Morning Walk to Duboka Draga, Vrsi
In the world that is the Dalmatian coast, every small town has its own mythology and lure, yet each share’s a unified character. Built by the terrain, its rocks and shrubs, Dalmatia can feel like a fever dream.
At the draga there is now a cafe-bar decorated with the local spirit.
One early morning in August, I went to the draga, the cove, in my father’s town of Vrsi. I have walked this path with my grandmother, with my dad, and now alone.
The path just after sunrise, at the height of summer.
I have watched my cousins swim here, teaching their children to jump from the rocks. The water is deep and the path almost tells you what to expect when you make it to the sea.
A neighbor’s pomegranate at the top of the path, slowly ripening for the autumn harvest.
The world still grows here, green and sharp. Modern jobs, the loss of population to the city and disapora, all of it disappears as the summer brings us back to our senses, quite literally.
A bright bench that I have never seen before greets me at Duboka Draga. Miss a year or two and some things will change. Take them as the come.
The beach at the cove has changed in some ways now, with a small place to buy drinks. Arrive early the neighbors told me, because soon the tourists would come. None of them would walk. All of them would drive.
Not every sign is official in these parts.
Sometimes I joke with people and tell them I’m half Dalmatian and watch their eyes open wide. Disney made the dogs popular but most people don’t realize there is an ancient tribe that gives us our name and provides a strong relationship to our land and sea. There are links as durable as the stones that define our boundaries, as the cliffs that nature has given us.
Other people arrive and when they do, I realize they are both local and live in Germany. They are hybrids like we are, living between cultures and places. Sounds glamorous, but it’s kind of part of our nature by now. People leave and they return. Grandmas and grandchildren mix their languages, and everyone understands —more or less.
a cairn by the beach as the sun grows strong, Duboka Draga, 2024. Vrsi, Croatia.
