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Published: September 29th 2013
Aaahhh the beautiful Adriatic coastline...yes, we remember you well and we are still friends. We arrived by bus from Montenegro along a fairly spectacular road cut into the steep mountainside with dramatic views down to the sea and Dubrovnik appearing in the distance, what an entrance. Yep, happy to be here...apart from a little stomach issue still lurking about. Anyway, I am sure a dip in the deep blue Adriatic will cure me.
Sarah and I had to rustle up some accommodation since we hadn’t pre-booked anything and soon realised that in fact it was pretty busy here, mostly full said the lady in the tourist office. So we hit the streets looking for the private accommodation hawkers that we usually avoid, this time making friends with a fairly well dressed young Croatian lady named Tea, who had a few rooms to offer us (and literally a few - we moved twice in the four nights we stayed here as her better rooms became available!). It seemed her family owned a few properties in the old town. It was nice to be settled in our room after lugging our backpacks around - now to hit the cobbled streets.
They
say that the main street in the old town is one of the most beautiful in the world. We couldn’t argue too much with that! The old town is pedestrianised and completely surrounded by a massive stone wall - they used to bring up the draw bridges on the two main gates to secure themselves against any enemies. The main street is full of restaurants with chairs and tables flowing out onto the wide streets, there are sweet shops, ice cream parlours, boutique clothing outlets, jewellery shops and more. The stone buildings that rise up above on both sides are so perfect and picturesque it’s hard to believe they are actually real! You have to be careful around the streets though, the cobbled stones are polished making them slippery with deep grooves between them - an ankle injury or sore behind waiting to happen.
Dubrovnik is a place where time could easily fade away with one day turning into a week which then turns into a few. There are so many restaurants to sample, buildings to admire and beaches to swim at, but we needed to cram it all into four days - AND with bed-bounding cramps! The heat
Dubrovnik
Ben wants to get back to the room...saps the energy from you a bit so the beach is a great place to be during the day. Unfortunately I only saw the inside of our apartment for the first few days whilst Sarah was off gallivanting around the old town taking selfies and sampling the local food. She would occasionally check in to see how I was doing...which was usually met with a grumpy demeanour and no conversation.
A few days after arriving in Croatia and after roughly a week of stomach cramps, no appetite, no food and therefore no energy, I decided that enough was enough - this holiday wasn’t much fun. I searched and found an online doctor to get some advice (US$49.95!!) and Chip from the US of A was kind enough to assist me. He diagnosed my illness and decided that I had waited long enough for the body to catch up to the rigours of travel, so something must be amiss. So off to the hospital it was! I must say I was looked after pretty well...only a 10 minute wait to see a doctor who immediately started running all sorts of tests, two hours later I was in the clear of
Dubrovnik
...I was such a bad girlfriend making him come out to look around with me! anything really sinister and it seemed that Chip was spot on. Thanks Chip! Within a few more hours I was out of the hospital after a little cleansing procedure and we were on our way back to the comfort of our apartment, my hot shower, hot water pack and paracetemol. I must be on the mend now.
I hit the beach the next day with Sarah feeling a little better, optimistic and confident that I was on the road to recovery. The coast is full of activity around Dubrovnik with beach goers, water sports, pleasure boats and lots of super yachts showing off their shiny bits and dwarfing other yachts with their sheer size and grandeur. It can be a very envy inducing place to hang about in...if you don’t yet own yourself a super yacht. Our time in Dubrovnik was drawing to a close. We explored a bit more, we ate at a few more restaurants (well at least Sarah did!), we laid on the beach some more, and we even came across a Tasmanian street performer going at it with his pipes, drums, saxophone and keyboard – a one man band who was actually quite talented and
Dubrovnik
Our apartment turned many heads and stopped many feet as people passed by.
Now to organise our departure and move onto our next destination - Ljubljana in Slovenia! We researched and found out that we couldn’t fly or train direct, and the 16 hour bus ride wasn’t that appealing with stomach cramps (still!!) so we caught a flight to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia at the very north of the country. From here we could catch a train to Ljubljana which takes only a few hours. Zagreb was quite cosmopolitan and we stayed at a newly opened (just one week) boutique hotel which was a bit of a treat. The rooms were very glitzy with floor to ceiling mirror strips lining a feature wall, ornate furniture pieces, plush carpet and fancy linen. I think we have a few new ideas for our place!
Take care
Ben and Sarah
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