The sun has finally come out! - 18 November

I had made no plans with anyone today so I decided to go into the city for one last visit before departing tonight. It was a beautiful day! The sun was out in full force and there was no wind to cut through my clothes and leave me shivering. I walked to the walled city and found that it was really crowded. Huh? We have had the city to ourselves for the past four days and I was astonished to see so many people in the town square. It turns out that a cruise ship pulled into the harbor last night and we had some competition now. All of the tourist shops were overflowing with bodies unlike previous days when they were completely empty.

I spent a couple of hours wandering around the alleys enjoying the sights and shops that I found there. I bought a couple of items – a Christmas ornament being one of them. I’ve been trying to collect a Christmas ornament in each port although I’ve had to be really creative about some of the countries since they don’t celebrate Christmas. I think I’ve gotten ornaments in about seven of the countries now to add to my international collection. From the past few entries on this blog it appears that I have Christmas on the brain right now which is weird since we have seen very little evidence of the holiday here in the city. A few shops have evergreen decorations in their windows and that’s about it. I’m sure that at home all of the shops have been decorated since Halloween. It’s a nice change not to bombarded by the commercialism of Christmas.

After a couple of hours of battling for space with all of the Germans and Spaniards in the town, I decided I had had enough and returned to the port. I still had Croatian money left so I made a quick stop in the grocery store by the ship and loaded up on Pepsi light to get me through the rest of the voyage. I attempted to kick my Pepsi habit at the beginning of the voyage but have failed spectacularly.

I hung out in my cabin for a few hours and did some computer work and finally got thoroughly bored with myself so I headed out again with the vague plan of going back to the grocery store. However, I found that it had closed for the day so I hopped onto the bus again and went to the city center yet again. It’s the only place of interest in Dubrovnik so I have been gravitating towards that area. I ran into some staff members who mentioned that everyone was gathering at a small café on the wall with a spectacular view of the sea. I finally found the café in question after many wrong turns in the alleys but it was a lot of fun exploring the areas. I found about 15 fellow staff and faculty members enjoying the sunset over the water. I quickly purchased a drink and found a chair with them and settled in to enjoy the spectacle too. Life doesn’t get much better than that – sitting with friends and enjoying a sunset over the Adriatic Sea.

After the sun had set five of us headed off to dinner. We found a restaurant with a great view of the harbor and we enjoyed a few moments of the scenery before the night descended and hid the sight from us. I had a delicious dish of spaghetti and was grateful that I was avoiding dinner on the ship. After we emerged from the restaurant we found a large gathering in front of the church in the main square with the majority of the crowd holding candles. It was to commemorate the people killed in their 1991 civil war. There was a candle for every person killed in the city of Dubrovnik. It was a striking sight.

We returned to the ship after that since several people in our group had to go on duty to monitor the students returning to the ship for the 8:00 pm deadline since this is our last day in port. The remainder of the evening was spent washing out a few items of clothes and meeting friends in the faculty lounge as we pulled out of port. It was a beautiful sight. This has been a great port. The majority of it was spontaneous and spur-of-the-moment unlike the other countries. I had a great time and am so glad that I’ve been able to experience Croatia. It’s a beautiful country.