Dubrovnik described

Yesterday I mentioned the ice cream man from Dubrovnik. It so happens that I once wrote a description of this town. Enjoy!

“Aren’t there just too many good things here?” – these were my brother’s first words after seeing Dubrovnik. It sums up the city, I think, very well. A charming medieval town, surrounded by the breathtaking magnificence of mountains on one side, and the vast, calm blueness of the sea on the other, perhaps it’s indeed too much of a good thing.

The most amazing part of Dubrovnik is the old town, located at the city’s center. But even before you get there, you find yourself surrounded by beauty. Palm, orange, and lemon trees grow beside roses, tulips, and blooming forsythias. It makes you think of Eden, where all flowers bloomed at once in everlasting harmony of colors.

The houses hugged by these plants fit in with the view marvelously. Mediterranean cottages with roofs of a rich reddish-brown, the color of the region’s fertile soil, so comfortable and homely, cuddle against the slope.

When you get to the historical city center, you forget all about the beauty of the town's other parts. The wall surrounding it is almost intact, a somewhat stocky, but yet majestic reminder of past centuries. The main road of Dubrovnik seems more fit for the inside of a palace than for a town. White marble glittering in the sun...

A maze of narrow streets spreads out from both sides of the main road. That’s the part of Dubrovnik I adore the most. The streets rise up steeply, wind this way and that, then slide back down. The houses on opposite sides of them seem to be trying to get as close to each other as possible, often by means of clotheslines.

What is most amazing about this place is the life within it. These houses are not merely historical monuments, but modern families’ homes, alive with everyday sounds. Conversations drift to your ears from behind ancient doors, hints of meals being prepared float through the air. Signs of people’s lives are everywhere. You can’t help being curious about them. And you feel the mystery of everyday life. Everyday life in a one-of-a-kind place.