for Game of Thrones or Star Wars!

We reached the end of the line, so we started to work our way inside, keeping the outer wall to our left.  We wandered in and out of alleys, stepping into nooks and crannies and dead ends.  We saw the insides of a couple of churches that were cool (in temperature) and impressive.   Off this beaten trail we still weren’t encountering many people.   I saw three Germans coming out of a hole in the outer wall with no markings so naturally we went in.   I later read that this was one of two places called “Buza” that offer serene, outer wall atmospheres for a drink.   Luckily, our instincts were good and Beth grabbed a cappuccino and I begrudgingly (not) discovered a legit Belgian Trappist (at 8.3%!) that was amazing (I’m sure it was after 11am in Tokyo).

Onwards.   Our weaving continued.   Eventually we stumbled into what turned out to be an old age home, which was a bit of a surprise!  Everywhere we went on this off the beaten path meander we did see signs for “Apartmen” or “Sobe” which are small B&Bs and hostels respectively.  I wouldn’t want to lug suitcases through those alleyways and up the myriad stairs.

We got back to the Pile gate and decided to head back to the oasis.   The kids were just starting their day, having had breakfast and getting ready to swim - a tough life indeed.   Beth and I went for a swim, and soon, Abby and I were ready to head back down to the Old Town!  I couldn’t get enough.

Sammy was down for a nap, so Steve and Kris joined us.   We decided to take a meandering path behind the university across the street from us that Brian had found.  It had some great views of the old city and was a nice long-cut around the busy street.

The four of us had a great Mexican (yes, Mexican!) lunch and parted ways after the obligatory post meal ice cream that seems to be the way things go here.   I took Abby on a walk, traipsing over some of the ground Beth and I had covered, but working in a lot of the streets between the Stradum and the Sea.   Abby is a great exploratory walker.  Like me, she has two speed settings - fast and take-it-all-in.   Rather than going to places of interest, we both prefer to see whatever we want at our own pace.   She’s my little kindred spirit in that respect.

Abby and I checked out a boat tour that most of the group had indicated they would like to do - a basic loop around the bay outside the walls.  We arranged a boat for the 12 of us and headed back again for a swim.   

At around 430, in a rare pack of 12, we went back down to the old city for our boat ride.   It was basic, wavy, picturesque, must-do, must-not-do-twice.  Lol.   The view of the city was impressive from the harbour, but the most unique, I thought, was the little coastline to the East of the city.... resorts built into the side of the cliff, large sailboats anchored just off shore, cave like cliffs/caverns with little stone stairways leading from the top of the cliff to the bottom of the caverns that had little rocky beaches.

Like a frenetic baseball manager constantly changing his lineups, tonight’s dinner featured the Tyndall 4 and Brian and Melly who had switched off babysitting duties with the other Taylors.   We of course opted for the Indian place that Abby and I had tracked like hounds following the smells of a fresh kill through the alleys on the land side of the Stradum hours prior.  The dinner was fantastic, if a little cramped.  Living in a multicultural city like Toronto, it’s kind of hard to have the same ethnic food all the time, so the dose of Mexican and Indian today was a nice change.

One more hike up the hill and it was time for bed.   What a great first day exploring the old city of Dubrovnik.