Today's main attraction was a location I only accidentally came across while browsing the web for stories about Dubrovnik. Kupari was a resort town just a few kilometers south of Dubrovnik. During the heyday of Communist Yugoslavia, Tito had built a number of fancy resort hotels and private villas on the beach to serve as a tourist destination and as a retreat for the military leadership. It's still a phenomenal beach; it's clear why they picked it. But in 1991, during the Croatian war of independence (which caused the breakup of Yugoslavia), the resort was shelled by Yugoslavian warships and now the resort has been abandoned for over two decades. The buildings are sort of intact. Most of the structure is present, but they are clearly worse for attack, vandalism, and 22 years of neglect. Check it out:
Since 1991, the ruins have picked up a lot of graffiti:
It's sort of surprising what bits of the buildings remained intact and which didn't. This pane of glass was pretty much the only intact one on that entire side of its hotel.
The page I saw said that it's very dangerous to go into the decaying buildings. No doubt this is because of the possibility of structural damage and collapses -- there were certainly enough fallen roof sections to attest to that. However, it's equally obvious that tons of people have been going in. So, how could i resist a little exploration?
Far from walking around on tiptoes, it's clear that people have been using the derelict hotels as paintball courses (which sounds awesome).
Surprisingly, there was a lot of intact wiring in the buildings. I guess scrap metal looting isn't a big thing in Croatia.
This building used to house what was probably a fancy restaurant. On the right side of the second picture you can see the remains of booths, and in the center, the bar.
Eventually, my paranoia started to tingle. I've played enough Fallout to be intrigued by ruins, but also enough to know that there's probably a Super Mutant a room or two inside. I also sort of wanted a hard hat. So, I stopped exploring and spent a couple hours on the beach. Kupari still seems to be largely unknown (maybe I shouldn't write about it?); there were maybe three or four families there, and a couple anglers fishing off the docks. However, it looks like some money is being poured into the area. Off to the south side, there's a brand new pavilion with food stands, a lifeguard station, and showers. It was closed, but I'm sure it's a big draw in summer. There was also some heavy construction equipment on the north end pushing around rubble, so it's possible that the reconstruction has begun. Can't blame them -- it's a great spot.
I headed back to Dubrovnik and on the advice of a friend, went out to the Cafe Buza, just outside the southwestern walls of the Stari Grad, for sunset. Good call, Rishi:
Indian and Indian-fusiony things aside, I hadn't been getting much Asian food on this trip. So for dinner, I went to one of the few restaurants rated even higher than Nishtia on Tripadvisor: Azur, a Croatian-Asian fusion restaurant. Or, as they put it, Cro-asian. Har har.
Chili cashew sautéed shrimp definitely seemed pretty straight-up Asian, and my crispy-skin salmon seemed pretty European, so I got the feeling that the fusion was across menu items, not in individual dishes. But I couldn't argue with the results -- the food was quite good, especially the salmon.
A quick note about restaurants in Dubrovnik: food here is pretty cheap. Even nice multi course dinners like the one at Azur can easily be done for $30 or even $20 a head. However, in the old town at least, there's almost no indoor seating. This is fine for lunch, because it's lovely out. At night, though the air temperature is reasonable (high 50s?), a wicked breeze picks up and the wind chill makes it feel like it's freezing. Restaurants will provide blankets, but it's advisable to layer and wear a windbreaker, at least in the fall.
After dinner there was some sort of group concert or contest in the plaza by the main cathedral. Several different men's ensembles would come up and sing a single song each. It was too windy to hang around outside, so I ducked into a nearby cafe for dessert.
I chose chocolate macaroni cake, an item the menu billed as a local specialty. It was unique alright: sort of like a pie on the outside, with a very bready crust. The inside filling was something like a grainy chocolate mousse, like chunky Nutella...with a bunch of pasta in it. Not bad, but not really my thing.
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