Slav Clarification, More Dubrovnik & Zagreb

My good friend Ron, who knows much about many things, including Russia, Slavs and European history, left a comment that I'll reproduce here. In my last post, I'd been blathering on about northern and southern Slavs as if I knew something about the subject. (Thank you, Ron, for educating me.)

Russians btw are Eastern Slavs, with the Belorussians and Ukrainians while the Poles, Czechs, Slovaks are Western Slavs.

Here are a few more Dubrovnik pics. Also, here are some pictures of Zagreb, which I'll admit that I knew zero about, but figured it would be very communist looking. We spent just 1/2 a day there, between a flight from Dubrovnik and a train to Ljubljana (of which, more soon.) What I, unfortunately, do not have pictures of are the wonderful fruit & veg market in Zagreb in a central square and the lanes and lanes filled with outside tables of coffee shops.

A view from the walls of Dubrovnik to a fortress protecting the western approach.

A view of Dubrovnik's harbor from the walls.

A famous Zagreb church with (questionable) roof tiles from the 1890s depicting the crest of the city.

The Zagreb cathedral.

Islands off Dubrovnik

Due to popular demand, pictures as well as observations on culture and cuisine.

Culture: I certainly won't pretend to be an expert, but it was interesting to hear George say, multiple times, It's like Greece in some ways and not in others. Geographically and culturally, Croatia is between Greece and Italy, though of course the language and people are Slavic. (I guess when I think of Slavs, I think of Poles, Russians, the northern Slavs, whereas Croatians, obviously, are southern Slavs.) Whenever there was traditional Croatian music being played, it sounded Greek to George, except for the language.

I don't think I can fairly comment on the people, given that we were in the most touristy place at the height of the season. Service and friendliness were in line with what you'd expect. It seemed to me "post-Communist." The attitude was, I'm doing my job, but I'm not getting paid to smile at you. That said, certainly noone was rude or unpleasant, just very busy.

The food tended more to the Italian - grappa, amazing ice-cream, risottos, pasta, espresso. Mostly, though, there were plenty of Mediterranean staples, like fish, tomatoes, salad and wine.

Below are pics from the day we took a boat to 3 islands off Dubrovnik. I will post more pictures, including Zagreb and Slovenia in the coming days.

Here's a view into a walled garden on an island about 30 minutes by boat from Dubrovnik. George got the picture by climbing up some stairs across the road. Notice the wonderful grape arbor.

Here is the harbor of that same island. This was our view as we had an afternoon espresso.

An artsy shot for you - burnt-down candles in a monastery church on the island of Lapad.

A view of the water and harbor from that same monastery on Lapad. The water was refreshingly chilly given that the air temp was in the 90s.

I couldn't help myself - another artsy shot. The monastery was under renovation and there were stacks of copper pipe lying on the ground under some low palms.

Dubrovnik

Here is the main square in Dubrovnik on a Saturday afternoon.


Much to George's dismay, many of the so-called streets in Dubrovnik resembled nothing so much as extended stairways. Here he is with his coffee in a cafe/stairway.

The beautiful cloisters at a monastery in Dubrovnik, which also housed the 3rd oldest pharmacy open to the public in Europe (which now looks much like a Vienna drawing room.)
Check out the nice capital here with the dogs.

My favorite picture of George and me from this trip, also in the monastery cloister.

The street our rooms were on. Those are a lot of stairs after a long day of sight-seeing.