Style: October 04, 2017

66 STYLE | travel
CROATIAN
CRUISE
Naomi Spinsby-Wild walks through the cobbled streets of
Dubrovnik, a place of surreal beauty – and heat.
Even before the sun had emerged over
of the Dalmatian coastline, you could
tell it was going to be a blisteringly hot day
in Dubrovnik. The air was already thick with
warmth, and, more tellingly, my hair was
expanding in size like a frizzy brunette peacock
showing off its plumage.
After fulfilling my personal daily challenge
of leaving no waffle-topping combination
untested at our cruise ship’s dangerously
well-stocked breakfast buffet, we docked at
the southern Croatian enclave of Dubrovnik,
where we disembarked and trudged, already
weary from the heat (and the ungodly amount
of fats and sugars recently ingested), towards
the waiting tour buses, bottled water and
weather predictions being offered to us almost
every step along the way.
While the city had looked beautiful from
the morning half-light of the port, it was truly
striking up close. All at once, we rounded a
corner and the winding inland-facing streets
gave way to a view of the harbour, a glistening
inlet encircled by the rocky outcrop on which
the historic Old Town was built. The whole
scene looked, frankly, Photoshopped.
Being that Dubrovnik has famously doubled
as Game of Thrones’ city of King’s Landing over
the last few years, I had naturally assumed the
cityscape was a clever mix of set design and
computer animation, an assumption I quickly
found to be false. The dramatic cliff-face, the
striking medieval architecture, the clear blue of
the Adriatic – it was all just as it appeared on
screen, minus the impaled heads on spikes.
As I surveyed the Lannister stronghold,
casting my gaze over the port and its sheltered
marina, I thought back to the local history
lesson we were given on the coach ride. For
as long as Dubrovnik had existed, the ocean
had been its life-blood, bringing in traders
from around Europe in older times as well as
providing a reliable fishing industry. In recent
years, tourism has overtaken as the main
contributor to the local economy, but the
seaside has continued to thrive, alive with the
sounds of outboard motors as charter boats
ferry visitors around on private tours of the
surrounding islands.
The city’s medieval charm only became
more evident as we wound our way through
more white stone cobbled pedestrian streets
to reach the heart of the Old Town. As the
oldest part of the city is the closest to the sea,
and protected by the ancient fortifications of
the City Wall, it is navigable only on foot down
seemingly endless flights of stone steps.
On the rambling downhill traverse, we
passed through a warren of tightly packed
historic buildings clad in the same tactile
white stones as the pavers and topped with
the even more iconic terracotta tiled roofs.
Together, these features lend the Old Town of
Dubrovnik its title of ‘The Pearl of the Adriatic’
and UNESCO World Heritage Site status and
protection.
As we made our way down the steps, skin
slick with sweat and sunscreen, and footsteps
reverberating with the classic summer sound of
jandal slapping on pavement, we ducked into
doorways every so often to find respite from
the heat. Local businesses and retail shops
operate out of the quaint maze of buildings
with proprietors presumably living in the upper
storeys, the shadows from which cast welcome
shade across the open track, cooling the
Being that Dubrovnik
has famously doubled
as Game of Thrones’ city
of King’s Landing over
the last few years, I had
naturally assumed the
cityscape was a clever
mix of set design and
computer animation,
an assumption I quickly
found to be false.