October began with a trip to Dubrovnik, Croatia for me to present my paper on corporate longevity at the Global Business Seminar being held there. Met a lot of very interesting people - mostly from Eastern Europe - and had a great response to my paper. The conference hotel was just a short bus ride outside of Dubrovnik, which is an absolutely beautiful old walled city. Dubrovnik was more Mediterranean than Eastern European: the food (seafood, pasta, and pizza), wine, and olive oil all reminded me more of Italy than Poland or the Czech Republic. The conference included a city tour one evening as well as a dinner at a seaside restaurant (with delicious cuttlefish risotto) and a day's boat tour of the Elaphite Islands in the Adriatic Sea off Dubrovnik. All in all, an excellent conference!
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| A view of Dubrovnik from atop the wall.....and walking the narrow streets (below). |
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| On the ferry to Elaphite Islands |
A special treat while walking the walls was seeing extras from the cast filming the Game of Thrones.
Below is the location where they were going to be filming after the lunch break.
I have so many gorgeous photos of Dubrovnik from our wall walk I don't know how to select just a few to post here, but I'll try.
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| Dubrovnik is an amazing city. Go there. |
Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina
After the conference, we stayed for a few more days to spend more time exploring Dubrovnik and to take day trips to Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina and to Kotor, Montenegro, both just a few hours away. Not feeling comfortable renting a car for these trips, we signed up for day tours on a mini-bus, which worked out great given the border checks and other potential difficulties. These places a all so different even though they used to be part of the same country, speak essentially the same language, and are so close to each other geographically. However, religion and ethnicity have caused great strife and the results of the conflict are still much in evidence in Bosnia.
Above, the famous bridge of Mostar, one of the landmarks that was rebuilt after it was destroyed in the war. Below, one of the many buildings still in ruins. So different from Dubrovnik, which is almost completely rebuilt.
A few pictures of the Old Bazaar Muslim area of Mostar. And below, the lovely little restaurant where we had lunch on the balcony.
The Bay of Kotor, Montenegro
It's hard to pick a few photos to represent our day trip to the beautiful Bay of Kotor in Montenegro. As a prime vacation area for Russians, many of the new buildings were rather nondescript but the old buildings were pretty well maintained. The ride was a little harrowing, with the mountain on one side and a steep drop to the Adriatic Sea on the other, but the views were great.
Alison and Scott (and Lambeau) have announced they will be having a baby in May 2015. We are sooooo excited!!!! I certainly won't be doing as much traveling in 2015, and it will be a great year.
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