Croatia

Hello all well firstly, I must apologize for the lateness of this post. But I have limited access to the internet these days. So on the 1st of September, Will arrived from Canada. We had a couple of days in London went to see a West end show etc. Also spent a lot of time waiting for Will’s bag to arrive which had been lost of the journey over here.

On the 3rd we flew to a small town on the Croatian coast called Zadar. We arrived late, found our hotel and had a beautiful seafood dinner at a lovely restaurant by the sea. The next day up early to have a look at the town, however some rather nasty clouds were looming and we retreated to the hotel just in time. We sat out a huge thunderstorm for a few hours, gave up on seeing the town and headed to the bus station to travel down the coast.

We arrived in Split after a diverted bus ride due to grass fires. After finding some accommodation, Croatia is lacking in youth hostels so the local women have jumped on the gap in the market for cheap accommodation and rent out rooms in their homes. So we stayed in a room of a lovely young family. It was so nice to be by the sea and in a warmer climate. I jumped on my chance to indulge on getting some Gelato. We wandered around the old town to see Diocletian’s Palace an old Roman ruin. The rest of the evening was spent running from more torrential rain and eating yummy pizza.

Up early again! What is this a holiday with early starts and rain!!! We took a ferry to a little island off the coast called Hvar. On the ferry a woman offered us a room in her place, which we accepted, however she still decided to follow us around the boat making sure we didn’t talk to any other woman, and kept asking us if everyone was ok. She’d arranged for her husband to meet the ferry. As we left the ferry she was barking at the other woman waiting and herded us to her husband who drove us to town in their little commi car (for some reason we both would have been disappointed if it was a flash car).

Hvar was a beautiful island. The water is an unbelievable clear blue, and the town has lovely historic little buildings and with a large castle on the hill above. Our first day we wandered around town and then after lunch took a little boat out to one of the other tiny islands to do a spot of sun-bathing European style ;) The next day more rain I couldn’t believe it!!!!

Hvar receives 2724 hours of sunshine a year, it’s one of the sunniest islands on the coast. But we had to sit it out in miserable rain, our waiter told us that it was the first time it had rained in 3 months. Why or why on my holiday. The rain did clear and my spirits brightened. We walked to the castle for some spectacular views. That night I lifted my spirits more with some more Gelato (I can’t believe I ate the whole thing)!

The next morning we took the ferry back to Split and then took the bus to Dubrovnik. Unfortunately we sat in front of the two most annoying Aussies I’ve come across on my travels. They spent the whole bus ride complaining about Australia, what a racist bunch of people we are how, education in Australia sucks, I could go on like them but I won’t. Needless to say they were travelling on Australian passports, had super Aussie accents. They were actually told to shut up by a few people on the bus tired of their complaining.

Aside- Shock two tourists kidnapped in Dubrovnik!

Now I have mentioned how we have been staying in spare rooms of people’s homes. In Dubrovnik we wanted to stay in the old town so a nice lady met us at the bus station and showed us pictures of her home and it was in a great location. While we were waiting to go with her to the bus station her phone rang. She informed us that her son would pick us up and take us. A few minutes later a young guy rolls up in his flash Audi nearly knocks a pedestrian. He was huge with a shaved head and designer sun-glasses. We hopped into the car to the blaring tunes of gangster rap. Then the woman announced that she would met us in the old town and the son drove off. Will and I looked at each other. What the hell was going on? Had we been kidnapped by the local drug dealing king-pin? What did he want with us? How were we going to escape we managed to communicate to each other with our eyes.

He drove like a maniac he basically drove on the wrong side of the road pushed his way into the traffic, however people seemed very willing to let him in and were even nice to him. Whilst doing this he kept getting waves and honks from all his friends on the road. Near the old town we come to a halt. Will and I sprang out of the car to find our driver with another big burley man. He then helped us with our bags, had a chat with us and gave us flyers for the posh nightclub he was a bouncer at. Then another lovely woman showed us to our great room!

We felt like silly tourists and both had a secret guilt for being so untrusting but you have to admit it was kind of weird!

So Dubrovnik, it is a stunning city. We stayed in the old town, which is the heart of the city. It was severely damaged during the war however it has been beautifully restored and is now a tourist Mecca.

There were 4 cruise ships in town when we were there, this meant there were tourists everywhere, but it still manages to keep its charms. The old town is paved with white marble and is enclosed with stonewalls, It is full of street cafés as well as beautiful monuments. We ate well, drank at a bar with a beautiful view. We walked around the walls of the city and I also got to fulfil my holiday wish of going swimming.