While here in Dubrovnik, we've had a number of opportunities
to get out on the sea. There are several beaches right in the city. Now they
are called beaches, but in fact they are swimming areas along the never ending
rocky shore. They're promoted as very clean, no sand to get in everything you've
brought, and the water is truly crystal clear. The rocks are anything but
smooth and not tender-foot friendly, so a pair of sandals were
useful. The rocky beaches are well used by tourists and locals alike, and made
for a pleasant multi-cultural experience.
At various places around the city, they also rent kayaks.
They are colourful reds, yellows and oranges that look wonder on the clear
water and compliment the rocky shoreline. Out on the water, there's always a
little sea-swell which at times combined with the boat wakes to add a little
challenge and excitement to the ride. We
were out for a couple of hours and toured around the nearby island of Lockrum.
Yesterday's adventure was to the island of Lopud. To get
there, we took the city bus to the Dubrovnik harbour, then ferried to the
Island. On landing, we rented bicycles and cycled through the historic
harbour-front town then over to the far side where there's a real sand beach.
We swam, had our European lunch of fruit, cheese and Croatian
wine, all the time enjoying the sun and sand.
While searching for our spot on the sand, we noticed and
interesting phenomenon. About 10% of the beach was posted as a nude beach, or
FKK here in Croatia. FKK is the acronym coming from freikorperkultur, or
"free body culture" in German. It was quieter there than the rest of
the beach overall. The phenomenon, was that as we walked the half kilometer long
beach, the closer we got to the FKK end, the more topless women there were.
Topless and nude bathing is quite common in Europe of course, and more common
in some countries than others. But the continuum from family sunning at one end
through to nude sunbathing at the other was interesting and seemed comfortable
for all.
Along with more liberal beaching, is changing from street
wear to bathing suit and back again. Some folks take the time and have truly
refined a technique to remain covered up,
while others make it a quick flash keeping the exposure to a minimum.
As we look at moving on, here in Dubovnik, we've had fun in the
sun in and around the waters of the beautiful Adriatic sea.
Click this link for the next story in this series: Lady Luck from Dubrovnik to Split
Click this link for the next story in this series: Lady Luck from Dubrovnik to Split
