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Published: February 9th 2012
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top of the world
it took us two hours through dense bush and slipping and sliding up an ancient goat path to get to the top... For any who want to consider the trek there is a road on the other side, we found out the hard way. The bus trip from Zagreb to Dubrovnik was long and windy, it took us through ancient mountain ranges and along a beautiful coast for the better part of the trip. We even passed through Bosnia briefly due to the region surrounding Dubrovnik being isolated from the rest of Croatia.
Most of the people on the bus were locals but we could hear a few British accents sitting up ahead of us. We would later find out that the Brits are crazy about Dubrovnik and easily made up a good 90% of the one hostel in the town.
As soon as we passed the border into Croatia (Dubrovnik) again we knew we were in for a treat. This pristine coastline was bordered by beautiful tuscan style villas and more modern developments for the rich. Yachts and cruise ships could be seen all over the adriatic sea which sparkled with such an intensity in the morning sun it was almost hurtful to the eyes.
When we descended into Dubrovnik we arrived in the newer developed side of the city, I had no idea of the historical spleandours that awaited us just over the hill, namely old towns, a fortified settlement
thousands of years old.
We were amazed at the wealth of this place, there were yachts everywhere some of them at least 10 times the size of my house in Australia, not too mention the cruise ships. Everyone here was tanned beautiful and laid back but also traditional and advanced in all the right ways.
We initially had a little dificulty finding the hostel, we couldn't see any backpackers around and not many people spoke Engish so it was hard to get directions, although when we did ask the locals they all seemed to point in a certain direction so we figured they knew what we were after and we were right.
After climbing a very steep narrow suitcase we came to another road and managed to find a 'hostelling international' sign which led us up another very steep narrow concrete staircase, when we reached the top of this staircase we finally found the hostel which just happened to have another very steep narrow concrete staircase as an entrance.
Needless to say we were both quite tired by the time we reached the hostel and it occurred to me it probably would've been a wise decision
to buy my souveniers i.e. Kilt, t-shirts, beads, travel books etc. at the end of my trip. I will definately pack lighter next time i head to a hilly region.
Now since our stay at the Dubrovnik hostel, many of you may have seen this place on the news since then in regards to the missing Aussie back packer Brit Lapthorne. I can say now that the hostel were not exactly a friendly bunch when we arrived at reception, the attitude was don't ask questions sit and wait here for 2 hours or you won't get a room, so we sat.
During this sitting waiting wishing period we briefly considered taking up one of the options of the locals pestering us to come stay with them in private accomodation, but then decided better of it preferring a cheaper more sociable option for the time of being. This hostel turned out to be neither as we would learn later on.
After a long nervous wait we were finally called up to the reception desk to collect our keys and up we went to the room. The hostel itself was fairly clean but the whole place seemed stricter than
turtles
some turtles were getting it on, on the side of the road it was pretty funny a 1900's british boarding school. There was no internet, no music, no bar pretty much no fun, the only good thing about it was the people but we hated it straight away.
That day we ventured down to the local beach to soak up some of the perfect Dubrovnik sun, while we were they we also got to checkout some more insanely hot Cro babes :P Although strangely enough they all seemed to be attached to balding fat men with fat gold jewelley around their necks and on their fingers. I believe that I finally got to see some of those infamous ex-kgb soviet gangsters i hear so much about in the media.
That night we headed down to a local bar called ferrari bar and met two English dudes there named Rob and Oliver who we shared many a cheap beer with and played some drinking games. They had actually arrived on the same day as us but they hadn't been able to get a room so they were staying in some old man's spare cottage and paying about 70 krunas a night which works out to be about $20 AUS. In the hostel we were paying 60 and sharing a room with 10 other dudes, it definately got us thinking.
The next day with a head full of zombie we awoke glare to the morning sun through crappy curtains, when i check the time i got a shock and rushed to wake will up, it was 10.30am and we were told if we wanted a room we would have to come down and book another night before 10am once again the friendly staff at the hostel would only let us book one night at a time.
When we got down to the reception they told us we would once again need to sit and wait if we wanted a room, there were at least 10 other backpackers doing the same thing, Will and I decided this was the last straw and we grabbed our bags and left to find greener pastures. We had barely walked 10 meters when a grubby hairy man leant over the balcony and gave us a big cheesy grin, "you stay you stay? 50 kruna one night" Will and i looked at each other and shrugged then decided we'd see what this grubby little man had to offer.
We stepped through the gate and were led to what looked like a small cottage to the side of the house, 'oh here we go, we were thinking, us and 10 other backpackers crammed into this dudes garden shed' but when he opened the door we found we had struck gold, two recently made double beds, our own tv, our own fridge and refurbished bathroom we were sold right there.
'okay' we said and started to reach for our wallets.
'yes yes 70 kruna'
'ahh what?? you just said 50'
'okay okay mother very sick, 60 kruna'
I had to stop myself from laughing in disbelief.
'were sorry to hear that, but you said 50 kruna not 60 not 70... 50'
'okay okay, 55 kruna' said the grubby man making an agitated gesture with his hand.
We gave in, the longer we were looking for a place to sleep the less time we had to chill on the beach.
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