The first island we visited was Kalamota- population 70 people. They have 27 very tiny (and I do mean tiny) churches on this island that has 70 people that live there year around. The words "picturesque" and "charming" totally capture the essence of all three islands we visited today. They are all serene, tranquil and beautiful. After walking along the town's sea wall, we stopped for coffee and our excellent guide, Al, gave us a very complex history lesson of the region for the last 150 years. Primarily, he explained about Yugoslavia.Yugo, by the way, means south wind and slavia refers to the Slavic peoples. Yugoslavia existed from 1918-1991. However, it's a tale of two different governments. In 1918, the country was The Republic of Yugoslavia and was ruled by a European style monarchy until 1941. From 1944-1991, it fell under the benevolent dictatorship of Marshall Tito who was very well liked by the people. Although the country was communist under Tito's rule, it was not the same style of communism that developed in Russia. As a matter of fact, Tito and Stalin hated one another. Tito ruled the country successfully until he died in 1991 at 88 years of age. After he died, the country slowly began to disintegrate with different regions wanting autonomy. This ultimately led to the war in 1991 between Serbia and Croatia and later Bosnia.
It is a complex region with diverse religions and ethnic groups and a very complicated history, most of which would take me hours to write about. So, if you're interested, may I suggest the library or google the time period you're interested in. The Balkans were a small area with a great deal of influence on world history. They were the crossroads for three of the worlds great religions: Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholocism and Islam-- all of which are still present and influence the region today.
By the way, one odd fact, did you know that Zinfandel originated in Croatia?
After our coffee drinking history lecture, we reboarded our boat and headed to the second tiny island (population 300) of Sipan for lunch. Once again we walked the sea wall and sat in an outside , shaded restaurant for the freshest ever meal of the day. They presented us with a huge platter of freshly caught fish and lobster. We had one of the lobsters made into "lobster stew with gnocchi " as a starter course. This was followed by the huge, freshly caught snapper that they filleted and made into four steaks that were delicious! And, let it be known the desserts were also awesome. The chocolate torte with vanilla ice cream was amazing as was the home made apple pie! After lunch, we "rolled"😉 along the pier back to the boat for our third and final stop of the day, the island of Lopud. (150 people year around). Once again, we were amazed at the serenity and the scenery! Both were wonderful.
Our boat Captain was great and we all adored the young man who was the first mate. He was full of personality, spoke great English and was totally concerned with our well being and happiness! Nice guy!
Tomorrow we check out of this lovely hotel, Villa Dubrovnik, and head for the country of Montenegro (black mountain). It will be about a two hour drive.
So sit back and enjoy the photos of the day as we enjoyed experiencing them!!
One of the 27 tiny churches.
A snack on board!
Hand is doing MUCH better but not totally well yet!
Interesting strata on the rocks. The result of movement of plates that result in earthquakes.
Coming in to pick us up.
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