The Pearl of the Adriatic!! Dubrovnik😍

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.

bokar fort and fortress lovrijenac

Be still my beating heart. This part of the sea reminds me of Julia Pfeiffer Burns SP in Big Sur (one of my all-time best places evar)😍.

towers

It doesn’t hurt that it’s been 65* and sunny every day so far😊. Also, it’s not yet high tourist season, so there aren’t crowds. I think I’m here at the perfect time!!

city harbour

The basics:  Dubrovnik was founded in the 7th Century, and it gets it’s name from the forest of oak trees that once grew on Mount Srdj on the hillside above (‘dubrava’ = ‘oak’). There are three land gates that leave the Old City – Pile, Ploce, and Buza. Pile is the main gate now, and it is a two minute walk from my apartment I’m renting:) There are no cars allowed inside the Old City (it would be impossible to drive one inside anyway). Of course, there are endless standards regarding how the buildings can look, their color, etc., to preserve the cultural integrity. The town is very small, so you can walk up and down every single street in probably less than an hour. The city wall is 1.2 miles long, and it took me over two hours to walk it because I kept stopping to take pictures, take it all in, etc.☺️ Dubrovnik is part of Dalmatia, one of Croatia’s ‘historical regions’ (this means it is designated for historical purposes only, nothing to do with government). It’s on the Adriatic Sea, which, along with the Ionian, connects to the Mediterranean. The main street is Stradun Street..

stradun

stradun from above

This place is absolutely amazing. I think when J.J. Watt proposes to me, I would like it to happen here. 

I’m renting an apartment in a building that was built in 1676 (nine years after the earthquake that killed 5,000 people). It’s a lovely third floor pre-war walk-up with no doorman and a live-in Super😂. Some pictures of my hooch while I’m here…

view out my window

northern view out my window😍

my street!

apartment kitchen

my street:)

Here are some other places of the Old City…

little church of st. nicholas (sveti nikola)

bell tower in distance

ploce gate

street

sponza palace

church of the holy annunciation

no pictures allowed inside? “Do the right thing, even when no one is watching.“

ceiling

I had a chat with one of the ticket-checkers on the City Wall. He was an older, Dubrovnik-born man, and he was very talkative😂. When I told him I was from Texas, he said, “Ooohhhh, Sheldon Cooper!” And I thought to myself, “Well, I don’t watch that show, but I know what he means… I guess The Big Bang Theory is popular here.” Then he told me about the last people from Texas he talked to in Dubrovnik. He said that there was a large Texan man who came to him on the wall, and he was trying to check the ticket of the Texan dude, but the Texan dude didn’t have his ticket because he left it with his wife, and he didn’t want to walk back to her to get the ticket (umm, maybe 1/4 of a mile). So the Texan guy argued with him about it, and when the ticket-checker just would not let him pass, the Texan guy told him he was, “being a Sheldon Cooper“.

So, first of all, what a stupid thing to say to a nice older, older man just doing his job. Secondly, ticket-checker guy didn’t know who Sheldon Cooper was at the time. He told me that he thought Sheldon Cooper must be some kind of American politician who no one likes😂. So, when he got home, he googled “Sheldon Cooper”, and he discovered what it meant😂 (and, subsequently, that Sheldon is from Texas).

I think this is a perfect story to illustrate the differences in people’s perspectives… the Texan guy left that encounter with feelings of hostililty and frustration, and also having lightly insulted a sweet geriatric man. The ticket-checker brushed-his-shouldas-off, now understands more about American culture, and he uses it to connect with other people. Score a point for the world’s ticket-checkers and rule-followers who realize what’s important in this life☺️!  

I am inspired. Makes me think of something Brene Brown wrote:

We invite compassion into our lives when we act compassionately toward ourselves and others, and we feel connected in our lives when we reach out and connect. 💛

Sheldon Cooper

Next up:  More of the Capital of the Seven Kingdoms