Ostrog Monastery

Two days in a row with our day’s activity planned. We are shooting for the record. Our planned destination, Ostrog Monastery which is vertically recessed into the rock of the Ostrog Cliffs 900 meters above the Zeta valley. According to the lonely planet website Ostrog Monastery is one of the three most visited Christian destinations…

Hiking with Rino

Lou Reed – born March 2 1942 passed away October 27 2013 The gritty humour, candid worldly observation and often brutal honesty embedded in his verse combined with his zero-tolerance-for-bullshit, flat, gravel voiced, deadpan delivery and guitar mastery formed the core of the musical backdrop of my adult life. The world is left the lesser…

Castle of San Giovanni

Bare stone surfaces of the surrounding mountains provide excellent acoustic sound boards for the frequent fireworks explosions that resonate all through the night. Pam is woken frequently, I sleep like a snoring log. When I wake in the morning sporadic explosions are still occurring and a layer of smoke from wood cooking fires and fireworks…

Our bonus Christmas Eve

The constantly gathering cloud cover of the previous day solidifies during the night. We wake to the sound of waterfalls coursing the stone stairs outside our apartment once more. The glory of our climb to the sky tides over into our last full day in Dubrovnik. Despite our inactivity we are at peace. Having had…

Climb to the Sky

Incontrovertible evidence of how closely tied to nature humankind thankfully remains is displayed in the association of our emotions or moods to weather conditions. Blue skies have Pam bouncing around the apartment, ready for action, by the time I awaken. The flat greys of the past few days banished. ‘C’mon’ she urges ‘today is our…

The Old City. Out and About

Waking bleary eyed later on New Years Day morning I am none too disappointed to hear that the rain has returned. I fall back to sleep comforted by the sound of cascading water running down the stone stairs beside our apartment. The wet weather has set in, it rains for the rest of New Year’s…