Every time we came to Dubrovnik, there was a different adventure. Today, we walked the walls. If you've watched any of Game of Thrones, you will recognize much of what you see.
The wall costs about $20 to walk around, and it will likely take you over an hour to walk around the whole city, but it's well worth your time and energy.
In the next picture, I've walked up to where Maegor's Holdfast should be, and turned around to look at the cove outside the Nautica restaurant where many other scenes were filmed.
Overlooking the Adriatic with Lokrum Island in the background.
Heh heh heh, 100 points.
Obligatory shot of Jennifer's- I mean, of the ship.
Don't jump, man.
My Super-Friends
Sometimes the wall is narrow, and sometimes you can play soccer.
Expanding to fill the space allotted to you.
She was born to point and shout orders.
This happened all the time.
Soraia, Dubrovnik, and Lokrum Island
Looking down on Dubrovnik's main street.
Next time: Crna Gora! What? That's Montenegro in their own language. Oh...
Growing up Yugoslavian in America wasn't an easy experience for me at first. I remember encountering other children for the first time in preschool, and none of them would be friends with me because my name was weird. I didn't understand. I was born in California, my mother is Mexican, I speak English, and I understand Spanish. So your names are John, Michael, and Amanda, and my name is Zoran Duke Rausavljevich. How am I different? Regardless, preschool was where I learned that I come from a far away place. Not just any far away place, but a far away place of unpronounceable last names.
I wanted to go there in the early nineties, but a quick google search will tell you that that was not a very safe idea. Suddenly, I wasn't Yugoslavian anymore. I was Serbian. Supposedly, I had always been Serbian but no one every bothered mentioning it until now. Well, whatever I was, my plans to visit my ancestral homeland had been put on hold, indefinitely.
Then finally, twenty years later, things were calmer in the Balkans, and this dream job came along. There wasn't really any thinking involved for me. I signed, and off I went.
And here we are:
Saturday, May 4 Dubrovnik, Croatia
I have hundred of pictures of Dubrovnik, and I have lots of video footage. We came here about 15 times, and there's a whole lot that the city has to offer. So, I will break up Dubrovnik into several posts, so if you follow the blog, you'll eventually get a comprehensive view of the city, and all that it has to offer. One of the big draws for me is that Dubrovnik is where all the King's Landing scenes in Game of Thrones are filmed. In fact, during one of the days we were here, you could see them filming season four up on the walls, and all the Croatian flags of the city had been taken down and replaced with the Lion of Lannister. But that's all for another post. Today, we'll cover all the main cultural sites within the Medieval city via a 2-hour walking tour. Rather than post a bunch of pictures, I threw almost all of them into this video, and I set it to an arrangement of "Se" from my favorite movie, Cinema Paradiso. I did this because as I was walking along the street in Dubrovnik, I heard this song being played on guitar, so I followed it to a man named Nemanja Bogunović, who was selling his CDs. His CD "The Soundtrack" was the first CD I had ever bought on a street before. Anyway, it turns out that he's Serbian too, and we became friends. Please check out his stuff at his website: http://www.nemanjabogunovic.com/ and enjoy my video of Dubrovnik.
Tour Notes
Description: Discover the Medieval charms of Old Dubrovnik during a memorable guided walking tour through this historic city. Depart the pier for the scenic, approximately 30-minute drive to Old Dubrovnik. Upon arrival at the Pile Gate, leave the coach behind and commence your walking tour of the city with a stroll down the Stradun. (Lucky for us, we came to Dubrovnik about 15 times, and every time except twice, we took the tenders directly into the old town port. No shuttle needed whatsoever!) Dominican Monastery and Cathedral Along the way, a visit is made to the Dominican Monastery and Cathedral. Inside, discover the finest collection of Renaissance paintings in Dubrovnik. Among the many works by local and Italian masters is a pointing by Tizian. the cathedral is built on the remains of the original, 12th-century church that was destroyed by a disastrous earthquake in 1667. Today, its Treasury contains one of the finest collections of gold and silver artifacts in Europe. City Highlights Some of the other buildings to be viewed from the outside are the Sponza Palace, noted for its column courtyard with elaborate stone carvings, the Rector's Palace, Maritime Museum, Church of Saint Blaise, and Onofriou's Fountain. Following your walking tour, you may opt to re-board the coach and return directly to the ship, or remain in town for further exploration and shopping, and return via the shuttle at your leisure.
Sunday, May 5, 2013 Zadar, Croatia
When your ship pulls up to the quay in Zadar, the first thing you notice is a giant circular solar panel on the ground. The discerning eye might also pick up the smaller circles next to it. This is the Zadar Sun Salutation. The giant circle is obviously the Sun, and the little circles are the other planets. The placement of the planets is done to scale. In my picture, you can barely see earth, but you can clearly see Jupiter in the corner. Unfortunately, since we were never here at night time, we couldn't see what the Sun Salutation does at night time. But, I've done the google image search already for you. So, after collecting energy all day, it does this at night: Sun Salutation at Night in Zadar.
But that's not the only peculiar thing that greets you as soon as you get off the ship in Zadar. Someone built an organ that is bother powered and played by the sea! You know what? I'm just going to show you the video.
The video was shot on Thursday, September 12, 2013. We came to Zadar only a few times, but the organ was being cleaned when we first were visiting Zadar. So, I was very happy in September when it was finally put back together, and we all got to experience it for the first, and only time.
The combination of the September video, and my pictures from the walking tour on May 5 will make this my only post on Zadar, Croatia.
This time, I'll put the tour notes up front.
Description: Discover the Medieval treasure of Zadar during this memorable guided stroll through the city's Old Town. Depart the pier on foot and commence your guided walking
tour of Zadar. The city walls of Zadar attest to its long history of
warding off would-be conquerors and rulers, including the Venetians and
the Turks. Upon entering the heart of the Old Town, explore the
highlights of this magnificent city. Cathedral of St. Anastasia Your
first stop is a visit to the Cathedral of St. Anastasia, the finest
example of Romanesque architecture in Zadar. The cathedral was built
during the 12th and 13th centuries on the site of an early Christian
basilica. It is dedicated to St. Anastasia, whose stone sarcophagus is
located in the apse to the left of the high altar. Church of St. Donatus Further
along, pass by the Church of St. Donatus, believed to hae been built by
Bishop Donatus on Roman Foundations at the beginning of the 9th
century. T/his is the most monumental church on the Eastern Adriatic,
and features a round shape with three naves. St. Mary Church To the
east of the Forum is the 16th-century St. Mary Church, which features a
Romanesque bell-tower built at the beginning of the 12th century by the
Hungarian-Croatian King Koloman. On the upper floor of the convent,
there are public rooms containing a collection of goldsmiths' work,
relics and other valuable artifacts. Following your guided walking
tour, some free time is made available to explore the Old Town at your
leisure before returning to the pier on foot.
The Church of St. Donatus
Pointy Thing.
Weird Al's family, perhaps?
The Cathedral of St. Anastasia
Okay, I have to interrupt this lovely flow of random pictures to talk about this next one. You are looking at a picture of Alfred Hitchcock, obviously. So, naturally when the tour guide stops here to talk about him and his connection to this place, you start to imagine, "Oh, maybe he's originally from here, or perhaps his mother and father were from here, or Oh! Maybe he shots some films here!" And then you start looking around trying to think of which scene from which film.
But then the tour guide opens her mouth, and you discover that the local hotel's claim to fame is that Alfred Hitchcock did indeed stay there, once.
OMFG. LAME!
Well, everyone has to have something to be proud about, I guess.
After the tour, I went out in search of a locksmith. We needed some keys copied. Enough said. This required me to get out of the old medieval town and start looking around. Needless to say things changed drastically once I left the little medieval Island.
I actually really like this graffiti.
Jesus the Christ bridges the gap in any language.
At first, walking down streets like this was culture shock. I was definitely shocked on this day. Well, I don't know what I expected. But after traveling extensively throughout most of Europe, I can look at this and say, "Well done." Instead of asking, "OMG, how can anyone live there," I now wonder, "Do they have hot water? What's their heating like? Radiators? Blankets? How much is the electricity here."
It doesn't take much at all in life to be happy when your heart and mind are in the right place.
So anyway, I eventually found the locksmith! But it was Sunday, and he was closed.
So, I went back to the medieval city and chased cats.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013 Dubrovnik, Croatia
Yes! Welcome back to Dubrovnik! Today, my goal was to find the amazing incredible best thing to eat in this area, drum roll please...
Chevapchichi!
Sometimes we just call them Chevaps for short.
The best combination of chevaps and wifi can be found at the Taj Mahal restaurant, which we went to almost EVERY time we were here.
What are chevaps? Picture a sausage, without the casing, and much much much much better.
Usually served with bread, butter, and garlic.
Thursday, May 9, 2013 Hvar, Croatia
The Island of Hvar is considered to be one of the ten most beautiful Islands in the world.
And I get to be there with Soraia, one of the ten most beautiful women in the world.
But, today we wouldn't get to see much of its beauty. We had a lot to do today, so we stayed mostly on the ship. But at night time we went out. Hvar is famous for its night life, in that way it's similar to Ibiza, Spain. Unfortunately for us, it was still off season, and this was one of the only places we found open.
Hey guys! It's the crew bar all over again! :-/
Something incredible did happen that night though. My friend Rachel bought me my first shot of Absinthe.
And then it was back to the ship--No! Wait! What's this? Hvar has city wide free hi speed wifi?
So, I pulled up a chair next to an outlet and a closed restaurant, and used the internet until morning. This was the spot I listened to my first live episode of Talkin Toons with Rob Paulsen, the voice of Yakko Warner, Raphael, Pinky, and many other of my favorite cartoon characters. You can discover more about that here: http://robpaulsenlive.com/
Next Time: Dubrovnik!Wait, what? Again?Yes, but this time we're walking around the city walls where Game of Thrones is filmed.Ooooh, okay. Please tune in to my next post where I continue to talk with myself.
It's impossible to do a google search of Mt. Vesuvius without seeing links to Pompeii. But obviously, the eruption was so big, that other cities were destroyed right? Correct! So, what is the big deal about Pompeii? Well, two words, maybe three: preservation, and dead people. All the mud and ash that flew out of Mt. Vesuvius covered the nearby cities, preserving everything in its place just as if a photograph was being taken. In the case of Pompeii, the original excavators, when digging, realized that the cavities in the mud they were digging out of, were in fact the remains of humans frozen into position, so they filled the cavities with plaster, dug around them, and made plaster statues of the people in their final positions. It's both morbid and really cool.
Herculaneum Panorama
So, what's the deal with Herculaneum? There are no bodies here. If there were, they were all taken out and moved to the museum in Naples. In a way, this unfortunately makes this the place where people go if they have already seen Pompeii. I'm here to tell you that it shouldn't be this way. After seeing both places, I prefer Herculaneum, not only because it was named after Hercules, but also because it's smaller, and better preserved in my opinion. In other words...ruins are cool in all, but after a certain point you feel like you've seen it all, and here you get done quicker.
"But, I want to see dead people!"
News flash, even the bodies in Pompeii have now been moved to the museum in Naples, so you will be comparing ruins with ruins. So, since there are relatively few bodies left to look at in Pompeii, I suggest you visit Herculaneum instead, IF you have to choose between the two. Or, you know what? Why don't you just go to the museum in Naples?
Anyway, here are my pictures from that day.
Crossing the bridge into the city and looking left.
Looking right. You can see how much they dug to uncover this place.
Let's start with all the outdoor shots.
Let's start with the picture that proves I went here!
It looks surprisingly modern (by current Greek standards)
Ancient Door, modern man.
Evidence of sliding door technology.
Well, this is ancient. Well. I mean, it's a well.
The deadly mud really filled in every crevasse.
My favorite shot. It gives me the feeling that I could have lived here.
The old and the new. New in back, old in middle, and plants that are new.
Here are a few preserved signs.
It's all Greek to me. :-P Kalimera!
Apothecary/Apteka/Pharmacy/Farmacia/Drugs
And lastly, the indoors.
The room that is on the way to the more awesome room.
The Indiana Jones room. Does anyone have a staff with a jewel on one end?
It's an incredible thing to find frescoes with so much color preserved.
Ancient, your guess is as good as mine.
Release the Kraken! But seriously, mosaics are a really big thing, and to find them in such good condition is incredible.
Every ancient culture has an obsession with pot.
The best for last. This was a buffet line. Totally being serious!
Panorama taken on the way out
So, as you can see by the level of the buildings in the back, that this place was completely buried and preserved. That's why I'd like to end my Herculaneum section with this picture. Not only does it encapsulate the entire place, but it shows you it's many levels.
One last look before I leave
Tour Excursion Notes Description: Discover life as it existed just prior to the monumental eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. during this scenic and memorable visit to the ruins Herculaneum.
After tendering ashore, board the local shuttle to the uptown meeting point where your coach will be waiting. A drive of approximately 1.5 hours takes you to the excavated town of Herculaneum. En route, you may be able to catch a glimpse of Mount Vesuvius.
Herculaneum Upon arrival, commence your guided walking tour of the excavations. The ancient city was entombed by a flood of mud, leaving the city intact and free-standing, with marble floors, mosaics, paintings and carbonized woods in excellent condition once unearthed. Explore the quiet streets of this city as you learn about what life was like for its residents. See the wine merchant's store with its amphorae still lined up for sale, the bakery and the town's many beautiful homes. Herculaneum provides a vivid impression of life during the 1st century.
Leaving Herculaneum, re-board the coach for the two-hour return drive to the pier.(Wait, 1.5 hours there, two hours back? This is funny to read now because it means that they knew about the crazy amount of traffic we were going to sit through that day. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I remember it taking two and a half hours to get back to the ship!)
Here I leave you with some nice shots of the coast of Sorrento taken from the tender on the way back to the ship.
Sorrento Coast
Sorrento Panorama
Next time: My first time in Croatia! Getting closer to my Serbian roots. One more step taken on my quest to eventually reach my ancestral homeland.
