Dubrovnik is the sourthernmost large town on the coast of Croatia. Long ago, it was a city-state with a sea trade to rival that of Genoa in Italy. Now, it is a tourist trap to rival Genoa. It was shelled mercilessly by the Serbs in the 199x war, but with lots of international aid, it has ben rebuilt as evidenced by all of the new tile roofing to be seen.

The ferry stops at a dock about a 30 minute walk north of town. As I got off the ferry I was greeted by 20 or 30 Dubrovniks all waving signs, "Zimmer, Soube, Apartman". But they all wanted 250 Kuna for a night, which was probably the going rate for August, but I still felt it was too much.

I walked about a hundred yards to the Tourist information bureau, which directed me to a public phone where I called the numbers I had for hostels. No luck, they were all booked. Fortunately I passed a woman who called out, "Soube? Zimmer?" She also wanted 250 Kuna, but I shook my head no and wrote "150" on a piece of paper. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "OK". And she led me a couple of hundred meters to the apartment of an old woman, a friend of hers, who had a room for rent. It was clean, and close to the ferry, and she was very nice. The city felt like an oven, and I was dehydrated, and she offered my juice.

The next day, I walked to Dubrovnick. The street rises maybe a couple of hundred meters over 2 or 3 kilometers. Finally I started to descend and came upon a huge stone tower that forms part of the wall that surrounds Dubrovnik. It is so big, it pretty much completely obstructs the view of Dubrovnik from the road. I walked to the edge of the road, which had a stone wall, and looked down, down into a gorge about 50 meters deep. At the bottom is another road that runs by the wall

Continuing down the road I descended maybe another 10 or 10 meters and was able to turn right on a pedestrian road that spans the gorge and enters the city through a portal in the wall

Once I had entered the city I could walk along the inside of the wall untill I came to a stairway that led down into the city

I spent most of the rest of the day up on the tower, waiting for the sun to set, and taking pictures as the light changed. The city wall rises and falls with the elevation of the land around the city, and the highest point is at the tower. It is very wide, and one can almost hike around the city on the top of the wall.

The main drag at night

Shortly after sunset, I hiked down the wall, hoping to make some photos from the top of the wall that fronts the sea. However, a large man with a set of very large keys, shooed me and two other compulsive photographers off the wall. Amazing, just as it starts to get dark, and the city lights up, they close the wall!!!!!!! And I paid about $6 for the privelege of going up on the wall!