Boys will be boys

Dubrovnik is a lovely city. Actually the entire old town is like a museum. There are only a few enterances through the city wall, to enter the old town. The entire city wall is intact. Well, during the last war in 1991 the wall was severely damaged, but by now it has been completely restaurated.

City wall of Dubrovnik.

It is possible to walk around Dubrovnik on the city wall. From the wall you can oversee the entire city. On the corners there are guard towers. On the picture below, which I took from a fort located higher on the mountain, you can see the entire city wall.

Old town of Dubrovnik.

From the city walls I could see everyday live in dubrovnik. Despite the many tourists invading Dubrovnik during the summer months, there are still people living in the old town. From the city wall I could see some  playing soccer  with a bright red ball. They had placed some small goals in between buildings. Let's play!


Not being disturbed by the tourists, these kids were playing soccer.
The grafiti on the wall is the only grafiti I saw in Dubrovnik.

From the city wall I could see that they were becoming less en less carefull. And surely, the red ball flew over the wall surrounding the monastary/church. At first there was shock, but right after that I could see the naughty look in their faces. How to get the ball back?  I could follow the boys on the city wall. A little further some reconstruction work was in progress, and they could use this construction to climb on. From here they could see the red ball in the monastary garden.

The view onto the monastary garden.

Then a big discussion started. Who should climb the wall? It was clear that they all had some fear of doing it. Just as one of the boys was showing signs of being willing to do it, a local lady, also walking the city wall started shouting at them. After some shouts and explanation between them, the woman gave up, and continued walking. The biggest kid, climbed over the wall, with iron spikes, and jumped in the garden. He ran to the ball, being carefull to stick to the paths in the garden, and not tred on the plants. the ball was immediately thrown over the wall. But how could he get out? The boys overlooking the garden were now tough again and started shouting advice. Fortunatly there was a tree near the wall, and the kid could climb out!

This wall was at least 2.5 meters high!

While I continued walking the ciyt wall Icould hear them playing soccer again. Right in the middle of what I consider to be an open air museum!