Cilipi Folk Dancing

Vicki is the folk dancing fan among us, but I have learned, after 25 years or so (starting with Ballet Folklorico in Mexico City), that it's always a good bet, for edification and entertainment, even if you're as inept a dancer as I am. After our time in Dubrovnik, we set forth for Kotor, in Montenegro, stopping along the way for the Sunday morning folk music and dancing at the village of Cilipi.

Not sure what this is about, but it is really old

The church and tower; inside they were having communion

Including first communion for all these kids

Anyhow, in the big square in front of the church, the music begins, after a
welcome by the mistress (Ms?) of ceremonies

I think this may have been the hankie dance

After the adults dance a bit, the kids come on for a few sets

The audience--six tour buses of mostly Germans ("ja, ja, ja") and Nederlanders
("nay, nay nay"), plus a variety of Indies and lots of Croatians--are loving it

Waiting in the wings

For her role, escorting the wedding couple in their promenade, throwing
candies to the throng; alas, they were hard candies, and this one hit Vicki's
phone just as she was video-ing the proceeding; but no harm done

Drinking the wedding toast

He later becomes the caller in what I swear was square-dancing

To the tune of this guy playing the lijerica, I think

Open dancing ends the show

Before leaving we take in the local museum; also the "welcome drink," a jigger
of a local sweet fortified wine

Large paintings upstairs

A museum of mostly textiles and Croatian embroidery

Mostly because the local embroidery teacher and collector donated her large
collection to the museum

Munch, munch, munch....couldn't believe how noisy these critters are...

Dubrovnik: Cultural Attractions

So on the wall walk and also after it, wandering the little alleys, we visited a number of cultural sites...

In the marine museum

A Mediterranean galley...note submerged ramming prow; these were in use for
centuries

Marine archaeology

Traditional folk street music

Marzipan

Interesting squares, buildings, what have you...

At length, we hiked up to a wonderful air conditioned restaurant named Kopan
(a fattened castrati rooster) and enjoyed a great, light, cool meal; my marinated fish

Mediterranean salad we shared

Her chicken salad

From there we did the ethnographic museum, which is housed in the old granary

And then (see, it really is a Crown of Thorns)

Then I did part of the Walk of Shame (clothed) (high point of the visit)

As Vicki shouted "Shame! Shame!"

"You know nothing, Jon Snow!" (One of the recent Star Wars was filmed here
too)

We did a bit more walking in the alleys, including an interesting antik shoppe

But then our visit to Dubrovnik was over

And we returned to the campground, where, that evening, in the company of
many Croats and others, I watched the Croatian team smother Argentina, led
by the incomparable Lionel Messi, 3-0; a rout, in futbol terms, with highly
regarded Argentina very nearly eliminated from the World Cup

We spent two more days at the campground planning future travels and making
arrangements and also blogging and such; beautiful area; Dubrovnik not so
impressive, I thought; Vicki loved it, however

Dubrovnik: The Walls

The main (some would say the only) thing to do in Dubrovnik is to walk the city walls. They are a mile+ around, with many steps to ascend or descend. Dubrovnik is on a steep incline from the heights down to the sea. Anyhow, we got up early--to avoid doing the walk in the heat of the day and to avoids the crowds of the many cruise ships--and got the bus to town. We spent a long day there, in part because of some confusion about where the return bus stop was. But we did the walls and many other interesting and worthwhile things, myself in a bit of a funk because of the incident in the olive grove. Eventually I got over it. I am already over Dubrovnik.

It's not Positano but it is a a bit of a vertical place

9AM and already there's a line to get in; as many as 15,000 cruisers can
descend on Dubrovnik some days

A bit of the wall, from without

Part of the fun, as it were, is watching all the other people, groups, that is

And so we are now on high, on the walls, beginning our march, looking down
to an interesting fountain/ablution thing

Doing selfies

We were going to climb up to this fort toward the end of our visit; but then we
didn't

Rounding the first turn; for half the trudge, you can either look out to the sea

Or the other way into the city; we thought these might be victims of the 1991
Serbian/Montenegrin/Yugoslav army shelling; but no, it turned out to be from
a 17th century earthquake

Another typical interior view

"See Silver Spring in glass-bottom boats"

Flotilla of kayakers heading for the island with the nude beaches

Many, many little alleys

Hobbit futbol field

Jacob's ladder

Typical wall scene

So much so it's actually a thing

Now we're about half-way around, looking into the marina; if glass-bottom
boats are not your taste, you can always go with the yellow or red submarines

At some point, you begin to realize most of whar there is to look at is the
terra cotta roofing of the old city; non-matching tiles indicate repairs where
the shells landed...

Another thing to do is take the cable car up the hill...for the view; but we prefer
our terra cotta roofing closer up

The wall walk is such a challenge for many of the visitors that first-aid stations
are located in half a dozen places around the 1.2 mile circuit