By David Press on
10/15/2010 3:27 PM
Having been blessed by a week of amazing weather in London, we arrived in Dubrovnik (Croatia) to the sight of grey skies and the threat of rain for the first time on our trip. It took only 24 hours for the rain to appear and dampen our party (ha ha see what I did there?) Thankfully it is still anywhere between 16 and 20 odd degrees even when raining at this time of the year, so we aren't complaining too much.
Dubrovnik certainly lives up to the hype in terms of geographical beauty. The coastal city is hundreds of years old and has long been a holiday destination for Europeans (even the Roman Empire enjoyed the area), but it also has a chequered history of conflict, being remembered infamously for the attack on the city by the Yugoslav Navy and Army in the early nineties. We have had running history lessons from our hostel owners and also a highly educated history boffin from the UK who was staying with us, so we need not buy any books on the matter. The attack and continuous bombing of the UNESCO Heritage Listed “Old City” was a tragedy of the conflict and still pulls at the heart strings of locals and visitors alike. Thankfully the “Old Town” has been almost completely rebuilt back to near original beauty. We came across an older Croatian lady who appeared to be visiting the Old Town for the first time since the conflict. Her emotional state as she walked the walls surrounding the city was something we found quite moving. We are incredibly lucky to have grown up where we did with conflict and wars being something we see on TV and read in the papers.
...