Meng's Travels: Dubrovnik, Croatia

Dubrovnik is at the southern tip of Croatia, very close to another former Yugoslavic republic, but now a country called Montenegro. There was a lot of fighting in the late 1980s' and early 1990s' between the different ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia. I don't fully understand all the politics but I try to be careful when I bring up this subject to Croatians. It's an ugly part of the region's history and there was a lot of hatred then and I don't think all the wounds have healed. Hopefully, the region will stay peaceful for a long time; it's a very beautiful area. Dubrovnik is one of the most beautiful cities in the area and even in September, you still find a lot of tourists everywhere, especially in the Old Town.
We arrived in Dubrovnik after a 4-hour bus ride from Split. There is no train running between Split and Dubrovnik. We booked a room at a place called Villa Ivan. It's more like a Bed and Breakfast. It has 3 rooms and Ivan and his wife run the place, which is up on a hillside. Fortunately, he picked us up at the bus station, otherwise we'd have a lot of trouble finding the place. There are few streets but a lot of small streets and alleys that are only passable to pedestrians. Walking up to Villa Ivan is a workout. Even though there is a bus that goes half-way up, you still have to walk quite a way up. However, the view from the patio is gorgeous. It overlooks the harbor and into the Adriatric Sea. Besides, we paid only about $25 per person per night and it comes with a basic breakfast.
The Old Town is the tourist highlight of Dubrovnik. Here you find a city that you see in the movies of the Roman Empire days. It's surrounded by a rampart that has watch-towers, cannons, port-holes, etc. Tourists are allowed to walk on the rampart after paying an admission price of about $15.
Within Old Town are numerous restaurants and shops. There are also several churches and even a synagogue. It's almost a self-contained city except that the place is packed with tourists.
While I was there I also took a boat to a nearby island called Lokrum. There is a small botanical garden there plus all kinds of places for you to relax and swim.

Mljet: We spent 3 nights in Dubrovnik, the longest we've stayed in one place. On the last day I went to an island called Mljet. It's about a 2-hr catamaran ride but it was well worth it. It has a national park on the island and within the island is a lake that has a very small island on it. I went to this small island and swam there. The water was very clean and clear. I wish I can spend more time there because it's a wonderful relaxing place. The amazing thing about Croatia is that you can swim almost anywhere. There are almost 1,200 islands in Croatia. Everywhere the water is clean and in some places they installed ladders (the kind you use in swimming pools) so that it's easy for swimmers to get in and out of the water. In some places they even install showers so that you can rinse off the salt water. Here is a link to more information on Mljet:
http://www.croatiatraveller.com/southern_dalmatia/Mljet.htm

Tomorrow morning we are traveling to Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country that was in the middle of the Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian war. This trip was not planned but since we learned that there is a bus that goes there from Dubrovnik and it takes only about 3-4 hours, we decided to visit there for 1 night. From Mostar, we'll take another bus back to Split, where we'll catch the train to Zagreb. After Zagreb, we go to Ljubljana, Slovenia, then Budapest, Hungary.