The day started with a promise to myself that if I achieved some meaningful work I would go shopping for souvenirs and take the last of my time enjoying the city. I had gotten as much work done as was possible given the lack of charger over the last 4 days, but I still hadn’t faced a fear of mine. Well I faced it head on (after some procrastinated dancing around the subject) and got a great response. I don’t know what I was so afraid of all this time! I headed out into the city, my work behind me, able to relax and enjoy my last day in this sunny paradise.
Unsurprisingly this is where I criticise my phone for its abysmal camera and vow to get a decent DSLR for my next trip. I remember promising myself something like this when I was in New Zealand and Thailand not that long ago… Well I mean it. I promise myself here and now that if I achieve my goals for this year, I will buy myself a good camera for my travels. I’m sure you readers will certainly appreciate the increased quality of photography a good camera can provide. I used to be really into my photography at school and would quite like to pursue this again… But for now, mildly blurry mobile snaps will have to act as aide-memoirs to my HD mind’s eye.
I enjoy finding a good image and spent the morning wandering around the perimeter of the old walls looking at the interesting stone craftsmanship in the doorways, arches and moorings for the harbour. I’m not afraid to go where, maybe I shouldn’t be for a good photo, the worst they are going to say is “please leave now”. I found my way below the drawbridge of the main gate down to a cut-off beach. There was a load of derelict boats chilling colourfully in the sun watching the days roll by as their paint became more and more flaky.
Looking for souvenirs, I was chatting to a street vendor selling handmade medieval jewellery and metal work. With sheets of copper and bronze we was cutting and shaping them into interesting shapes. Punches to cut holes and emboss patterns he made some really nice bits and bobs “fighting against Chinese plastic”. He was surprised at the amount of rain they had had this year blaming it on pollution and global warming . For 3 days it had rained in the last 3 weeks (sounds unbelievably awesome if it were in England) but he said that this was mother nature trying to clean herself, “like when you get something in your eye, it waters to clean it”. A nice analogy I thought.
Towards the end of the day I met up with a Scottish girl who had arrived that morning. Kristen was island hopping through Croatia and only planned to spend one night in Dubrovnik. Again, I couldn’t believe people were not spending longer here, it’s an amazing city with so much to see. OK granted, its expensive and she was really on a budget counting all her pennies but still! I told her the walls were worth doing and that she should come up the mountain with me (again). The last time I had been up there I had hoped to get the sunset but it was too cloudy. Today had been a scorcher and the sky was clear blue from horizon to horizon so I was going up again.
I would not be denied a sunset!