Carcassonne, Tito, and Golden doodles
We arrived in Dubrovnik Monday, late morning. A car service picked us up at the airport and dropped us off as close to our place as possible. We were staying about 400 stairs up the hill that overlooks Old Town, with a fairly steep vertical climb. The car dropped us off about 50 stairs above our place, which could only be accessed by foot. All of the steps over the 2+ days we were there were easy-peasy due to the conditioning from our treks in the Dolomites. The view from our place was stunning – the fortressed Old Town, surrounded by city walls, abutting the Adriatic.
The Old Town of Dubrovnik puts you in a time capsule somewhere between the 12th and 17th centuries. It started as two distinct settlements in the first half of the 7th century – the Roman (Ragusa) and Slavik (Dubrovnik). For centuries these distinct communities were separated by a narrow sea channel. In the 12th century the channel was permanently filled until the island and the mainland were joined. The filled in channel became the Stradun which remains as the famous main limestone street of Old Town.
It's amazing what people can do.
Dubrovnik has been built, and rebuilt, and rebuilt again. Its heyday was as a maritime power in the 15th and 16th centuries. It's architecture is a stunning, heavily fortified mix of Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque styles, primarily made of gleaming local white limestone, capped with Terracotta shingles.
There was a catastrophic earthquake in 1667 that destroyed most of the city. Fortunately, they reconstructed it with Baroque styles sitting on top of the medieval urban layout. When you're there, you almost feel back in time – everything is pristine, with stunning churches, a clock tower, the massive walls with turrets, and the Adriatic.
The Old Town was rebuilt again following its bombing during the Croatian War of Independence in the 1990s that was a part of the broader Yugoslav Wars, following the fall of Tito's communist regime. I struggle to get my head around the wars in the Balkans in the 90s. There were Serbs fighting Bosnians. Serbs fighting Croats.
The former Yugoslavia included what are now Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania, and North Macedonia. They all skirmished and sometimes switched sides. When Tito's regime fell, there was a vacuum filled by civil wars. Filled by genocide by the Serbs against the Bosnians. Filled by other war crimes. Much of it using weapons that looked like they were from WWII. The history is still being written, and too soon for all to agree.
We got some of that history from the Croatian perspective when we toured the Homeland War Museum where we learned about the bombing of Old Town. They weren't ready for it as they didn't think Dubrovnik played that strategic of a target, and geez, it was a UNESCO World Heritage site. I mean Why? But the Croats were able to defend the city from a fort that overlooks the Old Town, at the top of mount Srd. A fort that was built during Napoleon's time was defended by just 31 Croatian fighters against more than 100 JNA forces during one critical 12-hour battle.
The total siege of Dubrovnik lasted nearly 8 months from October of 1991 to May of 1992 until the Croatian forces finally repelled the JNA army made up mostly of Serbs and Montenegrins. During that time the citizens of Dubrovnik struggled for food and water and many didn't survive. And once again, many of the buildings in Old Town had to be rebuilt.
Today, Dubrovnik seems like it is trying hard not to be Venice. For us, it was succeeding. Yes, there were too many tourists. Yes, we recognize the hypocrisy as we were tourists. But the Old Town is impeccable. Walking the city walls gives you one stunning view after another. For every Game of Thrones shop there was an interesting little jewelry store or charming café. We had the best gelato of our trip – we went there twice. There was space enough between the tourists. There were countless cats walking the walls and steps. One came into our apartment and Amy fed it. We saw bits of a church service on Monday. The town has what we referred to as museum snacks that you could just drop in and out of – the Maritime Museum, the Franciscan Monastery with its display of ancient medicinal remedies, and a small but excellent modern art museum.
But there was also a Hard Rock Café.
How I'm feeling
I'm feeling mostly good. It felt like I was having a brief setback on Sunday night in Dubrovnik. I was just feeling a little bit off – hard to really describe it, but sort of lightheaded and achy. My lips are puffy again. My shoulder started bothering me again. I feel the pressure from my kidney, but it's slight. Aside from the kidney piece, the rest of it are side effects, and so far it seems that I've escaped the worst of them (please, find some local wood and knock on it).
And as I write this, poolside in Hvar, I feel mostly good. Kind of back to 90%.
What I'm thankful for
My health on this trip. This trip was definitely in question since my initial scan showed that I had cancer. There were questions as to whether or not I'd be up for it physically. There were questions as to whether it was safe to do medically. There were questions as to whether we could schedule my treatments around it. There was a bit of anxiety around all of it. The weeks leading up to it I was having side effects and serious fatigue. The side effects were supposed to get worse as the Yervoy and Opdivo continued to course through my veins.
But it was equally important to do this. It was one of the things I asked Dr. Yorio about in our first consultation following the shock of my initial diagnosis. I've had people tell me that I should take it easy, not to go too hard – that the important thing to do was to focus on my health.
And I get a little emotional writing this. There's a chance I won't be able to do something like this again. Hopefully that's not that case, but it's much greater than a non-zero chance. And if I didn't do this, then what's the fucking point?
You gotta live life while you can, and as I reflect on our time in Bologna, our time in the Dolomites, our time in Dubrovnik…On the…at this point…pushing 100+ miles on our feet, I'm incredibly thankful that we did this and that I'm feeling (mostly) good.
A memory
When Trevor and I lived together we would play a fair amount of board games. Particularly if Dave or Ryguy were around. One of the ones that Trevor introduced me to was Carcassonne. It's this map game where you try to elongate rivers, build castles, build islands. It's simple to learn but can get pretty strategic – everything you want in a board game.
I didn't realize that Carcassonne was a real place until Amy and I were driving from the Pyrenees to the French Rivieria for Sophie and Danny's wedding. We were originally supposed to drive to Barcelona and fly from there, but we bought so much damn wine in Rioja that we figured it would be cheaper (and more adventurous) to drive than to fly. The drive took us through the adorable Spanish and French towns in the Pyrenees where we saw waterfalls, stopped in a bakery, and stopped in a fromagerie.
On the trip there I saw an exit for Carcassonne. The whole ride was supposed to be about an 8 hour drive and we were about halfway through, so we were due for a stop to stretch our legs and have some lunch. I had no idea Carcassonne was a real place. It's a fully intact medieval walled city. I insisted that we check it out – I think it added at least an hour to our trip, but we weren't likely to be around these parts again, and I had to go, if only so I could text Trevor a picture.
We saw this mass of castles and city walls, sort of like you would see the skyscrapers of a big American city as you approached from the highway. It started small and got bigger as we approached it. It seemed like such a special little surprise to tuck into an amazing vacation.
When we went to enter the city, I think we had to buy tickets to get in. I've never been to a Renaissance Faire, but I think this place was exactly like a Renaissance Faire would be if the organizers had an unlimited budget. This place just clearly got it wrong – at least from our perspective. It felt gimmicky and like an amusement park. There were stores selling expansion packs to the board game. Everywhere around you there were vendors trying to sell something. It was sort of like Venice – beautiful from afar, but up close you're trying to tell yourself that it's awesome and worth it, all the while wondering how quickly you can get out.
We'd brought a bunch of Spanish meats and cheeses from an adorable shop in Jaco, in the Pyrenees and tried to have lunch on the city walls, but I think we got shooed away. The weather was also shit and we couldn't get out of their fast enough. We wound up popping the hatch of our rental car and eating what we termed CarChuterie and had a good laugh.
Later when we finally arrived at the wedding destination in France we helped Martha and Jim get things setup for all of the people staying on the property where the wedding was being held. We popped our hatch again and setup the jamon, serrano, and various cheeses and pates. We popped open a couple of bottles of wine and served people as they arrived.
It was a good day.
What I'm looking forward to
We're in Hvar right now, having arrived yesterday afternoon after a fun boat ride from Dubrovnik. We're about to adventure around a bit, explore villages, beaches, and wineries, and just take our time, as we try to recharge a bit from what has otherwise been an amazing but jam packed vacation. We're staying at a very Zen place with a view that overlooks the Adriatic and no agenda. I'm really looking forward to a slow pace over the next couple of days.
Something I recommend
European catholic churches. We've probably stopped in about a dozen churches over the last couple of weeks and it's always the same and always different. We walk slowly and whisper. We leave our phones in our pockets. We stop and pause and try to connect the dots in the paintings, frescos, statues, architecture, the stories of Christ, the patron saints, the symbolism of the blue paint, the detail and the majesty of it all. How the churches are different when you're in Bologna vs. South Tyrol vs. Dubrovnik vs. the islands of Croatia.
We're far from religious, but when you're in these places it's easy to pause, to reflect, to ground yourself, to think about another time and era, to think about your loved ones, to consider both the significance and insignificance of self.
It's easy to pray.
What I ate
Throughout Dubrovnik we made excellent food choices, despite all of the potential traps. Highlights included a gigantic lunch of authentic Bosnian food at a restaurant that was oddly named the Taj Mahal. The meal was basically an example of all of the different things you can do with bread. You can stuff it with sausage. You can stuff it with cheese. You can make ravioli. But it was all unique and delicious. We finished it with Bosnian coffee (similar to the thick Turkish coffee) and a plum baklava. I'd go back.
We also had two really nice dinners out – Proto Fish and then the Michelin-starred 360, overlooking the Adriatic. Both were great, and the views from 360 were stunning. Not sure that 360 was worth the bang for the buck, but the food was, nonetheless, great.
Random thought
"That's true. It's still frowned upon. But then, what isn't these days, right?"
-Royal Tennenbaum upon learning about Richie's romantic feelings for his non biological adopted sister Margot.
Now that we have golden doodles do we just breed golden doodles with other golden doodles or do we still breed poodles with golden retrievers to get golden doodles?
I think Amy started this and it led to a discussion on inbreeding while we were hiking. I mean, it seems to get a really bad rap, but we have all of these fantastic dog breeds that do all these amazing things. Some are good at hunting. Some can point really good. You've got others that can smell narcotics. I saw a dog on a video online that climbed a 20 foot wall. Yes, inbreeding leads to some awful genetic conditions when the likelihood of bad recessive genes pairing up increases. But isn't the inverse true? Can't great recessive genes pair up as well.
And don't worry Amys, it's not for me. I'm just being silly. But without inbreeding would we have had Cleopatra? I heard she looked like Liz Taylor.
I'm just saying…
