{"id":2443,"date":"2013-09-01T01:15:43","date_gmt":"2013-09-01T09:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=2443"},"modified":"2013-08-27T01:17:26","modified_gmt":"2013-08-27T09:17:26","slug":"i-hadnt-tried-dubrovnik-dubrovnik-croatia-08052013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=2443","title":{"rendered":"I Hadn\u2019t Tried Dubrovnik \u2013 Dubrovnik, Croatia \u2013 [08\/05\/2013]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AfternoonWaves30x40_jpg\"<\/a>The last time I came to Dubrovnik it rained. A cold slate gray rain that was swept along on an equally chilly wind that could easily have been at home in Alaska; it emptied darkened the skies and left the tile streets of the old city dangerous and slick. I wouldn\u2019t go so far as to say the walls of the city were empty then \u2013 though it would have been more poetic to say so \u2013 but it was definitely a port where only a few ventured out.<\/p>\n

Today couldn\u2019t have been more different. The sun blazed high and hot in a totally clear sky, and with four ships in port (at least two of which were larger than us, and we\u2019re not small) the old city heaved with people. Once you got through the gate and away from the bottle neck it wasn\u2019t so bad crowd-wise, and I will always be able to lose myself in the wonderful winding alleyways and street-side cafes of the place \u2013 but the heat was nearly unbearable. The sun reflected and refracted off the cream paving stones and walls, rendering them nearly blinding and the angle of the sun meant that even though there were massive buildings looming all around, there was little in the way of shade. The public fountain where I had once had my photo-taken standing with a broken umbrella and dripping curls was thronged with people filling their water bottles (which is actually what it\u2019s there for), and children perched on the balconies of the huge central cathedral. The air was drenched with local music as buskers plied their trade up and down the main street; everything from living statues to guitar players.<\/p>\n

Having forgotten both sunglasses (at home) and water bottle (on the ship), and with my weak head for the sun, I didn\u2019t stay long. Which I regret, because I love the place. The last time I went I was somewhat miserable (that was a very difficult contract for me, and one that occurred long before I started blogging \u2013 but some of you may well remember it) and well\u2026I was also something of a drowned rat (that rain was really awful!) , I didn\u2019t really\u00a0 get much chance to look around. Now I found myself wishing I had the time and money (at the moment I had neither) to sit down for lunch in one of those cafes, or to spend a few hours poking through the little tiny bookshops to see if I could find anything in English.<\/p>\n

They also have a breathtaking assortment of Venetian masks \u2013 something I remember yearning after the last time I was here \u2013 but since we actually are going to be<\/i> in Venice tomorrow<\/i> (can\u2019t\u00a0 believe that! SO EXCITED!) and since I still have another three months left on board, I managed to keep myself from taking anything home just yet.<\/p>\n

I seem to have new eyes lately, things look different, things even smell different \u2013 I\u2019m not sure, maybe I\u2019m just awake<\/i>, turns out that huge long break did me more good than I\u2019d realized!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last time I came to Dubrovnik it rained. A cold slate gray rain that was swept along on an equally chilly wind that could easily have been at home in Alaska; it emptied darkened the skies and left the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-med-2013"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-Dp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2443"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2445,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443\/revisions\/2445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}