My view of the world

I was talking to a friend about nothing in particular when I happened to mention Dubrovnik. I really have no idea why the subject came up, except that an old friend from Odessa had gone there on business and said he wasn’t going back to the Moscow office until spring.
The Odessa he’s from is the one in the Ukraine not in Texas, he’s been to both and says he prefers the original, there are no 10 gallon hats, no mechanical bulls, the phrase yee-haw has never been uttered in the history of Eurasia and the wind doesn’t blow nearly as much, since he was born there I guess he might be a little bit prejudiced.
Anyway, Dubrovnik is one of those places that we almost never hear about over here and yet in Europe it’s a very popular tourist destination.
It sits on the Adriatic Sea at the southern most tip of Croatia and as near as I can tell, it’s the only part of Croatia that didn’t get blown up after the wall fell.
As far as tourist places go I hear it’s nice, they have tour boats that go out to the nearby islands and sailboat rentals. In the old part of Dubrovnik there are tours of the forts that are left over from the many invasions that any seaport in that part of the world had to endure.
I’m also told that the food is good, and somewhat mediteranian in taste. For me this is a major consideration, after all, after a long day of doing touristy things it’s good to have a drink, and a meal that you can enjoy, to help you relax and think of a reason not to play tourist, but instead to just watch the boats and let other people fight the crowds and get sore feet.
If you learn to sip your drink you can hang around in one of the local bars and let someone practise their english, or french or spanish on you, or just people watch, drunks are funny in any language, just remember not to get caught laughing at them, make them think you’re laughing with them, and if you’re talking to someone for a while you should at least offer to buy a round,( since I’ve never had anyone turn it down perhaps “offer” is the wrong word,) regardless, relax, enjoy, make a few friends, and the girls really do get prettier at closing time.
One person I know well enough to trust his judgement says he likes to stay in old town, the rooms aren’t as modern as the new sections, but it’s more “old european” and in spite of the tours to see the forts etc. if you stay off the main drags the people are friendlier and therefore it’s more comfortable for someone who grew up on the shores of the Adriatic.
Dubrovnik is on my “someday” list, but I’ll probably hit New Zealand instead and settle for looking at other peoples “and this is our favorite fort” pictures.