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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
New Years Eve is always a strange day for me. Thirty eight years ago this evening my family became a part of Australian National Road statistics. My mother was killed. I suffered multiple broken bones, was rendered unconscious for five days and spent three months in traction. My siblings were also smashed to smithereens and…
Sufferers from red/green colour blindness might have trouble discerning the contrast between the jaunty orange of the Dubrovnik Cable Car and the dark green stripe of forest swathing the lower slopes of Mt Srd. Pam has good colour vision and we have been watching its rapid climb and descent occurring on a regular half hour…
Thanks to its constantly maintained and incredibly successful system of fortifications, moats and city walls Dubrovnik spent many centuries as an independent maritime republic. From 1358 when it seceded from Venetian rule until 1808 when the city surrendered to Napoleon’s all conquering army to prevent imminent Russian invasion this republic known in Latin as Respublica…
Despite the reputably blue skies that greet us the next morning I am loath to stir. Pam puts on her spurs and goes to work to rouse me. ‘Get up you lazy B’ she exclaims, ‘no rain, no excuses, no problems, we are going to the beach’. She has been reading Rick Steves’ guide book…
andtheywalked.com 