It's Good To Be The King ...

I came to be aboard an extraordinarily luxurious, private-property cruise ship called The World while it was anchored at Dubrovnik, Croatia (before moving on to Trogir and Zadar, both also in Croatia, and then Venice) courtesy of my good friend Chris, who has been my friend since the eighth grade. Without getting too deep into it, his pops owns (yes, owns) a condo (yes, a condo), on this ship, and Chris invited me to join him and his wife on it for about two weeks. It’s a hell of a deal--on board the ship, everything is already paid for, and it’s pretty damn swanky. How could I refuse that offer? So, after meeting up with them at their new home, Vienna, we jetted off to Dubrovnik and boarded the ship.

This is my first time in Europe in general, and I must say, Croatia is something else. It’s right on the coast of the Adriatic, which has amazing water, a perfect aquatic blue, yet clear. Swimming in it is a wonderful feeling, right up there with jumping in the water at Kauai. Dubrovnik is not a particularly big town, which isn’t surprising considering that while it isn’t cliffs dropping directly into the sea, it’s pretty close. The town is carved into the cliffs, more or less, and still sports most of the original city walls and many of the original forts from a couple centuries ago. It also is still doing some rebuilding from the bombardment it took in 1991 courtesy of the Serbs and Montenegrins, but that’s another story (the Croatians are still somewhat bitter about it).

We got to hang out here for a couple days, taking it easy, but also checking out an old-fashioned olive oil press and a local winery (and, in my case, checking out the Croatian women...hot damn!) and taking a trip inland a bit to explore the country. Dubrovnik relies heavily upon tourism, so foreigners are well catered-to, for better or for worse. Most folks here speak several languages, English among them, and do their best to provide creature comforts to Westerners--again, for better or for worse. Sadly, no record stores to be had here, and yes, I was hoping for some Croatian breaks. I may go on vacation, but my desire for new hot wax never sleeps.

As we departed Dubrovnik, Chris and I sat out on the balcony playing dominoes and sipping 20-year-old scotch as the beautiful coastline and coastal islands of Croatia slid by and the sun drooped ever lower. “This,” I thought, “is a pretty nice way to live.” Or, for me, pretend to live for a couple weeks.