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In Dubrovnik, you can no longer take trolley cases for a walk – sounds like a publicity stunt, but it’s just the beginning.
The ban came quietly, but for a few days it has caused a media din. Dubrovnik has passed a law that reads from afar, as if it wants to throw a beating between the tattooed legs of those tourists on whom the “Pearl of the Adriatic” actually lives.
1.4 million tourists every year, and the trend is rising: in the Croatian port city, all of them are now prohibited from dragging a trolley suitcase over the cobblestone streets of the old town. Violations of the ban will be punished with a fine of 265 euros.
Legend:
That’s how you imagine it in Dubrovnik: fewer tourists – and those without trolley cases.
Getty Images / Melissa Tse
The law sees itself as a measure against noise pollution, which has increased since the “Game of Thrones” fan community discovered the city as a place of pilgrimage. For this purpose, special measuring devices would be put into operation.
A bit of peace
But did you have to “shoot in” on the pack of frenzied suitcase people to which we all belong, even if we disguise ourselves as backpackers with North Face bags? Sure: It’s annoying, the rattling of the things produced in a low-wage country, in which you’ve packed at most the new Martin Suter and a snorkel.
In the blind test, the “tak-tak-tak” sounds like a light barrage, but we long for peace, especially during the holidays. And what should today’s vacationers still hold on to in these uncertain times if their trolley case is taken away from them?
Psst!
Wouldn’t it be just as easy to order a ban on high heels or wooden zoccoli for noise protection reasons? Or have to yell in the face of the travel mob to shut up when drinking “Cüpli” or “Caipi”?
Or even better: just stay at home, why not for well-known ecological reasons. There are a few arguments, don’t ask your doctor or pharmacist, ask Greta Thunberg.
Too much is more than enough
No thinking person should be surprised that there are enough tourists in Dubrovnik and other places plagued by «overtourism».
Nevertheless: Isn’t it part of the nature of the trolley case that one of the two or four wheels no longer runs like clockwork as soon as master or mistress sets foot on cobblestones that could easily have been asphalted so that the natives could send me theirs Retro tick do not feel disturbed. So why all the fuss?
That’s just the beginning
Serious conspiracy theories are already doing the rounds. To write down: In Dubrovnik, they don’t want visitors to arrive without luggage and have to stock up on Schnokus in front of or in town, without the tourists thinking they couldn’t live in the shade of their umbrella drink. It is not the trolley case itself that is banned, just the fact that it is being moved on wheels.
Everyone is still free to become their, well, «tugboat» and to carry the suitcase through the alleys in a manner that is not easy on the back but rather easy on the wheels. The suspicion is obvious: the ban on trolley suitcases is intended to encourage the tourists, who tend to be lazy, to exercise.
So we should take the ban sportively – and hurry up. In the medium term, luggage in Dubrovnik should disappear completely from the city, and you will have to have them transported to your accommodation free of charge. If only that doesn’t make any noise.