Dubrovnik will go down as one of my favorite cities ever!
Going up to Mount Srd sounded very tempting for a great view, but luckily we were taken to a lookout spot to get some great pictures. So it saved me around 100 krona. Plus there is a cable car to get up to the top. I am not really a fan of cable cars. Des if you are reading this, remember that crazy cable car ride in Singapore? Between that and Santorini, I have had enough.
Most of the day was just roaming around the Old Town. In the show Game of Thrones, the city is used as King's Landing, well a photo-shopped version. It goes down as one of the best Old Town's I have seen. I was able to see the Cathedral, which reminds me last night Sonia and I came across what appeared to be an Orthodox church while some sort of service was going on. I was also able to see the Synagogue and Museum, which were located on ˝Jewish Street.˝ Just like in Split, Jewish people migrated there during the Inquisition. Dubrovnik has the second-oldest continuously functioning synagogue after Prague. I am trying to remember if I went there or not when I was in Prague. The museum had some nice pieces among them a 14th-century Torah roll that came from Spain.
One goal I had was to walk the City Walls. There were some amazing views of the water and the city. It was a nice, sunny day. I would hate to attempt to walk it when it was raining because I imagine it would be pretty slick.
I saw some pictures of the soldiers who died while defending the city from Serbian and Montenegrin attackers in the early 90's. It made my heart ache. The men were so young. Some the age I am now. Others born in the same year as I and killed in 91. It is like we were the same age, and I was in my senior year of high school dreaming of getting out of Moses Lake, and they were defending their homeland and killed in duty. And they would have been 40 this year. During the walking tour of the city, our guide was saying how his parents harbor some deep feelings against Serbians and that they would never go to Serbia, while he had no problems going there.
Sonia and I parted for a short while as she shopped, and I went to sit by the water and think about some things. While I was walking to these rocks, I rounded a corner in time to see an older, overweight, European guy in a Speedo do a cannon ball into the sea. He then created a major splash that hit the guy who was innocently sitting there trying to enjoy the sun. My eyes are still traumatized by what I saw. I just do not think men and Speedos mix together very well. I saw a person who may or may not have been the same person later walking around with no shame with his shirt pulled over his belly and in offending Speedos, searching for a place to dry off. Have you no decency man!
Anyway I settled on the rocks by the water for 90 minutes or so thinking and writing and reading. I plan on doing this a lot in Venice. I normally have a State of LTB reflection time during my trip so this is a good start. There were some local guys behind me. One of them came up and asked me where I was from and wanted to take a picture with me. Then another of them came up and told me if I needed help finding anyplace he could help me. Keep this in mind for later in my post.
I went to a cafe to get some water and use the toilet and the guy working there asked me where I was from. When I said Seattle, he got super excited. He was like I know Seattle. Super Sonics! He then went on for a few minutes how much he liked Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp. He asked me if I had ever seen them in the city so I told him about the time I saw Shawn Kemp at a party. This was actually a scary moment in my life because he was standing in the shadows so I did not see him right away. I kind of felt someone behind me and almost screamed when I saw a big guy coming out of shadows. But I digress.
One of my travel mates loaned me a book called the Best American Travel Writing. One of the stories was called A Moving Experience. It talked about making connections with people. As people share their travel adventures, they are sharing a highlight reel. They sell their trip on what was good about it. Unless they are going for another angle, which is saying how horrible it was. So for me for example. I have traveled with friends, on my own, and on my own with a tour group. When on my own, I may not mention the times of loneliness I may feel while being on my own for two weeks with limited contact. With tours, I can sometimes hangout with other tour mates. So this is why making those connections are so important. So for example, when I was in Santorini, I went into this store to buy some water. Since I tend to be more open and friendly when traveling, I gave the guy a big smile and and said hi to him. He then refused to take my money and was like with a smile like that, you do not pay. A small connection.
So after I met back up with Sonia, we were walking back into the Old City to try to find a restaurant. This guy stopped me and was like where you sitting by the rocks earlier. I was like, uh...yeah. Then he was like and there were all these guys behind you. I was like yeah. He was like I saw you. I was on the wall, and I was jealous of those guys. He then asked me if I would go on a date with him. I was kind of like huh. The rest of the conversation was a blur. I ended up saying no, which I think was the right thing to do, but now I am starting to think why not.
My more practical side says he is a local who probably hangs out picking up women traveling through the city because some people travel and have a good time. The other part of me is like why not have gone out to coffee with the guy and just accepted it for what it was at that moment. Because to be honest, I am not sure what I would have been signing up for or what he was expecting or what his agenda was. And maybe there was no agenda just an interest in someone he found attractive. So what do you think? Should I have said yes? He was cute. Probably late 40's. Meanwhile in Seattle, I cannot get a date to save my life.
To quote Molly Ringwald as Samantha in Sixteen Candles, ˝Unbelievable. Donger's here for five hours, and he's got somebody. I live here my whole life, and I'm like a disease.˝
Oh. Sonia and I ended up going to the New Harbor again and walking some more. Then we had dinner.
No comments:
Post a Comment