When I was a child I used to think my father was the most popular man in Dubrovnik. We would go about town in the morning and he used to stop every few minutes to talk to people that recognized him in the street. It took us ages to get anything done. I remembered this just yesterday as I was walking down the street doing the exact same thing. Turns out my father wasn't the most popular person here. It's just that we live in a place with population of merely forty five thousand and sometimes all of us get the feeling we know everybody in Dubrovnik.Maybe that's the key to the low crime rate. It is very difficult to keep anything a secret here, just ask teenagers. Their parents don’t have to worry about what they do and who they meet when they go out. Someone is bound to tell them. My grandmother spent virtually all her time indoors for years before she died. Once, when I was eighteen, I was visiting her and she asked me about my new girlfriend. I was shocked she knew I had one. In the few weeks I've been seeing that girl my grandmother probably never left the house. Not even my closest friends knew. Not only that, but she also heard my new girlfriend was recently divorced and had a couple of kids, which was not true. Well, that's Dubrovnik for you. We certainly love a good gossip, and we love it even more when it's a bit embellished.Living in a small place like this does have its charms. When everybody knows everyone else, the tendency is to be a bit more relaxed in everyday dealings. For example, it's very hard to keep a professional distance with a client if that client is also a friend of your mother's and has seen your baby photos. I always had a problem with living in a place where everyone knows me. However, it bothers me less and less as the years go by. I can't help but feel it's not just the mild climate and the number of sunshine hours that make living here so desirable to many. Maybe it’s the sense of community and the feeling of safety that comes from it that make this place feel like home.