Dubrovnik #2of2

The stores were filled with pleasant and expensive goods — dresses, jewelry, and other goodies for the tourist — and the streets were crowded store to store with people.

While Emmy was inside a store, I noticed a commotion and watched while the Dubrovnik crowd parted as if Moses was there with his staff. A lady was walking down the street, a beautiful smiling lady, dressed nicely, not showy, and the crowd just melted out of her way, as if in awe. She must have been recognized as someone famous, a celebrity, but no one tried to talk to her or approach her in anyway. I could find no one who spoke English, who could tell me who she was.

We left the old walled city intending to catch a bus back to where the RV was parked. There were crowds of people pushing to get on the bus, so we decided to take a taxi instead. The cab barely moved a few blocks in the heavy Dubrovnik traffic, so we finally got out and walked the rest of the way to our “Tour Bus” parking space, near the bus station.

During our visit a few years later, as we walked on top of the huge, wide, very high city wall, the wind blew off Emmy’s blue sun-visor (I had purchased two blue sun-visors in Athens, and lost mine in the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.) I walked a long distance, and climbed flight after flight of stairs before I found the visor at the base of the wall. It is still in use, to this day.

That morning a town square had been filled with fruit and vegetable vendors. Soon after lunch the merchants had left, street sweepers had cleaned up the clutter, garbage trucks had carried off the debris, the market area had been hosed down and freshened — tasks performed rapidly and well. Now tables and chairs were put in place, and several of Dubrovnik’s sidewalk cafes were open for business. A transformation carried out uncounted thousands of times over the centuries

During the 1990s war between the Serbs and the Croatians, Dubrovnik was bombarded, with extensive damage. Since then, the cultural and historic heritage of Dubrovnik has been mostly restored. The huge beautiful wall was built to protect from foot soldiers, not from a projectile propelled over the wall. It provided no protection from heavy shells from cannon, or bombs from airplanes, but the wall itself survived.