La Madame et sa valise: Back to the island

A stormy looking morning in Dubrovnik

I woke up in my little room in the guest house in the in old town of Dubrovnik and after a much needed chat to Carole ( a friendly voice and good advice is always a bonus),

I set out to walk to the port, I asked a lovely gentleman, if I was going in the right direction and he said that I was only 250km away!!! I realised he meant 250m and carried on walking , it felt like 250km by the time I got there. It had in fact only taken about 20 minutes to get from A to B

I found the ticket office, with no help from a gentleman on a tour boat, who told me since the Island had cut off tourists no boats went there!!!

I booked on the TP line catamaran, which left at 3.15pm. ( it was this or the Krill line which left at same time) It was only 10am so I had a lot of time to kill.

I crossed the road to a little cafe and ordered salad for breakfast, as I was stuck for what I was supposed to eat. I had mint tea, as the hospital told me to avoid coffee!

The waiter put the cup down in front of me and I could feel the tears coming. The whole scariness of the last 30 odd hours hit home. I put my glasses on to try to hide the tears.

Looking across the road I saw some ( past their best) hydrangeas, always guaranteed to make me smile. I did not attempt to get a cutting!!! I remember my adventures in Beauvais too well!

I headed to a local supermarket ( everything that you need down at the port!) and bought some essentials, at least I would not stink the catamaran out later.

I decide that to pass the time, I would get on a hop on/ hop off bus and go round the city, of course I picked the day that President Zelenskeyy was in for talks and the whole of Dubrovnik was on high alert. At 11.30am they were saying the one hour tour could be 3 hours with hold ups etc and could be longer. I was too worried I'd miss the catamaran to go. so no tour for me.

I did sit in the lovely park opposite the port and watch the world go by, and shared my baby wipes with a lady who had dirt on her hand.

And finally the catamaran arrived, but not before watching the Americans doing what they do best, being loud and unaware.

The port had lots of staff, dressed in gleaming white t-shirts and khaki shorts.

An American couple who you could hear before you saw, were wanting to know where the boat to Split was.

The lady started shouting very very loudly

'Luka, hey Luka, you, Luka'

she then let out an ear piercing whistle, everyone stopped including one of the Port employees.

She started to point at him, and the gesturing to summon him to her, shouting 'you, Luka come here'

The guy looked really puzzled but walked over and as he walked past me I noticed that on the back of his shirt it said

LUKA DUBROVNIK.

the same words as it said on the building to our side and all the notices, it meant Port of Dubrovnik!!!!!!!

If you think that I am unfair to the Americans I can assure you that the ones I have been in contact with abroad are just like this. The one in Reykjavik, asking if they got a refund if they didn't switch the lights on as we were going on the Northern lights tour currently holds top ranking.

Anyhoooo, onto the catamaran and off to the island.