I find the history of the Balkans overwhelming. The recent history in itself is a tangled web of disturbing conflict, cleansing and horrors that I struggle to imagine as being part of our world today. And yet, there it was, within the last twenty years. Plus, you've got the thousand years prior from whence it all comes to work through; it makes my head spin.
This is the area we toured this summer and I am finding it quite difficult to write about. Mostly because I would like to blather on about how lovely it all was and what a nice time we all had. As with so many places we have been, it feels wrong to be enjoying a holiday in a place that has seen so much strife and conflict. The fact that we have chosen to go to Israel for Christmas makes me shake my head. I'm thinking maybe we should go to Switzerland, just so I can post smiling happy photos and not have the slightest bit of guilt about it all.
But, as a wise friend pointed out to me, summer is long over. It's time to move on. So, move on we shall. I will abandon all attempts to wrap my holiday photos in history and just get it out there.
Let us begin our light-hearted romp with this charming gargoyle. Apparently, he grants wishes.
You will find him in Dubrovnik just to the left of the Pile Gate as you enter Old Town. He is located on the Franciscan Monastery wall. Technically, he is the end of the rainfall drainage system. Ignoble, for one so powerful, I think. But the story is that the face waits and listens: Whoever can climb this stone, take off and put back ones shirt while balancing on the stone, will have his wish granted!
One imagines this is the sort of story an 18-year old boy tells his girlfriend. We did not see anyone actually manage the shirt trick, but there were several successful attempts to summit the stone, these two among them.
Did their little wishes get granted? Given that they generally wish for things like ice cream and candy, which we tend to distribute with a larger degree of generosity than usual when we are traveling, one assumes yes.
I'll leave you with some views of the harbor and rectory. While the idea of writing another word about the city leaves me limp with disinterest, maybe we can all pretend that the following photos represent something like another three thousand words and leave it at that?
In summary, Dubrovnik: incredibly beautiful, a bit crowded during the summer season, but well worth a visit.
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