Is it Tuesday or Wednesday? If it's Tuesday, we're in Dubrovnik.

11/29
As we were walking the wall that surrounds Dubrovnik, Sandy asked "Is this Wednesday?" I wasn't sure myself. As it turns out, it's Tuesday.

Today's main event was to walk the wall. It's about two miles around, but that doesn't count the steps up and down...there are so many we lost count. It provides a picturesque view of stone buildings, orange tile roofs, churches, and the sea. It took several hours. Again, the view of the water was magical.

You could easily see the thousands of roof tiles that have been replaced since the war in the 90's. Many places have plagues stating where mortar fire had landed and the damage incurred.

Went to two monasteries, one, Franciscan and the other, Dominican, and their adjacent churches. We saw a hand written copy of the New Testament from the 11 th century, lots of wonderfully restored paintings, many more than 1000 years old, and peaceful garden courtyards. Both monasteries still have a few monks and nuns.

Its 18:00. We are presently sitting in a plaza waiting for a political rally to begin, doing our political penance. They have elections the first part of December in Croatia. Good music, Croatian dancers and fun people watching. I'm sure we won't understand a thing, but then it won't be that different than at home.

Jadranka Kosor, current Prime Minister, member of HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union party), former President of Croatia, and the first female President was the primary speaker. She is credited with inspiring other women to run for office. We've seen her face allover Croatia on posters, and wondered who she is.

There were a few policemen around and lots of other local politicians, no secret service types. The crowd (maybe 300) was mostly older people who are well behaved and seemed to like what she was saying.

Lidija explained to us that the HDZ party is actually democratic (right of center), while the opposition (the current administration) is technically communist (left). Unfortunately, the former NDZ president was corrupt, stealing lots of money from the government, sent to jail. Voters are afraid to vote for the HDZ candidates.