An historic day

Arriving in Dubrovnik we checked in at the Hilton, perfectly placed for visiting the Old City which we did in the evening and following day. It took a lot of shelling during the war and the Serbians were close in the hills above but never came in. However the town has been completely rebuilt, you would never know except for the fact that half of the population fled and never returned. Many properties were bought by outsiders as holiday homes and consequently it is buzzing in the summer but the rest of the time is very quiet and the make up of the people has changed. It is a lovely town but not much was happening.

The coast road up to Split is scenic and slow but the atmosphere in the city was noticeably better than Dubrovnik. The city is built on and around the remains of the Dionesius Palace and our hotel in the center used the old rampart walls in places. Fish dinner was outstanding and we went to bed unprepared for the following day. As we ate breakfast the television was on and the entire country was waiting for the verdict from The Hague in the war crimes trial of 2 Generals, Gotovina and Markac who have been held for 8 years. They had been accused of plotting the ethnic cleansing of Serbians from the Krajina region. NOT GUILTY! The waitress and hostess were in tears (of joy), church bells started to ring, gunshots rang out and when we walked into the center the crowds were already celebrating, flags were flying in abundance. It was declared a holiday and the scenes were quite extraordinary.

This was an important moment for all Croatians, although the fighting ended 20 years ago there has been a cloud hanging over them with this trial and yesterday they could finally feel that the WAR is over and we could understand that sentiment, as we talked with various locals it was clear how much it means. We drove into Zadar in the late afternoon and the bands were playing, horns were honking and we watched the fireworks from the hotel where the Croatian bubbly was on the house.