The Road to Dubrovnik | Adriatic Avventura

A couple of posts behind…

Several days ago we left Spilt for Dubrovnik. The ride, longer than we expected was made more interesting by our driver Frank who is Dubrovnik born and raised. Very proud of his city and its history as Republic of Ragusa he made sure we had our facts straight including:

Dubrovnik is in an more loose association with Croatia like the Vatican is with Italy. Not quite as independent but close.
Croatia was once a larger, rounder country. Centuries ago the Ottoman Empire invaded trying to get to other parts of Europe but they were stopped (proudly) by the Croats but it left the country with the wedge shape it has today.
Croatia is in two pieces, the larger part north and a smaller section south where Dubrovnik is. The break happen when a part of the country was sold to the Ottomans as protection for Dubrovnik so in case the Venetians invaded they would have to go through the Ottoman Empire as well to get to Dubrovnik.
When we passed thru Bosnia and Herzegovina we were going to be in the Herzegovina section of the country.
Montenegro men from the countries interior are lazy, so much so that there are jokes about them: A Montenegrin man was lounging beneath a tree when he called out to his wife to bring the antidote for a snake bite. When she asked had he been bitten he responded “No, but I will be.”

After several hours of driving we stopped near the city of Ston for an Oyster and Mussel lunch. Sydney loves Oysters, Kim loves Mussels and waters in this area are exceptionally clean and have many oyster farms and got more than we wanted.We were hosted by an Oyster farmer who’s family has been doing this for several generations. He took us on a boat tour of his farm then cooks us a lunch on his private island. A very nice afternoon lunch!