Dubrovnik Day 3

One thing I have figured out about myself: I hate to journal. My fingers cramp up. I end up writing incomplete sentences because my mind is writing faster than my hand, so I skip whole words. I get distracted and almost every journal entry ends in mid-sentence that i later go back and try to pick up.

Another thing i have figured out: i LOVE blogging. I like typing. I like knowing that other people are going to read this (even if i get frustrated that i am not actually writing with great grammar and that it is all first-draftish that i would generally feel self-conscious about showing to anyone).

The thing that is most surprising: i LOVE blogging in my head! i think i wrote about 5 blog posts yesterday in my head while roaming around outside dubrovnik. they were all witty and thought-provoking in a way that my posts never are when I actually sit down to write them. I wrote this amazing one about love and affection and the differences between the two (which is actaully one that I would love to write when i have time to sit down and clear my head and write it). I wrote another pretty impressive one about war that i don't actually have the guts to write out here because all of my readers have such different opinions about war. And i wrote at least 3 more that i can't even begin to remember what they were about. This one will not be particularly meaningful or deep, but please know that, if given a computer while walking around in circles, i would be writing some beautiful stuff.


Yesterday afternoon I finally decided I wanted to get down to the water. The whole city of Dubrovnik is set on a hill overlooking the water. There are all these places that LOOK like it is easy to get down to the water, but it turns out that there are a million steps, and you aren't sure if they are someone's private steps, and you aren't sure if they lead anywhere, so you don't go down them. But yesterday, i was determined. So i left old city behind and headed out for the beach that my tourbook told me about. I got there within a short (5 min) walk only to find out that the gate to the steps down were locked because it is the offseason, and the only tourists here are 75 year old englishmen who have no interest in walking down 1000 steps to the water and a rocky beach.

I decided to keep walking along the road and see what i came to. As I was walking, I saw in the distance this huge beautiful complex that could have been one building, connected, or it could have been about 5 rich people's houses. So even though it looked like there was no beach access that way, i came up to it anyways. here is a link about this place:
http://www.find-croatia.com/blog/hotel-belvedere-in-dubrovnik-will-open-in-two-years/
So i walk up, thinking it is actually an in-service hotel or something, until i get really close and realize that it is a total mess. I walked into the drive, and a lot of the windows had been blown out, the front was yucky. I was about to walk away, but I asked someone if there was beach access, and he told me to just start walking down the stairs.

It was pretty intense to walk through the ruins of this building. It is in an INCREDIBLE location. And you can tell how it was probably an amazing hotel 15 years ago. the layout is sweet. But it is just a wreck. It is funny, bc there are some things that look like they just got left there 15 years ago - a vending machine, for example. But, while walking through, I kept thinking about how i was not going to be surprised when one of the bombs that they warn you about (the kind that the serbs planted all around the area back in the early 90s, that go off when you get close to them) actually went off really near me. it was eery. I walked down to the sea and just laid by the water for a while, sortof wondering about what this place used to be (b/c at that point, i didn't really know). 2 15-year old boys came down finally, and we started talking. they had just wrecked the scooter that their friend had stolen, so they were freaking out about what to tell their parents. they told me that before the war the hotel had been the nicest in croatia (which i totally believe), but they didn't know if it would ever get refurnished. i had a really interesting conversation with them, which i will save for a post that i write later today, as i am now pretty ready to be done with the internet for a while.
The building and my conversation with Jean and Nichol did make me think a lot about what i am doing here and how i don't really know anything at all about this city or this culture. for my purposes, i guess that is ok. but it was funny to think about (and obviously i could expound a lot more and probably should, but not right now).

ok - off to explore.

kate