Travel to Croatia, Dubrovnik.

The cold virus I caught laid me low the first few days back in Dubrovnik. Fortunately we had four full days and by day three I was well enough to do some sightseeing. We caught a local bus up to Old City and were amazed at its size. We thought it would take just a few hours to walk through but we could have been not be more wrong. We didn't have a lot of information on the history of the city and also didn't know the significance of the buildings within it so decided we would return the following day and join a walking tour. We have found that city walking tours, in particular the ones where you just turn up and pay on the day, are a wonderful way of ensuring that you see significance landmarks and learn their history. You're not locked in to the tour so if you turn up and decide the group is too large you just don't join in. Although we were returning the following day we continued to stroll through the city but decided against walking the walls until the following day.

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Travel to Croatia, Dalmatia, Dubrovnik.

Our first impression of Croatia after we left Montenegro was of more prosperity. It's all relative but a smooth, well-marked highway along the coast was a big contrast to what we had been bumping along In Albania and Montenegro.

But our first sight of Dubrovnik was, WOW!!!!!!!!! 10000 times wow. Our daughter Pip had said we needed to go there and now we see what she meant. If you've been there you may share our wonder or, you may just wonder what we're on about. We got dropped at the port and made farewells to our new chums in the van. Got a taxi to the Pile (Pee la) Gate of the old town and dragged our suitcases through the crowds into the eye popper. It's a movie set! Stone walls surround the town; stone buildings, narrow alleys, marble pathways, ancient buildings, crowds of people, shops going great guns in the old buildings, cafes, bars, restaurants, musical performances in the streets

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Travel to Croatia, Dalmatia, Hvar.

The problems I have had with the fuel tank and fuel filters were well documented in my blog. Now my suspicion has been confirmed. There is a tree growing in my fuel tank and the braches are coming out of my fuel cap. I have a photograph as proof.To stop the tree branch from sticking too far out, I have had to cut it down a little. Not sure how I will refill the fuel tank in future, but I will worry about that later.

Today, left the camp at about 10 am and headed towards Stari Grad, a small fishing port town on the island of Hvar. It was another of those beautiful old town, with lots of old buildings and alley ways. Again, I have taken lots of pictures for you to look at.

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Travel to Croatia, Dalmatia, Split.

Today was our first tender stop. This means that we cannot dock as the ship is too big - so we anchor offshore. A few of the lifeboats miraculously become 'tender boats' and are used to ferry the passengers from the ship to the shore. The advantage of tender stops is that they usually drop you off at the heart of the destination. The disadvantage is that you have to take a ticket and wait your turn in the Vista Lounge. All of the guests on tours get to go first. With this in mind we decided to go and have a posh breakfast in the restaurant. This always takes ages but the quality of the food is excellent and we knew we would have to wait for a tender boat anyway.

Once we had tendered ashore we headed straight for the tourist office which is located in the Diocletian Palace. This is not a single palace but the name for the old town. The Tourist Office is situated in the Church of St Roche which is a place of interest in its own right. We picked up a walking tour map
M in the Holy Crucifix Churchand headed straight for Galeria Mestrovic (The Mestrovic Gallery). The gallery is out of Split town and we decided to walk there along the newly tarted up seafront. It was extremely clean and well done. There were even permanent wooden sun-loungers along the promenade so people could take a rest and take in some sun. D tried one out. There were some modern metal sculptures and paving stones dedicated to successful Croatian Olympic Medalists of the past. There were quite a few of these. Seems they are a nation that is sh*t hot at water polo!

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Travel to Croatia, Dalmatia, Dubrovnik.

The weather would be an important factor in deciding whether to hitch-hike from Dubrovnik and unfortunately it was raining. We decided to head for the road and see what happens. Whilst walking through the centre, we met a couple of English lads heading south and a large group of English heading home after finishing a boat tour. Michael tried hitching but with absolutely no luck, which we attributed to the fairly constant and occasionally heavy rain. So it was quickly to Plan B. The bus to Kotor left at 12 noon and the Japanese lad from yesterday was there at the bus station - his name was Tamio. The road edged around the fiord and provided extremely beautiful views. We decided not to stay in Kotor but to head further inland. The road left Kotor and headed straight up the mountain. The scenery was amazing with tremendous views over the fiord and the coastline. The road was extremely winding and the corners were such tight hairpins that it appeared that the back end of the bus was hanging over the edge of the precipice. Then higher still and soon we were travelling alongside snow-capped mountains - the road was frightening at times but well worth the experience. We changed buses at Cetinje and then the bus headed to Titograd (now the capital of Montenegro and renamed Podgorica). Three Canadians were travelling on the latest bus - a couple and their young daughter. They were very friendly and we had a very nice chat. The scenery for this part of the journey was rugged mountains covered with brown leaved trees making it look like autumn - it was slightly bleak with lots of isolated houses.

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Sailing, Croatia

Tour Taken: Sail Croatia
Date of stay: August 2005
Travelled with: Friends 
Tour or pre planned: Tour

To be honest, I hadn’t heard all that much about Croatia as a tourism hot spot until shortly before departing. I wasn’t going to go, due to my ever climbing mountain of credit card debt at the time, but after a bit of arm twisting I decided at the last minute to hop on board and bite the credit card bullet. Oh boy am I glad I did.

Croatia is a paradise. Maybe not quite up there with the Caribbean or the Maldives, but it’s a paradise nonetheless. Located in Central and South Eastern Europe, it is nestled between Italy, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Hungary, and to me the culture there felt like a mixture of all of these places. It feels a little less Eastern-European though, and more like a pumped up hedonistic Italy on steroids (along the coastal cities of the Adriatic anyway).

Our group booked a 7-day cruise through Sail Croatia, who run different cruises along the warm waters of the Adriatic Sea. We started out in Split, then made our way to Makarska-Mljet-Dubrovnik-Korcula-Hvar and then ended up back in Split again.

There are several routes you can take, but I’d say this is the most popular due to the stunning towns Korcula, Hvar and Dubrovnik being on the list. 

Now things may have changed a bit since 2005, but there are a couple of things I beg you to consider before setting foot on your boat:

1. Book a boat with a bar and drinks on board. You’ll have a never ending supply of ice cold beer at cheap prices. If you book a BYO boat, you’ll be drinking warm beer and will eventually be stuck out in the ocean with a case of the dry mouth having run out of beer.
2. When you first step onto the boat, push everyone else out of the way (women and children included) and ensure you get a cabin as far away as possible from the engine room. Not only will you sleep longer due to less engine noise at 5am, but you’ll breathe in O2 instead of diesel fumes.
   
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