The walled city of Dubrovnik

Bradley's visa was approved on Thursday, giving him a further 30 months in the UK. While I don't think we'll stay a further two and a half years, we're relieved that the process is over and done with, and we can resume regular blogging again now we don't feel so stressed!

So a few weeks ago, we spent an amazing week in Croatia. We flew into Dubrovnik on Saturday evening, having left London in the afternoon, which made a nice change from leaving in the early hours of the morning.

We landed at about 8.00 p.m., arriving to the chaos of two or three flights arriving at the same time into the very small arrivals area at Dubrovnik airport. After what seemed like forever waiting in a huge crowd, we managed to get through and meet our taxi to take us to our apartment.

We were staying in an apartment in the Ploce area of Dubrovnik, outside the city walls, and slightly elevated above the city, giving us amazing views, but without the loudness of the Old Town.

We were met at the apartment by the owner Stijepo, who sat us down with a much appreciated beer and took us through the best places to visit, eat and drink in Dubrovnik. He highlighted on the map his favourite places to eat, which was fantastic, since there are so many places to eat in Dubrovnik, and it would have been impossible to decide otherwise!

After dropping off our stuff and getting out of our jeans and into shorts, we headed out to get some dinner and explore Dubrovnik. As soon as we stepped outside we were hit by the humidity, it was so muggy and it was after 9.00 p.m.

It was lovely wandering around the city so late at night, it was almost completely deserted and we just wandered through the back streets without the map, and turning around when we came across dead ends. Dubrovnik is a extremely pedestrian friendly city, no cars are allowed within the city walls.

We had dinner at a tiny restaurant down a back street that Stijepo had recommended. We both had fish, along with fresh tomato and mozzarella. Croatia has amazingly fresh seafood, and everything is so cheap. It took us a while to get used to Croatian Kuna's, our dinner came to over 400 Kuna, which was about GBP 41.00.

After dinner we went straight back to the apartment to go to bed. We had to get up early to walk the city walls before the crowds of tourists arrived on the cruise ships.

We woke up early the next morning, and headed off to be at the City Walls when they opened at 8.00 a.m.

It was already super hot, about 30 degrees, and we were already hot and sweaty by the time we arrived at the entrance.

A big cruise ship had arrived during the night, and the first boats were ferrying people towards Dubrovnik as we left the apartment, so we were glad we got up so early.

The walk around the walls was amazing, we could see the entire city, and over to the island of Lokrum. We managed to get stuck behind a Japanese tour group, so we had a lot of stopping for photos before we managed to speed around them!

Hair already stuck to my face at 8.30 a.m...

Halfway round, the wall sloped downwards and was really slippery. After a few close calls, we both had to take off our shoes and walk the rest of the way on the hot stones in our bare feet. We did get a lot of funny looks, but I don't think bare feet is as bad as the socks with sandals we saw on a lot of other tourists.

Bradley holding onto his shoes, bare feet left out of the photo...

The famous Buza Bar, serves only drinks and is a lovely spot to watch the sunset

Lots of people were standing on this poor mans head hugging the heart on the wall. Didn't really understand it. I think the challenge is to stand there without support, it was funny to watch people falling off!

Stradun, Dubrovnik's main street

Dubrovnik is at the bottom of a very large hill, so is surrounded by stairs. Luckily our apartment was only up a short slope, and we were glad we weren't staying on the next road up, as it involved at least 100 stairs to get up and down.

Dubrovnik started to get very busy at about lunchtime, so we headed back to our apartment to have a shower and put our togs on.

We decided to spend the rest of the day on Lokrum, an island only 15 minutes by boat, and located in Dubrovnik's harbour. It has a reputation for being haunted, possibly because of the hoards of peacocks that live on the island, and their eerie cries. No one stays on the island past 8.00 p.m. at night.

Despite being so close to Dubrovnik, it was very quiet, and a lovely respite from the crowds.

In the centre of the island is a small salt water lake, called The Dead Sea. It doesn't appear to share anything but the name with its more famous namesake.

We were more than ready for a swim by the time we arrived, but while Bradley jumped right in, I was a bit more hesitant due to the extremely slippery rocks which made it really hard to get in and out of the water.

We stayed there for a while and cooled off, and watched people jumping from the top of the cliffs down into the water below. I have to say, neither of us were brave enough to try this!

Trying very hard not to slip and fall on my face

Perhaps not the best choice of clothing over my togs (you think I would have learned from last time)

After drying off slightly, we explored the island some more and came across the Botanical Garden. It has a lot of vegetation and trees from South America and Australia. There were Eucalyptus trees everywhere, we kept expecting to see a Koala. 

Posing amongst the Cactus Garden

Trying to get out of the Cactus Garden

The Lokrum Dock

Having wandered around the inside of the island, we were ready for another swim. We settled down on the rocks by the dock and spent the remainder of the afternoon in the sun.

Croatia doesn't have too many beaches, most of the time it will be very rocky, or there will be a ladder leading down into the water from the rocks. The water is really clear, which is good because it means you can mostly avoid the sea urchins which are everywhere!

Peacock Babies!

In the late afternoon we headed back on the boat to have another shower and get ready for dinner. We had watched the cruise ship leave the harbour, so were hoping it wasn't as busy as it had been earlier.

Looking up towards the Ploce area where we were staying

After washing off all the salt water and changing into something more appropriate than togs, we decided to watch the sunset from the top of the mountain overlooking Dubrovnik. 

You can either walk up, which takes about half an hour, or you can take a Cable Car which takes about 4 minutes. No prizes for guessing which option we chose.

The view from the top was amazing, we could see all of Dubrovnik and Lokrum, plus all the way to Mljet, the island we were going to visit the next day.

The sunset was lovely, however the viewing platform was not on the right side, hence the Cable Car in the way! Terrible planning on their part.

I had to lean precariously over a fence on the side of the cliff for this uninterrupted shot!

Hiding how freaked out I am, since I'm standing with my back to a huge drop with no fence.

After the sun went down, we went back down to the city to find some dinner. We went to a small Italian restaurant, once again one that had been recommended to us. We both had lasagne, I had the vegetarian and Bradley had the beef. Both were delicious.

We then topped it off with fresh homemade Apple Pie, which we almost turned down, but the owner convinced us. We were really glad we changed our minds!