Dubrovnik

If there is a place full of contradictions it is the Dalmatian coast and Croatia. It is a stunningly beautiful place where the populace went mad and tried to destroy each other. But that has ended and you can see the rebuilding has gone well.

The Serb and Montenegran forces shelled the people of Dubrovnik just because their town was beautiful and that they had voted for secession. How dumb is that? There is still some shrapnel damage.

Things are going much better now and the region and the old town are being heavily invested in by the tourist industry.

We did a seven hour tour of the region followed by two hours in Dubrovnik’s historic area. Our tour guide Sanja was incredible. She spoke almost perfect English. And French. And the native tongue. Consider this, all Croatian children are given mandatory foreign language instruction from 1^st through 12^th grade. Every one of the natives we met spoke English.

These two Croat musicians even did mariachi music in Spanish. Remarkable. I think Governor Richardson should put a plank in his presidential platform that mandates the same thing for American children. If we don’t start doing that we will be left in the dust by other countries who do so.

Tomorrow we are at sea all day on the way to Athens. We need the rest.