I thumbed the
interior leather flaps of my decidedly sorry-looking wallet despairingly as the
increasingly impatient waiter stood over me. Fortunately, I was able to pay for
my €3 coffee after performing the perpetually tedious task of counting out
copper coins on the table. I may still have been in Croatia, but anything that
could have even been loosely described as a ‘budget’ had long since departed.
No matter, I
thought. After one freezing cold ferry ride, another lengthy bus journey and by
far the trip’s best sunset watched over Bosnia i Herzegovina’s far-flung
fishing village of Neum, I had reached my final destination, and the end of my
trip was nigh.
Dubrovnik,
otherwise known as ‘The Pearl of The Adriatic’, is incontestably Croatia’s main
tourist attraction. So it came as no surprise to find myself but a sprat
amongst the hordes jostling along the Stradun on the afternoon of my arrival.
The
limestone-paved walkway is contained within the city’s famously fortified stone
walls, and teems end-to-end with busy restaurants and stunning architecture. At
its onset, tourists queue unwearyingly for the opportunity to secure those essential
take-home snapshots of Dubrovnik’s oceanfront from the pinnacle of the wall,
while standing imposingly at the opposite end of the concourse is the city’s grand
cathedral.
Much like Split, another
of Croatia’s tourist magnets, Dubrovnik’s old city is encumbered with cobbled
and winding alleyways certain to baffle ambling tourists. These stretches are
themselves littered with souvenir shops, (inevitably) overpriced cafés and art
galleries. I stumbled upon a local artist’s museum-converted house, which
recounted the horror of the Serbian siege upon the city at the start of the
Civil War in 1991 through striking images and short narratives, in an oddly
lighthearted way.
Later that night,
after checking in to my lively abode for the duration of my stay, I met
Darshowa, the owner of the exceptionally well-run and backpacker-friendly
hostel, who, not before revealing to me that he was in fact
uncharacteristically drunk, described in profound detail just how severe and traumatising
the war had been for the Dalmatian people. He pointed solemnly to the sky where
he remembered watching the planes approach before dropping mortars, and then to
an entirely re-constructed section of the city where he took shelter in the
basement of the hotel he used to work in. He stayed there for five days, too
scared to come out. It was evident
through the somber tone in his voice that the pain suffered all those years ago
hadn’t subsided much. In truth, his words were deeply moving, and echoed in my
head as I gazed broodingly at the shimmering city lights.
As a family-run
hostel, everybody had a part to play: Darshowa handled the invoices, Milka
cooked and cleaned, and the sons took guests out on day trips. Luckily, I was
able to bag a spot on one such trip: the following day’s island tour, which,
judging by the photos on display at the hostel, and providing the weather was
on our side, looked certain to be nothing short of epic. I say ‘luckily’ as the
pre-allotted seven places for the excursion had already been filled, and after
some intense pleading with Milka I had been granted my wish.
Next day, eight of
us piled into the KIA people carrier and chatted excitedly as we made our way
to the tiny harbor 5 km away. The weather most definitely was on our side, and
according to Andrija, our guide, was the best in weeks. When our boat for the
day came into view I immediately realized why Milka had at first been so
apprehensive to let me go; there was barely enough room for six, let alone
eight. Conscious of the fact that others may suddenly have become slightly
displeased at the decision to let me tag along, I vacantly offered to lie down
between everybody else’s legs.
This suggestion was instantly rebuffed by
Andrija, who informed me that I would instead be perching atop the bow of the
dinghy-sized carrier. This suited me fine. I was quickly joined by two others
and off we went. The views, for the umpteenth time this holiday, were mesmeric.
Before long, we were weaving our way between completely uninhabited rocky
islands, rich with unspoiled verdure and host to hundreds of birds, weary after
completing one half of their seasonal migration.
Soon, we arrived
at the famed Blue Cave, where at noon the sun’s rays
are able to shine through a submerged side entrance, which in turn illuminates
the entrancing cavern in an eerie and gleaming blueness. Due to the narrowness
of the entrance, the cave can't be entered by boat, so we strapped on our
snorkels (there were only seven and I got one) and paddled in. We had hoped to
see an octopus, due to the supposedly and abnormally high amount of them in the
area, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. We were, however, joined by scores of multi-coloured
fish and a large lobster.
That was about as exciting as it got in terms of marine
life, but the cliff jumping that followed certainly made amends for it. I was
one of the last to go and had been contemplating the possibility of achieving a
front-flip from the 10m high standpoint. Ever since that little kid had showed
me up on the rope swing at Lake Bled I’d been keen to give it a go. This was my
chance.
I still hadn’t made up my mind as I clambered up the
rocks, badly grazing my back and whacking my head in the process. I made it up
and readied myself. I was going to do it, I thought. It was pitiful. Rather
than rotating forwards I ended up spinning sideways and landing on my back,
legs akimbo. Suitably embarrassed, I quietly paddled away from the splash zone
and joined the others, where we looked on in awe as the ever-zealous Kiwi
leaped from a staggering height of 18m. Crikey.
We spent the rest of the afternoon chomping on freshly
caught fish and lounging in the sun on the first sandy beach of the holiday,
before slowly making our way back to shore under yet another golden sunset.
Then we went back to the hostel and got absolutely smashed. What else would you
expect from a group consisting solely of Brits, Aussies and Kiwis?
The next day was spent for the most part reading a book in
a café overlooking the city’s harbor (I’d become quite accustomed to such views
by this point and the loveliness of it all had waned slightly). I’d completely
run out of money and in truth I was spent. Dubrovnik may have deprived me of my
last penny and shred of energy, but the cherished memories it had given back in
return were infinitely better to take home.