July 29th-30th

We left Bosnia-Herzegovina to drive to the Dalmatia region of Croatia. Along the way we stopped in Medjugorje, a pilgrimage site for Catholics, to see their big church.  The Vatican has yet to endorse the miracle that is said to have occurred here, when the Virgin Mary appeared to some locals.  We moved on to a Serbian Orthodox church, and one of the clergy there explained how it had been targeted during the war by Croats, with several Serbs being killed in the process.

Moving up the Croatian coast, we drove along the Adriatic into the city of Dubrovnik, a famously beautiful coastal city with a long history.  Dubrovnik was founded in the 7^th century, and was part of the Venetian and Hungarian kingdoms as well as the Ottoman and the Napoleonic Empire.  After World War I, it became part of Croatia.  Early in the war with the Serbs, which the Croats call the “Homeland War,” Dubrovnik was laid siege to in 1991.  The city is built for siege, with high fortress walls, and though the Serbs bombed the hell out of it, they were never able to take Dubrovnik.

After settling in to our hotel, we went to the private beach for some much deserved swimming and relaxing.  Being a tourist town, Dubrovnik is expensive compared to other Balkan cities, but we decided to splurge on a nice dinner for our friend Liz’s birthday!  Dubrovnik was flush with vacationers, and that night out in the old town we met a lot of international people on holiday.  Interesting times were had…

We had Saturday, the 30th, off, so most of us chilled next to the sea, relaxing and swimming.  A group of us went back into town later and toured the fortress walls, offering amazing views of the city and the sea.  Dubrovnik is one of the coolest and most beautiful cities we’ve seen on this trip, though a tad expensive.