Travel diary: Away we go

Croatia’s old city Dubrovnik was founded 1,300 years ago by refugees from Epidaurus in Greece

DUBROVNIK: I recently had a chance to visit Croatia and although it was not my first choice, I can tell that it was money well spent. My daughter, whom we were visiting in Germany, made our travel arrangements on Easy Jet, a budget airline, from Schönefeld airport in Berlin to Dubrovnik in Croatia.

Flying time was approximately one hour and 45 minutes; an aerial distance roughly the same as that of Islamabad and Karachi. The small aircraft was packed to capacity and as we started to make a descent, the azure blue waters of the Adriatic Sea and the red stucco tiled roofs of houses came into view.

As we landed we could feel that we were in warmer climes as compared to the cool weather of Berlin. It was beginning to feel like back home in Pakistan; the tourist brochure boasts of 250 days of sunshine.

A transfer bus brought us to the centre of Dubrovnik from the airport in about 20 minutes. From here we caught another bus that too us to Nuncijata. We had been booked in ABBA Apartments through AirBNB, which provides hosts in more than 191 countries. Booking can be done hassle free through an app that puts you into contact with people offering their houses or apartments for short-term stays. It is amazing the kind of deals that you can get.

Because we were not sure if we could believe GPS that told us we were literally a few paces away from our destination, we called our hosts for advice. To our pleasant surprise, the cell phone plan covered Croatia since it is now part of the European Union for a year; one wonders what prompted the Brits to call it quits.

A few minutes later Ivo Kostro, a tall smiling man in his 30s, appeared on his scooter to help guide us. It appears that everyone owns a scooter in Dubrovnik. Perhaps it makes mobility easier on the narrow, winding roads.

ABBA reminded us of the Swedish band of the same name that was so popular in our youth. The accommodation was small but neat and well contained. A terraced lawn upstairs gave an excellent view of the coastline.

In the evening, we took the steps further down to the harbour. It was a pretty walk through lined quaint apartments open for tourists. There were lots of flowers hanging from the pots in the walls and pretty little lawns in the small courtyards that were visible from the grilled entrances. After dinner, we walked down towards the old town of Grad.

The claim to fame of this old city of Dubrovnik is that a season of Game of Thrones has been shot here; one reason, I suspect, why our daughter wanted to visit this place. For my wife, it was the city where Shah Rukh Khan’s Fan was partly filmed. There is a picture of him in the pantheon reserved for famous stars that had been filmed here; I very gallantly asked my wife to pose with it for a picture.

Dubrovnik is positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It was founded 1,300 years ago by refugees from Epidaurus in Greece. It was part of the Venetian empire until it became an independent republic in the 15th century. It was a major port that traded with Egypt, Syria, Sicily, Spain, France and Turkey. Isolated palm trees, among a profusion of European fauna, reminded one of its Mediterranean roots.

In 1979, Dubrovnik was made part of Unesco’s list of World Heritage Sites. Although it is still being discovered by tourists and film-makers, the beginning of tourism in Dubrovnik is associated with the construction of Hotel Imperial in 1897. Lord Byron had declared it the ‘Pearl of the Adriatic’ and George Bernard Shaw said, “Those who seek paradise on earth should seek it in Dubrovnik.” Today it is considered among the 10 best medieval walled cities in the world and among the 10 best places in the world for a Valentine’s Day fairy tale proposal.

Although Dubrovnik was demilitarised in the 1970s to protect it from war, in 1991, after the breakup of Yugoslavia, it was besieged by Serb-Montenegrin forces for seven months and received significant shelling damage.

A small museum inside the walled city is dedicated to the memory of the defenders of the city. Another interesting place to visit inside the old city is a mosque where prayer services are still held.

Walking around the brilliantly-lit city at night, we saw people enjoy in the restaurants typical Mediterranean fare. Large TV screens had football enthusiasts gathered all around, watching the Euros semi-final between Germany and France.

Some memorable snapshots of Croatia forever etched in my mind’s eye are: A swim in the sun-drenched Rivera, a walk around the harbour seeing large cruisers lit up at sunset and a brilliant view, from the attic top living room of Kostornos, of a luxury liner leaving the port for some exotic destination.

The writer is a retired brigadier and is currently Centre for International Peace and Stability associate dean at NUST, Islamabad

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2016.

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