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Pero Carević (a Dubrovnik B&B owner) and Cameron Hewitt (co-author of my Croatia and Slovenia guidebook — just out in its first edition) met me at the Dubrovnik airport. Coming in from France, I suffered a little culture shock. Life here had the same energetic metabolism…but cheaper jeans, smaller cars, more broken concrete, and almost no fat people. Pale meat, pale pickles, and pale “juice drink” — all part of a tentative stability and affluence following their devastating civil war.
Within a few minutes’ drive, we were parked at the towering base of Dubrovnik’s mammoth and floodlit walls. Pero walked me to his boutique guest house on a steep, tourist-free lane in Europe’s finest fortified port city.
Offering me some orakojvica (the local grappa-like firewater), Pero explained that he was wounded in the war but was bored and didn’t want to live on the tiny government pension — so he rebuilt his Old Town home as a guest house. Hoping to write tonight with a clear head, I tried to refuse the drink. But this is a Slavic land. Remembering times when I was force-fed vodka in Russia by new friends, I knew it was hopeless. Pero made it himself…with green walnuts. Giving me the glass, he said, “Walnut grappa — it recovers your energy.”
Pero described — holding the mangled tail of a mortar shell he pulled out from under the counter — how the gorgeous stone and knotty-wood building we were in suffered a direct hit in the 1991 siege of Dubrovnik. I didn’t enjoy touching it. The bedroom Pero grew up in was destroyed. His injury will be with him for the rest of his days. In spite of how those towering and mammoth walls were impotent against an aerial bombardment, life here was, once again, very good.
I took Pero’s photograph. He held the mortar…and smiled. I didn’t want him to hold the mortar and smile…but that’s what he did.
Great Colour Painting
You painted another great picture Rick.
I can see the images as if I was there and get to meet people through your writing.
I was in Slovenia last year. Lake Bled was just beautiful and I rode a bike all the way up the alps there. Fantastic.
Thanks so much for this post Rick. Dubrovnik is such a beautiful city, the country overall just blew my mind with all of the places to discover.
And the people are amazingly friendly. What they have been through definitely helps put life into perspective.
Can’t wait to read more!
Rick…
Wow…this post brought back great memories for me! Last September my friend and I stayed at Pero’s sobe and loved it!
After a long ferry ride from Hvar to Dubrovnik Pero picked us up at the ferry terminal and once we got to the sobe we too enjoyed some of the walnut grappa!
But one of the most unexpected things was that after we had settled into our room and had our grappa, Pero took us on a brief tour of the Old Town pointing out restaurants and cafes he thought were good.
I loved the 5 days we spent in Dubrovnik and Pero’s wonderful hospitality only added to the amazing experience!
Great post and pic, Rick! I’ve never been to Dubrovnik and never met Pedro, but it seems that you truly captured his essence.
Hi Rick,
We leave for Zagreb on Sunday, so perhaps our paths will cross as you make your way up the coast and we make our way down to Dubrovnik. I met you in Italy and at the NYC travel fair and your travel advice is always great. Keep on trekking! I’ll look for you in your recommended restaurants.
Hi!
Happy travels!
:)
Rick,
Glad you are in Croatia but wish you were going to stop in Slovenia. I just got your new book with Cameron on Croatia and Slovenia and was hoping to get even fresher details on nice farm stays there. My family of five will be there 28 June through 8 July and want to use 2 or 3 hotels as central spots to take day trips from ( as you suggested we do in Siena a few years ago). Enjoy and as they say there “nice driving”
Just wanted to say I love the blog and really enjoy all your writings. I’ve been on the road since October ’06 and am having the time of my life.
While Emmy was inside a store, I noticed a commotion and watched while the Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, crowd parted as if Moses was there with his staff. A lady, by herself, was walking down the street, a beautiful smiling lady, dressed nicely, not showy, and the crowd just melted out of her way, as if in awe. She must have been recognized as someone famous, a celebrity, but no one tried to talk to her or approach her in anyway. I could find no one who spoke English, who could tell me who she was. (1985)
In the morning when we arrived at Dubrovnik, the market place near the church was filled with fruit and vegetable dealers. By early after lunch the peddlers were gone, the garbage trucks had carried off the clutter, the market area had been cleaned and hosed down, tables and chairs were put in place, and Dubrovnik’s sidewalk cafes were again open and serving both locals, and the multitude of tourists. (1989)
I tried to get this in the othr post, but it didn’t happen.
Dubrovnik City View
Great comments — my daughter and I hope to visit Croatia next summer. I haven’t gotten your book yet (will do) so I am hoping you will have lots to say about Plitvice Lakes — how to get there easily, where to stay, etc. I am a true waterfall afficiando and have wanted to see Plitvice for years. We have traveeled with your books to Europe many times, even joining a fellow traveler with torn pages for dinner in Bacharach!
Dubrovnik was our favorite stop last year; and the people are SO friendly. We stopped for some gelato, only to find that we didn’t have exact Euros. They gave us the gelato for half price! The server said: Me and Bill Gates, we have no worries! Marvelous! I hope we can return some day!
I remember the grappa, the mortar and what a great guide Pero was….especially since we didn’t even stay at his place. What a small world it is!
We arrived in Dubrovnik via coach last wk. Most travelers on the coach went directly inside the walls surrounding the old city where merchants and restaurant owners provide products and services to curious travelers. Instead of following the crowd, we walked up the street along the beautiful coast. Just before the top of the hill on the right, we spotted a narrow walkway leading to an archway. Inside was a statue. Curious, we followed the walkway. Inside, we found a cemetery. We walked up and down ea. row of headstones and crosses and read the names and yrs engraved on the stone. Most dated in the 80s and 90s, a grim reminder of the devastation of war these young men fought. It was a solemn moment we hung onto. We returned to the old city and walked the streets, being reminded that without the sacrifice of many, there would be nothing for us to enjoy in the old city. We also walked thru the Jewish Ghetto there. We’ll never forget this place. Dubrovnik is a place to see.
One really beautiful tour in Croatia is to drive through the islands just north of Dubrovnik. Korchula is a beautiful, walled town where the locals say that Marco Polo was born. The town of Hvar was my favorite. Supper on the quay beside the harbor was delightful. These islands are accessable by road and ferry. It was HOT when I was there but the apparent shortage of bathing suit material made the visit quite pleasant.
Jim Humberd, Regarding possible celebrity sightings in Dubrovnik, I have heard it was quite the place to be seen in the 1950’s: Sohia Loren was spotted there more than once. I saw a photo in a recent magazine article that showed Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas in Dubrovnik. Seems like Dubrovnik is coming back to life. I just hope that Paris, Lindsay, Nicole and the like will not hear of Dubrovnik too soon! We Americans sometimes get a bad enough rap. :)
Tell Cameron that I will take Croatia over France anyday! :) We were going all over Europe and got there in December. It was very, very off season but found all the Christmas decorations and lack of crowds magical. The weather was still quite good during the day. The women there all so skinny, the skinniest in Europe. All the chain smoking probably helps…
We’re going to Croatia from Sept. 26-Oct. 10–off season. What’s NOT available regarding tours, catamaran service between Split, Hvar, Korcula, and Dubrovnik, reasonable lodging? Can we hire private boats for excursions/tours around the islands? Thanks for any helpful tips.
I am kind of offended by the way you are looking at Iranians. You are talking about Iranians like mars people who look like earths people. But thank you for publishing the pictures. Hope you can change enough minds to stop a possible war against Iran.
Rick Steves takes us to beautiful places and guides us well on accommodations and routes. But his “history†and language lessons leave something to be desired. In Greece Steves greets people with “Kalamari†(squid), instead of “kalimera / good dayâ€. In Slovenia he greets people with “dobar denâ€. That’s Bulgarian for “good dayâ€. In Slovenian it’s “dobar danâ€. In an Italian wine cellar he tells us that the casks are made of “Slovenian oakâ€. No, it’s Slavonian: Slavonia is about a hundred miles east, in present day Croatia. – Now he’s off to the new Dubrovnik. re-built more beautiful and older than before the war. – Rick says the new Dubrovnik is “capitalistâ€. –Ex-pats who’d like to buy old villas cheap find it hard to get clear title. The true owners are gone, like the Jews of Germany. Thousands of exiles now live scattered around the world, while their Dubrovnik residences are inhabited by squatters, gangsters who moved in after chasing out 10,000 old Dubrovnikers in October 1991. – Other tour guides recognize that traditional Dubrovnik is dead, killed off by the Croatian mafia and the hordes of tourists brought by gigantic cruise ships. They debark and troop through the Old City buying kitsch made by underpaid workers in China, not native crafts or – as once – Serbian icons.. They spend no money on restaurants and hotels, but just get back on their floating hotels to sail off and infest the next port of call. J P Maher Professor Emeritus
Well done professor JP Maher. Dubrovnik WAS nice and famous city until 1991, but not any more with many gangsters and killers, ex. they killed an Australian girl last year, and Rick Stevens could better learn about Dubrovnik history and what is going now. Thousands of us, Dubrovnikers exiled from fascist Tudjman’s Croatia know that.
We stayed at Pero’s Sobe during our honeymoon on Steve’s recommendation. We also stayed at hotel Argentina overpriced but it was perfect for a couple days of lounging by the pool in luxury and recouping from our wedding to get us ready for some traveling. Pero’s Sobe was the way we like to travel, it was great, A/C was blasting, had a beautiful view from our window, Pero gave us a briefing on the town and was so hospitable. He was such a nice guy, I felt like we knew him for years after 5 minutes of talking with him. Someone mentioned something about the cruise ships, it is night and day between what the people coming in on a cruise ship see vs. staying in a place like Pero’s. Dubrovnik (old town) is a small place and you know when a cruise ship is in town, hordes of tourists come walking down the main drag, it was great when they left in the evening or weren’t there during a day, you get the town back. Oh, we didnt find it until one of the last days we were there but Buja bar (wrong spelling but that is what it sounds like) is a find, go there every night for sunset and beyond. What a dream the whole experience was. Oh also rent a car and head down to Kotor, went swimming with some locals in a village along the way in the Bay of Kotor, but be ready for a long long wait to get back across the border ~2hrs.
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