Godspeed to Olympos, Sat, 23 Sep 2023 | written by Simon
Simon at a City, UNESCO site in Croatia, Europe

The last place I visited in Montenegro is Herceg Novi – another town with a historic centre by the Kotor Bay. To be honest, by now it’s nothing special. Castle, fortress, city walls, same old, same old.

Then, I braced myself as I crossed the border to Croatia, ready to face the most touristy city in the Balkans. On a Saturday.

Dubrovnik, a.k.a. Ragusa, is a definite must see. The intact city walls, the forts, the narrow hillside streets, the cliffs mercilessly hit by crashing waves… It’s got mountains, it’s got cliffs, it’s got castles, it’s got sea… And it is relatively small and compact, neatly packaged within the imposing city walls. Honestly, it’s the ultimate destination. It is honestly stunning. Absolutely no wonder it’s so popular.

And oh my gods, is it full. Supposedly, only a few hundred locals even live in the historic centre these days. And some ten thousand tourists. Dubrovnik has some ridiculous tourist-to-inhabitant ratio. It is insanely full, and on a Saturday, all churches do weddings back to back. And wedding parades. It’s seems impossible that just 20 years ago hardly anyone visited this place…

And everything is double the price. I only looked at restaurant prices once and went to a supermarket to buy some bread and cheese. Walking around the walls was 35€! Another 20€ for entrance to all the museums might seem like not much, except there is hardly anything in all of them. I obviously didn’t bother with highlights such as ‘selfie museum’, but even the maritime and etnographic museums have very little to show. At least the Rector’s Palace was worth visiting.

As I was nearing the end of the wall walk, a massive storm started brewing and before I was off, I was soaked. I hid in the Franciscan monastery and realised it’s the first Catholic church I’ve seen since the beginning of the journey. I have to say I got used to the smaller, darker, more decorated Orthodox spaces. Catholic churches seem so pointlessly huge and empty now…

The rain continued, albeit quite lightly. I had no more spoons to face the crowds and climbed back up to the Baron. At least I managed to park for free, can’t even imagine how much parking must cost here…