Day 1 – Dubrovnik Old Town, Winter Festival
1st Jan 2023
Getting there
We fly on New Year’s Day, 2023. Less crowds, smooth flights even with a layover. A layover, I am surprised to learn, is a rare and slightly anxiety-inducing way of travel for the B! You think you’ve travelled a lot together, you know someone well, and then you learn something basic about them. An afternoon flight to Zagreb, the capital, and a connecting flight to Dubrovnik, at the southern end of the boomerang-shaped country.
Minor drama at the Zagreb layover
We follow the signs for transfers, and arrive at a small hall, which has 2 idle security check contraptions, and an ancient coot in a faded uniform standing by. In a couple of minutes, another man arrives there. The coot and this man have a conversation in what we assume is Croatian. The trouble seems to be that there are no authorized security personnel at hand to check us through to our transfer gate. Considering Zagreb is our port of entry into the country, I realize there ought to be some passport control as well. Or was it so efficiently integrated into the EU on day one of its joining the Schengen, that they didn’t need passport control?!
A ragged line forms behind us. No one shows impatience. There is a low murmur of voices. Everyone is waiting, apparently without knowing what exactly for, or when it will happen. I ask a lady who seems to speak the language if she understood any more than us, but she shakes her head.
I look at B’s face for signs of layover-anxiety, but he’s holding up as well as the rest of the stoic crowd. It feels like ages. I check my watch – it’s only been 10 mins.
Then the officials with the access to the ancient security computers and other devices arrive. Three of them including the original coot, instruct and oversee as we go through the standard security procedures. For the first time in all my travels, I am the first to go through a security check point!
Next stop: right after passing through security, the way is blocked with those spring-loaded roll-up belts and metal posts. Behind this is the immigration desk. A young woman in uniform deftly ducks under the belt from the other side, fetches something, and goes back – into the immigration officer’s booth. It takes a while for her computer to start up. After one false start where I thought she asked me to come forward, finally we are invited to open one of the roll-up belts and go through.
Happily, even after all this, we still had time to wait at the gate before boarding.
Pile Gate
Our host has arranged a taxi from the airport to the apartment of our stay, which is located within the walls of the Old Town, directly off the main street called Stradun. A wonderful modern 1-bedroom apartment, recently renovated from the looks of it. We’ve learnt that we entered the Old Town from the western gate called Pile Gate (pronounce “pi” as in “pig” and “leh” – pi-leh).
Winter Festival
We drop off our bags in our apartment and quickly go out into the buzzing main street. Today they have a live music concert at the far end of the street. The street is not more than 400 meters long. It is lined with Christmas stalls, all decorated in lights and baubles and stars and snowflakes. This is the Winter Festival of Dubrovnik, happily coinciding with our entire visit.
There are long queues for all the popular street foods, mostly sausages of 50 types of animals: dark red to light, thin to fat, all arranged on huge, shallow woks with fires under them, keeping them warm. We wend our way through the crowds and join the queue at a stall that also has potato fries. We’ve scanned a menu card on the side of the stall with Google Lens, and learnt approximately what is on offer, though Lens can’t tell us which sausage corresponds to which menu item. When it’s our turn, knowing no Croatian, we stumble through the order with broken phrases and pointing.
Historic day for Croatia: currency change to EUR and joining Schengen
Payments are by cash only. This is another feature of our stay. Croatia has joined Schengen on this momentous day, and also switched over from Kuna to the Euro as currency. The first two weeks of the switch both currencies would be accepted. The locals seem to dislike the switch, based on my research across a random sample of 2.5 people 😊
Some 20 mins later, with our food in paper trays we stand at some bar tables set out on the sides of the stalls. B has got a hotdog with a medium sized sausage of unknown animal origin, which he says tastes good. It feels like these are the best fries I have ever tasted!
New Year’s Day Live Music
The crowd seems mostly local, or at least people that speak Croatian, with a minority of tourists mixed in. The whole time, the live music has been playing and the crowds are singing along to what seem like popular Croatian songs. We carry on towards the concert stage, squeezing through the crowds. The atmosphere is very relaxed and mellow, a peaceful, contented, New Year celebration. Gluh wine, hot gin, cocoa, and various other drinks are bought and consumed in the stalls.
We listen to the music for a while, swaying with the crowds around us. Then we exit the main street into one of the many side alleys, to explore a bit of the area. Everywhere is lit with Christmas lights and there are groups of people on all the side streets too, though not as crowded. We come to a busy square behind the concert stage: a café terrace, a huge Christmas tree, more festive lights. Some of the tourist sights are right here. I take pictures first and learn what is what later during the course of our stay. The music is flowing beautifully over the whole scene. We dive back into the concert crowds at the side of the stage, standing on the steps of a church (St. Blaise’s Church, I think).
Old Port
After a while, we wander out through an archway and find ourselves on the waterfront. This is the Old Port. A lot of small boats are moored in the quadrangular harbour. The brilliant Adriatic. Even in the night lights, you can see the waters are a transparent blue green. You can actually see fish swimming just under the surface. Sleek grey bodies, about 15 to 20 cms long, and once in a while you see a flash of silvery white: their under bodies as they flip and flick themselves around in the water. A few dark spiky shapes – sea urchins – cling to the walls. I sit on the steps leading down to the water, listening to the gentle lapping of the water, a waxing moon bright in the sky in spite of the lights dotted all over the mountain side opposite.
Adriaticats
Reluctantly I get up and we walk along the edge of the harbour, towards a little pier (Porporela Pier). We encounter a black cat, who stops to rub himself on our legs and be petted. The first of many cats on this visit. I am hugely tickled to come up with a collective name for them: Adriaticats. At the far end of the pier is a tall red pole, with a signal light winking from the top at regular intervals. A few people are sitting on the benches quietly chatting. It is a soothing place to end our first day’s visit of Dubrovnik.
