Blog 284 – Dubrovnik After the Siege: A Journey Through War, Healing, and Hope in Croatia Part 1 – 21 June 2025

My purpose is to give hope to those who have lost hope. Without hope, we remain lost in the Shadow Lands.

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Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 and a ferocious war broke out.  The Yugoslav Army tried to crush Croatia’s independence.  Dubrovnik was subjected to a terrible siege which lasted from 1991 until June 1992.  Although Dubrovnik is a recognised World Heritage site, the Yugoslav Army tried to destroy it and its people.

The Croatian War of Independence finally finished in 1995.  Croatia owes its independence to the unfailing courage of its people.  They refused to surrender hope for a better future.

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More reminders of the savage War for Independence that flung death from the tops of the mountains down onto Dubrovnik below.  

John Hankin photos taken in Dubrovnik, 26 September 2013.

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Sunset over Dubrovnik on 26 September 2013.

John Hankin photo taken in Dubrovnik, 26 September 2013.

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The ancient castle walls that protect the old city of Dubrovnik.  They were greatly needed during the War of Independence.

John Hankin photo taken in Dubrovnik, 27 September 2013.

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A more modern section of the Dubrovnik city walls.

John Hankin photo taken in Dubrovnik, 27 September 2013.

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Dubrovnik old city as seen from the city walls on 27 September 2013.

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Help yourself to heal Help others heal Give Love Always

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The wisdom of the living as well as the ghosts of the dead should always be listened to.  The living and the dead are beautiful people.  The wisdom of the living as well as the ghosts of the dead are everywhere in Dubrovnik.

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Entry Made at 6:00 pm on Friday 27 September 2013 Another entry written on the balcony at Nicky's guest House.  The sun is sinking but daylight probably has about an hour to go.  The breeze is blowing and it has again been a gentle, sunny day. Today we walked to the Old City.  It is about 45 minutes walking each way.  We bought tickets that let us walk along the top of the still intact city walls.  It took us about 1 hour 10 minutes to complete the circumference of the walls.  The walls completely surround the old city and there is no motor vehicle access to the old city.  Although the tourist "season" has ended, there were thousands of people walking the walls.  It is not an easy walk because it is necessary to go up and down many hundreds of steps. After lunch in a restaurant where we had excellent fish, we did a tour of the town within the walls.  Then we walked back to the guest house.  Walking here is hard work out because there are so many hills.

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Dubrovnik Part 2 (Friday 27 September 2013 at 6:15 pm) Nicky says that during the siege, the Serbian Army launched about 4,000 shells per day. Some of them might have hit the sea, Yet surely even these "wasted" shells still matter just as much as the ones that hit land. The house we are staying in was built by Nicky's grandfather. The house next door was built by the brother of Nicky's grandfather. In this context, the word "built" means personally built. Built with two hands and two legs by two brothers. Nicky says that when these two houses were built, The remainder of the hill was just steep slope; Devoid of other houses. Now this slope - and all the adjoining slopes - is packed with houses; Packed with apartment blocks; Packed with people and the things that accompany people. With 4,000 shells per day falling like a crazy thunderstorm from the sky, This house was completely destroyed. While the war still raged, the ground floor was made liveable. Nicky's family, Like all of the families in Dubrovnik, Sought refuge in the earth itself. Those who moved above the earth Received a welcome of hot metal from the Serbian Army. Anyone moving in this town was Croatian. All Croatians were the enemy. All Croatians deserved death. So a hail of sniper fire joined the shells. Death from above. After nine months, the siege was lifted. After 4 years, the war finally ended. It was 1995. Nicky's house was finally rebuilt in 2002. It was rebuilt with human hands and human feet. The balcony on the house has a metal railing. It winds its way along the whole length of the balcony. Elegant curved vertical struts join the top and bottom rails. Like the house itself, This is a fine piece of workmanship. Nicky's father built the balcony railing. Nicky's father helped to rebuild the house. Nicky's father fought throughout the siege of Dubrovnik. He was part of a volunteer people's army. He was defending the home of his family; Defending the homes of his neighbours. Now there are few signs of the war. Thousands of tourists admire the physical beauty of Dubrovnik. What permits this to happen? The people of Dubrovnik permit this to happen. The same people who saw their homes reduced to rubble.; In a war that should never have been. The same people who rebuilt their homes; Rebuilt their city. After a war they never wanted, had been won.

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Courage is the only way that we can ever create the Paradise that should be here on Earth.

Hatred only perpetuates the Hell we have already made on this planet. 

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The photos in this Blog were all taken by me in Dubrovnik.  When I visited Dubrovnik in 2013, it had mostly covered up the physical scars left by the War of Independence.  The mental scars were much harder to heal.

Why would anyone want to stop the Croatians – or any other people – from governing themselves?  There is only one eternal answer – because of greed and stupidity.  No other answer fits all of the facts.

 

Blog No. 283 – Dubrovnik, Croatia, Part 1 – 20 June 2025

My purpose is to give hope to those who have lost hope. Without hope, we remain lost in the Shadow Lands.

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Although the Hankin rough rule says that all thuggish regimes have a maximum likely lifespan of between 80 and 100 years, sometimes the lifespan is shorter.

Croatia was forced to become a part of the Communist country called Yugoslavia when WW2 finally finished.  Other countries forced into becoming part of Yugoslavia were Bosnia and Hetzogovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia and Serbia. Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 and a ferocious war broke out when the Yugoslav Army tried to crush Croatia.  The siege of Dubrovnik lasted from 1991 until June 1992.  Although Dubrovnik is a recognised World Heritage site, the Yugoslav Army tried to destroy it and its people.

The Croatian War of Independence finally finished in 1995.

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The new city area of Dubrovnik, Croatia.  The port is exquisite and cruise ships visit regularly and it is easy to see why.  No one would guess from looking at this peaceful scene, that death regularly fell out of the skies all over Dubrovnik.

John Hankin photo taken in Dubrovnik, 26 September 2013.

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Dubrovnik is surrounded by mighty mountains.  The Yugoslav Army tried to conquer the high places on the mountains so it could hurtle death on the people below.

John Hankin photo taken in Dubrovnik, 26 September 2013.

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The narrow, astonishingly steep walkways that thread Dubrovnik.

John Hankin photo taken in Dubrovnik, 26 September 2013.

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A rusting remnant of the siege of Dubrovnik and the Croatian War for Independence.

John Hankin photo taken in Dubrovnik, 26 September 2013.

Dubrovnik city harbour at 11.00 pm on 25 September 2013.

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Help yourself to heal Help others heal Give Love Always

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The ghosts of the dead should always be listened to; they are beautiful people.  The ghosts are everywhere in Dubrovnik as well as in Poland.

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Diary Entry Made at 8:40 am on Thursday 26 September 2013 We are in Nicky's Guest House in Dubrovnik.  Nicky picked us up from Dubrovnik airport and talked to us until just after midnight.  He is a very kind man.  I am on the balcony overlooking the Dubrovnik harbour.  The view is extremely beautiful.  The harbour is like a bowl, with steep hills on the other side of it.  The hills are covered with more housing, but they are also covered with thousands of trees. The day is full of gorgeous sunshine and the air has a cool, crisp quality to it.  There isn't the same level of heat blanket that there always was in Spain. We left the Be Dream hostel at about 3:50 pm and took the Metro to Clot.  Then we had a confusing few minutes trying to find the Renfre platform where you board the train to the airport.  Renfre is the national railway system.  The Metro is run by Barcelona City.  The Renfre train took us to Terminal 2 at Barcelona airport.  Then we had a long (but free) bus to Terminal 1.  The plane (a Vuehling flight) left on time at 7:35 pm and got us to Dubrovnik airport at 9:45 pm.  Croatia is on the same time zone as Spain. Nicky is an engineer and returned 3 days after working for 7 months as a ship engineer in Cuba.  He says Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 and had 5 years of war before independence was confirmed.  Dubrovnik was under siege by the Serbian army for (I think he said) 9 months - an astonishing story.

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Dubrovnik: Part 1 (Thursday 26 September 2013 at 6:45 pm) Dubrovnik is situated in a part of the Adriatic that pushes itself into a wall of steep hills. The hills dominate the water. The hills are dominated by trees and buildings. The buildings have not yet completely overcome the trees; They probably will in the future. This morning there were two cruise ships in port. Now there is only one. It is relatively small; Perhaps it isn't really even a cruise ship. The holiday season rush is now over, So tourist numbers are smaller. Dubrovnik is a network of houses that have been built into the sides of the hills. Flat spaces exist only around the harbour. Today we visited the new city. Tomorrow we visit the old city. The sun has now vanished behind the hill. The evening has a crisp feel to it.. Voices in the adjoining houses speak Croatian. Cars pass on the main road uphill from the guest house. This is not Spain. This is Croatia. After being almost overwhelming this morning, The sense of dislocation is fading. Yes, This is Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is in Croatia.

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Courage is the only way that we can ever create the Paradise that should be here on Earth.

Hatred only perpetuates the Hell we have already made on this planet. 

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The photos in this Blog were all taken by me in Dubrovnik.  When I visited Dubrovnik in 2013, it had mostly covered up the physical scars left by the War of Independence.  The mental scars were much harder to heal.

Why would anyone want to stop the Croatians – or any other people – from governing themselves?  There is only one eternal answer – because of greed and stupidity.  No other answer fits all of the facts.

 

Blog No. 282 – Krakow – 19 June 2025

My purpose is to give hope to those who have lost hope. Without hope, we remain lost in the Shadow Lands.

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All things must pass, even Nazis and murderous Russians.  The Hankin rough rule says that all thuggish regimes have a maximum likely lifespan of between 80 and 100 years.  This rule can be seen at work in the case of Poland.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 saw the establishment of the astonishingly murderous Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

If so much attention had not been focused on Hitler’s Germany, some more attention might have been given to the equally murderous Joseph Stalin, the ruler of the USSR from 1924 until 1953.  If anyone had been able to accurately keep count, Stalin would have been in a dead heat with Hitler for the award for having murdered the most number of people - ever.

Stalin’s army had the Nazis on the run when the Poles tried to liberate their own country on 1 August 1944.  Stalin ordered his army to stop all offensive operations against the Germans.  Stalin wanted the Germans to murder as many Poles as possible; this would make it easier for Stalin to take over from Hitler as occupier of Poland.  About 15,000 Polish combatants and 250,000 civilians were murdered by the Germans.  

Like Hitler, Stalin thought exterminating people was a good idea.

Poland eventually freed itself from Soviet occupation in 1989.

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One of the death house guard towers at Auschwitz Birkenau.  Approaching the barbed wire fence immediately in front of the guard tower meant certain death.  People were simply shot.

Photo John Hankin, 18th of October 2013.

Part of the sleeping “accommodation” at the Birkenau part of Auschwitz Birkenau.  The photo shows the complete suite of bedding provided to those imprisoned there – there was nothing at all provided by the Nazis.

John Hankin photo taken in Krakow, 18th of October 2013.

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The outside of the “sleeping accommodation” at Birkenau.  Many, many people died from the bitter, bitter cold prevalent in Polish winters.  These buildings were vile when I visited on the 18th of October 2013.  I cannot begin to imagine how ghastly it must have been to try and stay alive in this completely vile place.

John Hankin photo taken in Krakow, 18th of October 2013.

A surviving fragment of the wall that caged the Jews who lived in Krakow.  The Krakow Ghetto was torn down by the Nazis in 1943.  The Nazis had hit on a far more lethal way to murder Jews. 

John Hankin photo taken in Krakow, 17th of October 2013.

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Cracow, John Hankin photo taken 17th of October 2013.

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Krakow, John Hankin photo taken 17th of October 2013. 

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Cracow, John Hankin photo taken at Auschwitz, 18th of October 2013.

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Help yourself to heal Help others heal Give Love Always

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The ghosts of the dead should always be listened to; they are beautiful people.

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Galeria Krakowska (Sunday 20 October 2013 at 11:45 am) We are sipping coffee in an upmarket ice cream shop. Outside the glass wall of the shop is an escalator.  It takes people up to the next two levels. Sitting underneath the escalator is a fountain. The fountain has a central and major water jet, Plus many smaller jets. Music piped out of the speakers in our coffee shop competes with other music; Other music is piped through the speakers outside the shop. People hurry; Stop suddenly and inexplicably. They are well dressed. There are hundreds of shops on the various levels. They are all brightly lit; Enticing you to go in. If you do enter these shops, Your wallet will go on an instant diet. It will be much slimmer when you come out.  This is Galeria Krakowska; An "upmarket" shopping complex. It sits next to the central railway station. Get off any train, You will enter Galeria Krakowska. Some 73 years ago, the Nazis invaded Poland. A Nazi thug named Hans Frank ruled Poland for the Nazis. From his luxury lair in Krakow, Hans Frank and his thuggees tried to murder the whole country. Hans Frank and the Nazis failed.  Only 68 years ago, the Russians tried to rob this country of its soul. They too failed. The muzak in the shop chants "We've got the power!"  How true this is. What is the proof? Go to Galeria Krakowska. It is a place where the Poles show that they do have the power. They are using it to build the country that they want; Not the country that others might think they ought to have.

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Courage is the only way that we can ever create the Paradise that should be here on Earth.

Hatred only perpetuates the Hell we already have on this planet. 

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The photos in this Blog were all taken by me in Krakow and Birkenau.  Cracow, like all of Poland, suffered immensely because of hatred, but the Poles rebuilt a country worth living in.