"Everybody Must Get Ston'd"

As Cliff Claven would say, it's a little known fact

that Bob Dylan's song, "Everybody Must Get Stoned" was first written as "Everybody Must Get Ston'd" about visiting the small Croatian town of Ston.

Ston is famous for three things:

1.    Oysters

2.    Salt

3.    Having the second longest wall in the world.

No, it's not as long as the Great Wall of China, but the Pretty Good Wall of Ston™ actually IS the second longest wall in the world.  

(Editor: You didn't actually trademark the "Pretty Good Wall of Ston" phrase, did you?  Writer: Not yet, but I'm thinking of doing so.  I think it could catch on.  Hipsters would be wearing PGWS™ sweatshirts and hats.  

It would be part of the stone wall circuit -- just like people hike Colorado 14ers or the tallest mountain on each continent, people would hike the Pretty Good Wall of Ston as a training for hiking the entire Great Wall of China.  After all, doing the PGWS would be 0.000258% of the Great Wall, so it would be like running nearly 36 feet to prepare a marathon!

(Editor: You are making that up!  Writer: Actually, no.  Sadly, I did the math just to entertain my readers.  There are 138,435 feet in a marathon.  Multiplied by 0.000258, that equals 35.716 feet.  Editor: Well, your new marathon training program will definitely sweep the nation.  Well, until they try to run a marathon after following your program!)

I had hired a car and driver to take the three of us from Dubrovnik to Split.  I added two stops (at a cost) to our itinerary, including the walled city of Ston.  We had an hour in Ston, so we immediately set out to walk the unique city wall.  I had wanted to see some historic small towns without renting a car to do so.

Ston was an Illyrian settlement until the Romans established a colony there in 167 BC.  Demolished in an earthquake in 1252, the new city was built during turbulent times.  The stone walls and fortress, built to protect both Ston and Mali Ston (meaning "Little Ston") was started in 1334.  Built in approximately 18 months, the fortifications were unique to Europe at the time.  The walls have been damaged over the years, most recently in the 1991-95 Croatian War of Independence.  

Besides protecting the city, the walls protected the saltworks and shellfish farm that were making significant money for the Dubrovnik Republic.  The saltworks alone were earning nearly $3,000,000 per year for the Republic.

Most of the walls have been restored.  Maddy did the whole smaller circuit.  Meanwhile, Carol and I, enfeebled by injury (Carol) and surgery (me), did far less, but got the gist of the wall.  

Climbing Croatian walls is hot work because of the temperature, and it's hard work because there is seemingly no flat land in that part of Croatia.

It is 3.4 miles long, which is only 13,168 miles shorter than the Great Wall.  Built in 15th Century, the wall featured 40 towers (20 of which still stand),