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Published: June 14th 2009
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Since blogging last I have made the return journey to Dubrovnik on the southern most part of the coast in Croatia. Although the intention to see Dubrovnik was always there, Neridas presence in Dubrovnik meant cutting my Hvar visit short in order to catch up with her. I caught the early ferry (7 45am) from Hvar town and arrived in Split an hour later. I sorted out some breakfast (toasted sangers), and then caught the 10am bus to Dubrovnik. The bus went along the coast the entire way so we had amazing views the entire time. 5 hours later and a short trip through Bosnia (10mins) and I was in Dubrovnik. Having recieved directions (no map though which is my preferred way of navigating), I caught two more buses to arrive at my accomodation for the next 3 nights, the Dubrovnik Backpackers Club. Althought the place sounds like a traditional backpackers, it wasnt. The hostel was more like a homestay, with the family who owned and ran the hostel taking all of us backpackers under their wings as if we were their children (ill give you an example shortly). Timing my arrival with the arrival of nerida and having a good
idea that her camping ground was nearby (after meeting a few ppl and a quick nap), I decided to go exploring in an attempt to find neridas campsite. It was within a 7 minute walk from my front door, and when I got there neridas contiki group had just arrived so it was timed quite well. So the next few hours into the evening/night were used catching up. The following day was a great great day, after a nice sleep in at the hostel, a few of us from the hostel ventured into the city for a quick sticky beak and by the time we got back to the hostel it was time for our snorkelling trip (organised by the son of the hostel owners). We were taken back up the coast towards split to a non-touristy beach where we spent a few hours snorkelling in some of the clearest water ive seen, although the action under the water wasnt all that exciting it was still great. Besides a few crabs, sea urchines and some small schools of fish there wasnt much to see, but the group we were with made up for that. After the snorkelling and a quick
sun-bathe by the group we decided to go and see the local botanic gardens, which sounds incredibly boring, but it was actually really nice because we recieved a small tour of the plants, the ruins/old buildings and the statues. Very informative. Some of the buildings we went through included an old olive oil and perfume making facility that used the huge stone bowls and crushing wheels. After exploring the gardens we returned to the beach and sat in the restaurant overlooking the beach/coast and watched the sun set over dinner and a few beers, it was awesome. By the time we got back to the hostel it was almost 10pm, and so I ran down to Neridas campsite to organise the following days activities and then went back to the hostel and drank wine with some ppl till the early hours of the morning. The next morning, after a sleep in to get over the wine from the night before, I realized that I had forgotten to organise another nights accomodation at the hostel so I tried to sort that out. Unfortunately the place was booked out for the night which wouldve stuffed up my plans big time, however, as
we were one of the hostel family's children they were happy to put me up on the couch in the living room, which meant I had effectively a private room, so I was happy! After sorting that out, I met up with Nerida and a few girls from the hostel (aussie girl called prue and a canadian girl called whitney) and we went into dubrovnik for a look around. Our main mission for the day (although whitney was unaware of this) was to find some nice cliffs on one of the islands to jump off. So we caught a ferry out to the island of Lokrum (a matter of 500 metres off the coast of the old town of dubrovnik) and went exploring. After scrambling through another nudist beach we found two amazing coves with tall cliffs and deep, clear water underneath. In an attempt to get a way from the nudists we decided to go to the other side of the cove which basically meant making our own tracks through the bush and climbing down a cliff to a nice flat rocky area from where we would later jump. Whitney, being a city girl, was a little uncomfortable with
all this, but after some encouragement from all aussies on board she eventually made her way down aswell. However, due to her nervous technique of climbing town the cliff she tore holes through her pants, we all laughed but felt guilty for encouraging her to come down. The next few hours involved lots of cliff jumping and a makeshift lunch on the picturesque cliff faces. After we were all jumped out we dicided to return to dubrovnik for a tour of the city and dinner. We all had tea in a quiant little street near the harbour and by tour I mean we strolled around the city and prue told us all what she knew about the city, fun but not the most informal tour ive ever had (but she did a gr8 job). After the tour and a few photos, nerida left us to go get ready for her groups evening activities, and the remaining crew went to a pub for a few drinks before heading home for a few more glasses of wine. The following day (today) was time to leave dubrovnik. I was reluctant to leave because it was such a nice place, but the son of
the family (Ivica) was going to give me and four other aussies a lift back to split so I couldnt refuse. When I woke up, however, I woke to find Milca (the mother of the family, and im not sure of the spelling of her name) incredibly worried about an aussie chap (craig) who had not returned the night beforehand. All of us backpackers were not concerned at all because we had all got to know craig and we knew how he handled himself (the last few nights he had only spent one night at the hostel for obvious reasons). But no matter what we said to milca she would not stop worrying about him, she tried calling him a few times and luckily she eventually got onto him and gave him a lecture as only a mother would, lol. It was only after she had calmed down that she told me that the reason why she was so concerned was that the Australian backpacker (Brit Lapthorne) who went missing in dubrovnik in september last year was actually staying at this hostel. When Craig returned to the hostel it was time for us to leave. We travelled in a people
mover van all the way back to split with Ivica giving us a tour and a history lesson of the region which was quite fascinating. We also stopped along the way for food and for a couple of drinks at this beautiful river in the mountains about an hour south of split. Once reaching split it was time to search for accomodation, which didnt take long, and tonight I am staying at the Adriatic Hostel, just outside the walls of Diocletians palace.
Catch
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Beth
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Ok Tias what is it with you and the nudist beaches???????