Lightning in Dubrovnik, Croatia

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OCTOBER 11, 2012

EAT, PRAY, RUN

 

Expectations are a dangerous thing.  Each time I came to city with a vision and description delivered to me from other friends and travelers, I seemed to walk away with a completely different experience.  Dubrovnik was no exception.  The claim was that this city had the most impressive Old Town that you could spend days and days wandering and that it had the most progressive dining menu for a vegan like me.

True, the old city/fortress was nothing short of spectacular. 

Marble streets that defy description seemed to carry on for kilometers.  However, even in October I found myself completely crowded and even frequently bumped into by other tourists oblivious to any space outside their own skin.  Even this late in the season there were cruise ships docking up in this port town. 

I gotta recomendation from a mountain biker in Kosovo, then took a train, 6 buses, and hitchhiked the rest of the way.  Why, how did you get here?  Oh, never mind. 

Dining options were just as meaty as any other Balkan country I visited, despite many restaurants advertising vegetarian and healthy option on their menu.   After my morning run along the shoreline, and a walk around the city walls from 10 am until noon with a Canadian brother and sister duo I met at the hostel, I absolutely had to get out of there.

The island of Lokum is a mere 15 minute boat ride from Dubrovnik.  My yoga mat and I got the first boat out.  Once there, I spent an amazing afternoon practicing yoga and meditating on the cliffs off the far side of the island.  Moments following the meditation session I found myself in the most wonderful conversation about life, travel, and the world at large with a Austria-based French tourist on holiday.  It was the type of “random” connection and conversation that could only possibly happen immediately following time on the mat.  So much so, I am not ruling out that it wasn’t all a beautiful manifestation of my imagination. 

Some hours later that night while the rest of the city drank the night away or slept in the cozy comforts of their beds, I found myself sitting on the rocky shore in a quiet little inlet adjacent to a monastery and a full 50 meters below the street noise.  There, I counted the quiet splash of waves as a storm rolled in from sea and was reminded why life is worth living in the present moment.  It was a time and place that shall remain engrained in my heart and mind for a long time coming.