Wednesday – Hvar, Croatia
Hvar Town is at the NW end of the long island of Hvar that seems to
point down the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia. A matter of fact, we saw
our first Dalmatian as soon as we stepped off the tender. It looked a
bit different from the ones at home. As I mentioned in my previous
entry, Hvar is billed as, "the sunniest place in Croatia." It was
cloudless yesterday all day (go figure), and it was also pretty hot.
Hvar is a small resort town where many sea side cafes cater to those
who feel that an authentic Croatian seaside meal consists of a Mojito
and a slice of Pizza. A matter of fact, no restaurant we saw offered
anything other than menus that began with that drink and food choices
and then went all the way down to Magarita's and Hamburgers.
Other than that, the town was wonderfully atmospheric, and had a
lovely fort to climb to that provided a nice view of the harbor and
Silver Wind anchored majestically. We returned to the ship for a late
lunch (beer and a tuna sandwich, oddly enough), and I spent the
afternoon reclining at the stern of the ship and viewing the nearby
island which was said to be a nude beach area. Of course, my 7x30
travel binoculars coupled with the small amount of vibration of the
ship's engine led me only to believe that a number of people on that
little island must just have very pink colored bathing suits. A number
of the other guests, however, asked to borrow my binoculars. Perverts!
Thursday – Dubrovnik, Croatia
Dubrovnik is a World Heritage Site walled city that was partially
reduced to rubble by the Serbs in the mid-1990s. I visited Dubrovnik
twice during a cruise on Silver Wind in 2004. It was hot and crowded
then, a number of interesting churches and museums were free to visit,
and you could walk the portion of the town wall that had survived the
artillery shells from a number of locations around the city for free.
Today, Dubrovnik was hot and crowded, there was a greater of
interesting churches and museums that charged $5 to $15 each to visit,
and you could walk the entire town wall which has been repaired and
restored to better for accommodating tourists who are willing to pay
$15 each to walk the entire wall around the actually beautiful town.
And for paying $18 you can take the brand new cable car up almost
2,000 feet above the city and take pictures and have a beer. We did,
we did, we did, and we did. We saw more Dalmatians and a pilgrim with
a cell phone. We also discovered that the locals play a very strange
version of Basketball. You learn a lot by traveling.
So, what does Dubrovnik and Ketchikan have in common? Well, apparently
men in little souvenir shops who greet you warmly and then give you a
long religious sermon about the commonality of all religions but
explain at great length that theirs (oddly enough the same one) is
based on God's word while all the others are well meaning but not so
based and actually dead wrong. A different salesman in the small gift
shop adjacent to the recently restored synagogue, said to be the 2nd
oldest in Europe, explained that an elaborate 6 inch door hanging that
incorporated two rams' heads, some somewhat Arabic lettering, and a
blue eye symbol was an authentic Jewish Croatian design, made in
Dubrovnik. I asked him the purpose of it. He said it was to ward off
evil for the Jews. I asked him how that worked out for them here.
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