Friday, January 4, 2019

Balkan Road Trip - 09. Ston: Walls, Salt and Oysters


Our favorite memory of Dubrovnik was not Dubrovnik itself, but a hike in the countryside along charming medieval ramparts followed by a most memorable meal of Croatian oysters and grilled fish, subsequently some wine tasting and concluding with a stroll amongst photogenic salt pans passed down from the Roman Empire.


For fellow travelers looking for day-trips options from Dubrovnik, this self-guided excursion far exceeded our expectations and is probably my best recommendation, if we define Kotor (3.5 hours each way) and Mostar (4 hours) as beyond striking distance. It could even be done by public transport, though a rental car would be tremendously helpful for the full experience.


The twin towns of Ston and Mali Ston are a world away from the swarms of multi-national cruise ship hordes at overloaded Dubrovnik. Visitors remain relatively few as of 2018, but that could quickly change should Ston be successful in its application for a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its cultural landscape of historic salt pans protected by a medieval network of defenses.


Then there are the amazing oysters, widely recognized as best in the Adriatic from its 2000-year-old tradition of shellfish cultivation that once supplied the Emperors of Rome. And needless to say, prices are a third cheaper compared with Dubrovnik.


Oh and there's the wine, a famously full-bodied red from an ancient varietal known locally as Plavac mali. It was an unbeatable combination of historic architecture, hiking opportunity, plus the promise of great seafood and wine that incited us to book a cheap rental car just for one day to explore the Peljesac Peninsula.


As an added bonus, the winding drive from Dubrovnik to Ston -- and onward to Split for that matter -- is one of the most spectacular highways in the world for its panoramic views of the Adriatic coastline with lush green islands floating in azure blue, making the 60 km of highways a visual treat in itself.


An hour later we parked our car right on the waterfront at Mali Ston, aptly named for a little (mali) town with a disproportionately enormous system of defensive walls, stretching towards Ston proper over a kilometer away at this narrowest point of the Peljesac Peninsula.


These crumbling walls once made up the largest fortification system in medieval Europe, 7 kilometres of stalwart ramparts that safeguarded the western border of the small Ragusan Republic, i.e. modern day Dubrovnik, in its struggle between the superpowers of Venetian Republic and Ottoman Empire.


The hike from Mali Ston to Ston was a thigh burning 45 minutes of rutted stairs, or realistically over an hour with plenty of photo stops overlooking the shallow turquoise waters of Mali Ston Bay. At certain angles and with Croatian warning signs concealed, these ramparts could almost pass for the Great Wall of China.


Once dilapidated and perilous, the 14th century walls have been partially restored by the local government with new metal railings to make it suitable for the average hiker. Two entrances exist -- one at Mali Ston and one Ston -- and hikers can choose to approach the pictured apex from either end.


Past the summit the fortified town of Ston came into view with its historic bastions, methodical grid of medieval blocks and of course its valuable salt pans that largely necessitated this entire system of defensive walls.


Readers with a fear of heights or vertigo may wish to start from Ston and finish the hike at Mali Ston, as the descent into Ston was menacingly steep even with some deceivingly strong railings. It took 75 minutes for us to return to level ground, followed by a short 20 minute walk back to Mali Ston and pick up our car.


Enough of viewing Mali Ston's floating oyster farms from a distance. It was time for a real lunch.

Before introducing our favorite restaurant in Croatia, I must forewarn that this place is only accessible by car, and even then it was amusingly difficult for us to find even with GPS.

Restaurant Review: FICOVIĆ (Ston) (Location Map)

This was a magical place that we never would have discovered without raving recommendations from multiple local residents.

There was no restaurant sign, just tables under the thatched roof of an expansive beachfront patio with the occasional swimmer walking back to his table, still dripping wet. In fact I had to run outside my car and confirm with the waitress whether I had arrived at the right restaurant, 3 km from Ston at the end of a village road in tiny Hodilje.


Fishermen would dock at the restaurant's own pier with freshly harvested conches that went straight to the stove. Clients at the next table would share the appetizer, jump into the sea for a swim before coming back for the entree. It had elements of an upmarket seafood restaurant crossed over with some Carribean cabana, which was unlike anything I had previously experienced.


Our friendly waitress brought the day's fresh catches with a large sea bass in the foreground, three sea breams on the left, and a reddish brown fish on the right that I had never seen before. Regular readers can probably guess which one I picked.


We started of course with Mali Ston's renowned oysters, harvested just a couple hundred metres from the restaurant at this innermost end of the 20-km-long Peljesac inlet, its salinity diluted by freshwater streams that continuously enrich the shellfish with rich minerals.

The resulting oysters were only slightly briny, but saturated with delightful mineral notes derived from the peninsula's karstic soil. It's easy to agree with the fine taste of Austro-Hungarian Emperors who had these same oysters shipped to Vienna on a regular basis.


To give an idea of how good this restaurant was, those Mali Ston oysters were almost outdone by the second course.

This was a wonderful platter of Mixed Shellfish Buzara, seasoned minimally with little but white wine, olive oil and chives, and no tomatoes at all. It was the simplest and probably tastiest of a bewildering spectrum of buzara recipes that we sampled along the Balkan coastline from Montenegro in the south to Porec near the Slovenian border.


Two of the five types of shellfish -- the Noah's Ark Shells second from the left and the semi-translucent Jingle Shells -- were entirely new to these two self-proclaimed seafood lovers. I particular enjoyed the Noah's Ark Shells, similar in appearance to Adriatic mussels but chewier and delightfully intense in flavor.


At last, our mystery fish known locally as Kavala, so expertly and caringly broiled that one could discern the smokiness of the wood charcoal in the perfectly crisped skin. It was perhaps the best grilled fish I've had anywhere in Europe, though my wife begs to differ in favor of a tiny taverna at Rhodes.

Meal for Two Persons
Mixed Shellfish Buzara110 Kuna
Ston Oysters x 12120 Kuna
Grilled Kavala 0.6 kg228 Kuna
Glass House White x 216 Kuna
Large Water25 Kuna
TOTAL499 Kuna (CAD$102)

This meal would have easily cost 50% more at Dubrovnik where the going price for Mali Ston oysters was 15 instead of 10 kuna each ... and without that dreamy ambiance! At 500 kuna (68 euros) our meal at Ficović still wasn't cheap, but it was a fair price unlike almost anything in Dubrovnik.


After a deliberately slow lunch we took shelter from the afternoon sun at the award-winning Vinarija Milos, renowned for generations of prized Plavac mali vines on their steep, limestone-rich slopes. We joined a Californian couple on a wine-tasting session complete with fascinating stories told by the grandson of the original proprietor, recounting stories of preserving their indigenous varietal of vines during the Yugoslav era.


Highlight of the tasting was supposed to be a signature dry red known as Stagnum, but instead I fell for their amazing olive oil, also award-winning and endowed with a rich, fruity flavour and intense grassy notes. I ended up bringing home a bottle and have been saving it only for special dishes.


At last we returned to Ston's famous salt pans, the oldest operating in Europe and the original purpose of Ston's existence when the medieval Republic of Ragusa needed to house its salt workers and the soldiers stationed at the imposing ramparts, built also to defend a commodity literally worth its weight in gold.


To this date the salt is still harvested by hand every summer, crystallizing through a series of evaporating pools for months before being scooped out mainly by curious volunteers willing to work the hard labour from early morning till noon on six day weeks in exchange for free lodging.


After a few obligatory selfies enhanced by the mirror-like reflections off the salt flats, we took the same spectacular drive back to Dubrovnik where we returned the car and settled for a cheap dinner of Cevapi. It was a breath of fresh air to get out of overpriced Dubrovnik for a few hours, and we're quite glad to move on to Bosnia and Herzegovina the next day.


The only hiccup of the day involved the rental car company employee who at one point accused us of breaking the pictured rear windshield wiper ... except this photo here was taken BEFORE we took the key! For readers looking for a rental car at Dubrovnik, you now know which company to avoid.

IF YOU GO

Ston is connected by highway buses departing Dubrovnik's long distance bus station, about three times a day depending on the season. After hiking the walls between Ston and Mali Ston, the return walk takes only 20 minutes via the main road. Though if you're seduced by the mouthwatering shellfish from Ficović, a rental car would be your best bet.

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