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Here I am in Dubrovnik, Croatia, the "Jewel of the Adriatic" as it has been called. It's a lovely old city, but this is not my first trip here. I visited in 2004 and 2005. The first trip was enchanting. The second was great, but I could tell that tourism was ramping up in the country. During the middle of the day, the streets would get packed with people who got dumped off their cruise ship and then picked up to return to their floating havens just offshore. It was very similar to what goes on in Venice, Italy. The Italians haven't really figured out a way to deal with this issue and they've had a great number of years to figure it out. So, you can only imagine what the possibilities were for Dubrovnik given that the number of hordes were increasing exponentially each year, especially as western tourists from Australia, the United Kingdom, and the USA have all decided that this area is finally a "safe" destination to go to on a package tour.       As it is two years since my last visit, it would seem natural that a great many things have changed, but there are really only two things that stick out as the biggest changes: the cost of things and the number of people. The city is still beautiful. The water is still wonderful. The weather is still lovely through the warm months. The people are still very friendly. These are all constants that I don't see changing, but the things that are, will create big, big problems over the coming years, if not months.       The costs are a big issue. One my first trip, I stayed in a very nice flat for 30 Euros a night. A great deal considering the dollar was much stronger then. This year, the same flat was fetching 50 Euros a night. We ended up having to stay at a much smaller place that we managed to get for 30 Euros, but that was only because we haggled a great deal due to staying for a week. But, the cost of small things has gone up as well. For instance a beer is now about 3USD at a restaurant where it was a dollar before. I suppose that two extra dollars has bought the average tourist a server who speaks perfect English. Personally, I was quite happy trying to speak the native language as it made me feel more like I was traveling and not putting my Imperialist American foot down in someone else's country without regard to the people living there. This cost also hurts the locals because while these prices are not that outrageous for Americans or British, they are very hard to maintain for the people who live in this area where around $600 a month is considered a good salary. There are many who are doing well by this influx of tourists, but overall, the trickle-down economics that Reagan so "brillianted" pioneered works about as badly here as it did in the 1980's in America.       The other enormous and truly problematic issue with Dubrovnik is that the tour operators are just pushing more and more people in to the old city. This is a finite space and I believe that it has reached its critical mass of people that it can hold. And let me add that I'm writing this at the beginning of June. Traditionally, this the slower time of the year. July and August are going to end up with stampedes and casualties at this pace. I was caught in one of these yesterday as multiple tour groups were trying to go in and out of the old city at the same time. There is no management system for this. It is not like parts of Italy where they sell a maximum number of tickets to the Sistine Chapel for a day and then cut people off. No, the local authorities and the greedy tour operations are just shoving as many people through as they can. While quite unpleasant, it was hilarious to hear the various stereotypes of people come through in this trashing wave of people in Pile Gate. The British were trying to be polite and form a queue. The Americans were just out for themselves and trying to shove their way through, yelling loudly, even though half the crowd probably didn't understand them. The Aussies seemed somewhat drunk and went with the flow. The Italians and French seemed to just mass in to this pushy, snobby group who tried to work their way through. In a word, it was a mess. The really funny part was that all the locals came up, took one look, and then went off up the hill to one of the other streets that avoids Pile Gate to come in through the southern gate which was problem free.       In conclusion, I write this all as a warning. Dubrovnik is getting crazy and not in a good way. It's still a beautiful place and worth a visit. Just stay the hell away from May 15 to September 15. It will make your holiday a much better one.

Continued from November 21, 2006 ...Dubrovnik welcomed us to Dubrovnik quite a long time before we actually got into Dubrovnik, with signs announcing the city and all the attractions for what seemed like an hour prior to our arrival. But we knew for sure that we had arrived when we crossed a bridge that spanned the Rijeka Dubrovačka, this peculiar fresh water river that runs underground and suddenly punches out from the earth a little ways to the east to empty in to the Adriatic.       From there on, it was a slow descent past the ancient manors of town nobles long since dead and in to the Dubrovnik suburbs of Gruz and Lapad. For many, it is bound to be something of a let down because the bus station is very far from the old city that I had come to know in getting ready for the trip. Luckily, my friend Ivana was there waiting with a big smile as she laughed about the last time we had seen each other… on the eastern tower of Notre Dame in Paris. I asked if she had been waiting long and tried to express my frustration about the delay in the bus trip which was a little over an hour at that point. She simply shrugged and I realized it was something she had come to expect or at least not care so much about.       For others who weren't lucky enough to have a friend waiting, they were flocked upon by the ladies who were waiting at the station to rent rooms. The words, "in old city" were being said in three or four languages around me. One or two of them came up to me, but walked away discouraged when Ivana told them in Croatian that we were with her.       We hopped in to her little car that made me look like a seated camel and zipped off to the old city for a meal, some fantastic Croatian wine and the start of a lengthy stay in Dubrovnik.       This concludes the series. Hope you enjoyed it!

Continued from November 20, 2006 ...After endless stretches of the clear blue waters, I started to think, yes this is a nice sea, but wouldn't it be nice to see something else? As if to answer my question, we started to go a bit more inland, which took us from the glistening waters; to be shuttled along some of the most amazing farmlands I have even seen in my life just south of Ploče. There are these neat little rows of different crops growing next to each other at whatever angle someone felt would be good that day. It's a far cry from the large quilt-like patches of homogenous crops that we see growing across the US. It's a funny thing to think that this spot where the Neretva River forms a wetland delta used to be a massive source of malaria for the inhabitants, but is now one of the most fertile (and beautiful) areas in the whole country.       Pulling out of the Neretva delta, we ran parallel to the Peljesac Penninsula, eventually coming to the Bosnia Herzegovina border. As odd as it seems, there is this very small strip of the country that interjects into Croatia to grab a little bit of the coast, a bit to the north of Ston. Historically, I've been told by Croatian friends that this piece of land was given to the Ottoman Empire by the old city-state of Ragusa (which Dubrovnik was the capital of) in order to provide a buffer between them and the encroaching Venetians. How much truth there is to this, I've never been able to find out, although it sounds like the sensible kind of thing that the Ragusans would do. They were masters at maintaining independence for centuries despite being directly between the Ottomans and Venetians.       The border was nothing to worry about, since they checked our passports, were slightly bemused in seeing Americans, and let us on through to the 10-15 kilometers that the road runs through. We actually stopped in this little strip of land, and it was most certainly not in an official capacity. Apparently, the drivers used to pick up large piles of goods while in Bosnia Herzegovina because they got them at nearly 25% less than in Croatia due to the fact that there were no, or at the very least, were less taxes there. This explains why there were few markets in Neum, which was an otherwise barren area. We were delayed a good half hour by the drivers doing their shopping and going to multiple markets to get the best prices. It was annoying, but we had little choice. I'm sure that the temerity of the drivers was more than likely due to the fact that there were few of us on the bus at that point and they felt they could probably do as they pleased with little consequence. It turns out that in the years since my ride, the Croatian government has been cracking down on this by having police ride the buses at random. With a couple of cases of beer on board, the shopping was done and we passed back into Croatia, which was even less of an issue than passing in to BH...       Continued on November 22, 2006

Having ridden the American Greyhound line and various Amtrak connection buses that are one step away from soul-crushing in their perfunctory practicality, never would I have thought that a bus ride could be so beautiful, lulling, and inherently dangerous. These thoughts kept beating through my head as my traveling companion and I twisted down the Croatian version of California Highway 1, the E65 from Split to Dubrovnik.       Due to our ride from Zagreb to Split, we were a little cautious as to what bus line we picked. You see, after cruising along for about six of what was then an eight hour trip, the bus immediately pulled off to the side of the road somewhere within the vicinity of a major town called Knin. It heaved, sputtered, and died a rather sordid mechanical death right there in the middle of nowhere. In the flash of a second, a ball of flames erupted up the side of the bus, next to me. Naturally everyone ran off, they put out the fire, started tearing apart the bus and in a few hours, sent another one that was short a few seats which made for an uncomfortable ride for those who had been displaced by this exploding bus fiasco. Eventually though, we did arrive in Split and spent a few days there before venturing on to Dubrovnik.       Once done with Split and having departed the drab bus station, I'd have to say that the initial part of the ride is lovely. It twists and turns along the side of the Adriatic Sea, showing all the glimmering waters below. Occasionally, we'd stop in a smaller town along the way (like Omiš with its never-ending beach) to pick up more passengers or drop off some of the ones that were on board, but these were quick stops. Old stone homes were perched alongside new ones, as it is just about anywhere in Croatia. But, whatever their age, the homes, businesses, and old fortresses cling like nervous birds to the steep cliffs.       Bus drivers for these lines have a tendency to drive a bit maniacally and I'm sure it gets worse as the tourist season and coastal traffic moves into high gear. They will pass other cars on these narrow, steep roads. They will tailgate. They will curse beautiful strings of Slavic profanities in the general directions of slow drivers they feel who are not driving in a manner of which they approve. I highly recommend sitting on the side of the bus closest the mountainside if you're used to driving, or just don't feel as suicidal as the bus drivers. I say this because sitting on the side closest to the sea is much like flying. You feel as if you're hovering above the Adriatic and as romantic as that sounds, it can make you nauseous in very little time...       Continued on November 21, 2006

So, how does Dubrovnik compare when going there at the end of May as opposed to the beginning of April? Well, it's more crowded for sure. The tourists are coming in in throngs, but you just learn when the herds are out walking the street and you can get around them. For reference, it's mostly the late morning and then the early evening. If you head out at times other than those, you'll actually be able to walk down Stradun without any major headaches. Head out in the throngs though and you'll want to start punching out the cows as they drift down the narrow streets. Of yeah, there are a lot more Americans there now, but so far these seem to be the more adventuresome souls and we haven't gotten the doofballs from the Midwest or the snobs from the Coasts that give Americans the worst of names when traveling abroad.       The tourists aren't the worst thing though. They pretty much just stick to the main streets like the Stradun and they don't venture on to many of the side streets where you can still get around pretty easily. What is tough is the heat. When we were there it was about 33C (90F) which with the humidity was tough. Even our friends and the other residents had more than a few choice words about the heat because it was apparently very much out of season for the area.       Of course a lot of heat makes one thing work really well and that's swimming. This time around, we were actually able to go in the water. It was a little cold at first, but we got used to it quickly enough. That was probably the biggest change that I was thankful for over visiting a year ago because the water is beautiful and amazing. While I'm more of a "power wader" as opposed to a strong oceanic swimmer, I could still appreciate the water and being able to see everything that was drifting past my feet.       I think we actually saw more of the places in Dubrovnik the first time we were there, but the one thing we didn't see was the Dubrovnik Museum of Modern Art which while not one of the museums like there are elsewhere in the world is an amazing building with a nice, growing collection of pieces.       We did see the Aquarium again which didn't really change much from last year, but was a nice place to find refuge from the hot sun that was outside.       I really wish we had seen Cavtat again or Trsteno, but at the same time, it was a nice, relaxing spot in the holiday. My friend Ivana and her rooms were a welcome thing because it provided a nice base away from the complete confusion of the old town, but still close enough that we could walk there or take the very fast bus.       Needless to say, Dubrovnik is still great and while it is getting more tourists, they seem to be handling it pretty well despite that. I suppose this is the way of former Ragusa as they have always managed balance over the years, whether it be getting both the Turks & Venetians happy or just holding on to their culture with floods of Americans and Germans wandering their beautiful marble streets.