The Archive

Dublognik

OK, we're back in Dubrovnik. But there was something I forgot. Whilst in Belgrade, we stopped off for a pizza, where I discovered the perfect Balkan pizza - the 4 seasons.

Why perfect? Simple, it had 4 different toppings that could easily have gone very well together, but they were presented with each topping carefully isolated on its own piece of the pizza.

Like so...



Only if the pepperoni had declared war on and started shelling the mushrooms could it have been any more apposite.

Oh, and the cab which took us back to the hotel after dropping off the Mystery Machine also had this...



That cheeky chappie is none other than Croatian General Ante Gotovina. Clearly popular with our taxi driver, he is also popular, in the sense of 'wanted' by The Hague, for war crimes.

So Joe Le Taxiov supports his local war criminal. Neato.

We didn't say anything.

Anyway, we're back in Dubrovnik and (I think I've messed the order of things up a bit, but you'll get the gist) take a tour of the major sights in the old town. I've already covered them earlier so I won't bang on about it, but here's a couple of pictures of the old town, from the historic walls overlooking the main (slippery) street...



...and another from the walls, of me this time. If you look carefully, you can see the bags under the eyes. And by carefully, I mean casually. And by bags, suitcases.



Oh, there was one place worth a mention. The old town is home to a photographic gallery. But not just any gallery of still lifes and images of tennis players scratching their bums. Oh no.

This gallery was of war photography.

It sounded interesting enough, and the images were very powerful and compelling. Right up until we reached one particular shot. It was of an african street with people walking and running down it. And right there, in the middle of the road, sat a severed, human head.

Jesus. It was horrible and made most of our group feel rather unwell. Except perhaps Pellet, who asked 'why have they buried that guy up to his neck in... oh.'

We should have stuck to cathedrals and ancient pharmacies I think. Still, it was really amazing.

Anyway, the day passed and the night approached. It was our last night of the holiday, so we decided a final night special meal was in order. And then a Big Night Out of course.

We found ourselves a nice restaurant where we had a lovely bite to eat (and plenty of wine, of course) before heading to the local Oirish bar which, to our great good fortune, was having a karaoke night.

It's a testament to our drinking/mental incapacity at this stage of the holiday that we volunteered to 'give em a song'. The song in question was Blur's 'Charmless Man' (seemed appropriate) which we rendered with aplomb, despite forgetting how it went exactly until about halfway in.

Still, it's the thought that counts.

Next, in an effort to avoid a return to Latin Club Fuego, we headed into the old town, with Wig's 'after party' radar at full alert.

And we struck lucky. Soon the sounds of people having fun and loud music hit our ears and we came to where apparently everyone in Dubrovnik goes to hang out. So we sat and had a few beers in the warm night air before deciding it was time to pack up and go home to bed.

Or we would have done, had we not run into a charming couple of American girls who convinced us to go to yet another bar in search of further fun and games.

Which is how, come 6am the next morning, we were finally back in our hotel rooms. Now that is a Big Night Out.

Consequently I can skip telling you about the next day, as there really wasn't much of it. We did manage to slide over to the fancy five star hotel up the road and take advantage of the soothing cool marble and minimalist decor, to say nothing of the amazing picture window overlooking the Adriatic - highly recommended.

Other than that, it was a leisurely lunch and a cab to the airport to get home.

Which is lucky really, as ten days of drinking, driving and dsightseeing had taken its toll. One more beautiful and historic building and we'd have been finished.

And that, as they say, is what we did during our summer holiday.

We hope you enjoyed it half as much as we did.

posted by Peter The Great @ 6:58 PM