Dubrovnik and Venice, August 2011
We visit Dubrovnik and Venice in short succession and are struck by the similarities and differences between the two cities. Both are strikingly beautiful, have a strategic location on the Adriatic Sea and an incredibly colorful history, especially from the time of being powerful sea merchants in the 14th – 16th century. But the cities feel to us different, as if one is coming alive and the other one dying.
Dubrovnik is small, clean and happy. Despite being destroyed during the war in the mid nineties, the city is rebuilt without a trace and clearly proud, basking in being rediscovered by the world. Once the heat becomes bearable, it comes alive with music, street restaurants and cafes late into the night. We are fortunate to arrive during the summer festival and are welcomed with fireworks and live band performances on the first night. Who knew that Croatian rock could be so good. We stay in a shoebox of a room on a small street right above a pizza restaurant and quickly learn that going to bed before midnight is futile – 
the smell of pizza baking and the racket from a row of restaurant tables right under our window makes it impossible. So we switch our time and spend the mornings exploring, early afternoons in a siesta (ie nap) and like the town, come alive in the evening. One night we go dancing to a night club, discovering that the next oldest person is roughly 30 years younger than us, but having fun anyway. There is a freedom in being our age – “fitting in” doesn’t seem to matter that much anymore.
the smell of pizza baking and the racket from a row of restaurant tables right under our window makes it impossible. So we switch our time and spend the mornings exploring, early afternoons in a siesta (ie nap) and like the town, come alive in the evening. One night we go dancing to a night club, discovering that the next oldest person is roughly 30 years younger than us, but having fun anyway. There is a freedom in being our age – “fitting in” doesn’t seem to matter that much anymore. 
We are, however, grateful to Tatiana for persistently listening to Beat 94.5 at home, realizing that we actually know all the songs that are being played. Surprisingly, they are pretty good for dancing. But the age catches up to us and Kuno’s ears start to hurt from the loud music, so we leave. This is when we discover why the city is so incredibly clean - it gets completely hosed down in the middle of the night! 
Venice is a fairytale, but we can’t help feeling that every time we visit, the fairytale is a little bit closer to a sad ending. There is a bittersweet feel to Venice, like a beautiful doomed queen of a city. The riches in art and architecture are beyond description, it has to be seen, or perhaps, more appropriately in Venice, felt. The palaces show past glory, but are being eaten away by the constant presence of tide and boat wake. For every one that gets renovated, ten fall further behind in needing work. To avoid regular tidal flooding, the city built movable tidal gates in the lagoon, reinforced some of the quays to higher elevations and is rebuilding the drainage under San Marco. Yet the work remaining is endless. Other signs of decay are present.
The water and the streets are dirty. Restaurants on San Marco insist on charging outrageous fees for listening to live music while having a coffee and as a result the seats are empty. We check into a four star hotel and are ushered into a room right off the main reception hall which we quickly rename the “cupboard under the stairs”, our window just 2 feet above the side canal, walls showing signs of past flooding and our floor sloping in alignment with the sinking corner of the building. But the patio faces the Grand Canal, and grand it is.
We spend a lot of time observing the comings and goings on the water – from all sorts of trade boats zooming around (how would you like your electrician to arrive with all his tools and equipment in a boat slightly bigger than a gondola), boats delivering food, water busses, beautiful old style water taxi boats (that are beyond our reasonable means so we walk) and of course the
gondolas. I just finished reading a book called the Midwife of Venice and am imagining what the city looked like centuries ago. 
gondolas. I just finished reading a book called the Midwife of Venice and am imagining what the city looked like centuries ago. We admire the glass from nearby island of Murano and the famous Venice masks - I wonder what it would be like to be here in February during the Carnival. One can’t help but be transfixed by Venice, sense of wonder and melancholy mixed together. Its pure magic will always draw us back and perhaps, one day, we will sail in, just like the merchants so many years ago.
