One Last Hurrah Before We Depart!!!

It's been 4 months to the day since I left Portland, but it feels like lifetimes ago in so many ways!! Pam left EARLY this morning, so we've said our good-byes, and now I'm just sitting at a cafe in the Dubrovnik airport waiting for the final "leg" of my 2017 Italian-Balkan Journey!! I made it through security, customs, etc., and am now waiting a few hours for my departure (where I'll fly to Munich, then Venice..... stay overnight in Venice....then fly Venice to Amsterdam to Detroit to South Bend to see my Indiana Fam and meet my newest great-niece, Katelyn)!! A "piece-of-cake" trip that will get me there in a mere 40 hours!!

One of the disadvantages of traveling without a plan and just trusting that the details will unfold as they are meant to is that sometimes it takes longer (and costs more) than originally expected! I had planned on flying in and out of Venice because I figured by June I'd be able to take a ferry from Pula (Croatia) to Venice....but now that I'm leaving early (and not really up for ANOTHER really long bus ride to get to Northern Croatia), I ended up having to pull out all my travel agent experience to find a ticket from Dubrovnik to Venice - and that requires a change in Munich and an overnight in Venice to keep the routing on my original ticket!! Oh well....it's ALL about the journey - no matter when, where, and for how long I end up traveling!! 

Our time in Dubrovnik was a bit different than we expected (mostly because we had reached our saturation point for rolling around on buses and ferries), but it ended up being a lovely ending to a wonderful trip together!! It rained quite a bit the last few days, so sitting in sunny outdoor cafes was limited (but we enjoyed the sunshine when it broke through the clouds and spent as much time people-watching as possible....and believe me, there were PLENTY to watch)!! There were LITERALLY boat-loads and bus-loads of cruise tourists inundating Dubrovnik since it's the beginning of tourist season!! If the MASSES of people in Dubrovnik are a sign of things to come starting in June, then I'm extra glad we travelled when we did!!

We had a wonderful experience on our last day doing a "food/ wine/ walking tour" of Old Town (which Pam graciously booked for us)!! It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip, and we got to hear our guide Hamo's story....how he felt at age 16 during the war, his experiences of moving to the U.S. to go to college, and why he decided to return to his home country. He and his wife decided to expand the usual sight-seeing tour options to include local wine tours in the area, as well as food and wine tours in Old Town because his favorite thing to do is chat with people over food and wine - to savor the moments, share their lives, and learn more about and from each other!

We went to 5 different restaurants (all of which were "off the beaten track"), and the food was AMAZING!! Raw oysters and tuna tartar (both of which were surprisingly good!!) in the market square; followed by octopus salad, black risotto (made black with the ink of the cuttlefish), lamb in a sauce of honey and lavender (from the Island of Hvar), and bruchetta made with ingredients from the Island of Vis in a local restaurant tucked away in one of the tiny alley-streets we never would have found!! We also did a wine tasting  that included dried beef, dried salted ham (prusciutto), bread, cheese, local olives and olive oil, and really yummy jams (strawberry-balsamic combined - and my favorite, plum-fig jam)!!

Our final stops were a "true gelato" shop (yummy!!), and a pastry shop where we enjoyed our final "white coffee" of the trip together.... and two different types of cake!! It was all WONDERFUL, and we enjoyed every moment of indulgence!! Mixed in-between all this incredible food and drink was a walking tour to places we probably wouldn't have seen on our own.....hidden gems known mostly by the locals like caves under the city where small boats used to sneak in once the drawbridges were closed for the night - and a special little cafe with tables LITERALLY on the edge of the rocks hanging out over the ocean!! It was definitely the perfect ending to a wonderful trip together!!

We never did make it to Montenegro, but as we pondered not going and possibly "missing out" on seeing something important, I thought of a quote I came across when I was reading all those travel memoirs (when I was relaxing in Hvar). It said, "It’s a curious but well-known phenomenon among travelers that once you’ve been presented with a list of must-sees, you feel almost honor-bound to pay each one of them a visit....but when we travel, we have a choice: we can try to see it all and fail - or we can see more by looking at less." 

After a lot of traveling and great experiences, we chose the "less is more" option for our last few days!! We stayed a couple nights inside the city walls of Dubrovnik's Old Town (in an apartment with 3 STEEP flights of stairs and no living room to sit and relax), then we decided that since we really weren't sure we were up for another bus ride to Montenegro, we'd just stay a couple extra nights at the place we had reserved near the bus station! It was a lovely space with a great patio away from the street noise and peek-a-boo views of the water (when the cruise ships weren't parked in our back yard blocking our view)!!

The couple that own the place are just LOVELY!! They left us some homemade cherry brandy - then brought us some of their homemade orange brandy when they found out how much we enjoyed the cherry one! I had enjoyed chatting with them when I met them during my first stay (when I came from Hvar and was waiting for Pam), so we invited them over for a chat over orange brandy last night before we left....and what a treat they were to connect with as a final piece of the puzzle on my journey!! 

We learned about their challenges through the difficult times during the war, and some of the difficulties of returning to a "new normal" following the chaos!! I didn't realize that Dubrovnik was "under seige" for 18 months with bombs coming from the hills and the harbor all around them; and they were without water and electricity for at least 90 days of those 18 months!! The bombing of Dubrovnik has definitely impacted their perception of the world and whether or not it is safe; and they, like many others throughout history whose lives have been turned upside-down in this way, are trying to figure out how to not live in fear but live life to the fullest!!

I loved meeting someone half-way around the world who has a similar perspective on life (i.e. we can affect our lives and the world around us by focusing on what we want to create rather than what we fear); but it was difficult to make sense of what happened to them in the war using that paradigm (especially knowing there are lots of people who are still dealing with PTSD because of all the trauma they experienced so many years ago - almost more now than before because they are supposed to "be normal" since it's been so many years since the war)!! 

Many people are still struggling - yet they are choosing to live their lives to the fullest BECAUSE of their experiences during the war! I guess what I became deeply aware of through all my conversations on this trip is that REAL PEOPLE and REAL LIVES are being deeply impacted by the selfish actions of others!! (This is not a new awareness for me, it's just more apparent to me because of the people I've met and talked to on this journey!!) We had such a deep, meaningful, authentic conversation with these special people, and I was so grateful they were willing to share their experiences so openly to help me better understand what people have gone through because of the ridiculous behavior of greedy people who just wanted more power, money and land!! 

It was interesting to come full-circle back to Dubrovnik (where we even had lunch one day directly across from the port of our departure almost 3 weeks ago)!! It made the extent of what we've done, seen and experienced even more palpable as we came back to where we started....staying in the same apartment and looking at the same locations through different eyes after our variety of travel experiences!! We've met some WONDERFUL people, seen INCREDIBLE scenery, experienced historical sights and learned first-hand what it must've been like to live on these lands during the medieval times with stone walls, buildings and forts that are still standing and ready to receive more visitors (and walls that actually kept Dubrovnik from being overtaken during the Balkan War because of their strength, positioning and longevity)!! 

We've been given a glimpse into the day-to-day and historical lives of the people who call Bosnia and Croatia home....and we've heard from ALL of them that war isn't worth it (and neither is holding a grudge that might lead to more violence in the future)!! All the trauma - all the killing - all the greed and desire for power - it just isn't worth it!!! It's been a sobering, humbling, enriching, and life-changing experience in ways I can't possibly express fully!! About 15 years ago, I read a book written about someone's experience as they travelled "The Camino de Santiago de Compostela" (the spiritual pilgrimage people have undertaken for centuries - walking hundreds of miles across France, Spain and Portugal). The whole book was fascinating, but the phrase that has stuck with me after all these years said something like.... 

"We are changed by our journey in ways we don't expect, but the real journey - the journey of integrating all we have learned and experienced - that begins once we return to our 'normal lives' and bring our traveling experiences back to the places we call home!!" 

I'm absolutely sure I will have more understanding and more lessons as I integrate all I have learned and experienced in the last 4 months, and I'm excited to see how my life might change because of these experiences!! I don't know how much I'll post once I'm "back to my normal life" (which isn't all that normal with all the traveling and house-sitting I usually do), but no matter where I go or what I do next, I want to thank each and every one of you for your love, support and encouragement on this "leg" of my life journey! Until next time.....