Cities of Dalmatia

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On Tuesday I took the bus from Budva to Dubrovnik, where I stayed for one night. Once again I stayed in a hostel located within the walls of the Old Town, which was really convenient for making the most of my short stay. Dubrovnik's Old Town is a lot bigger than those in Kotor or Budva: while both those Old Towns are so small that a visitor quickly becomes familiar with the whole layout, Dubrovnik's is just big enough that one can wander through charming, unfrequented back alleys. However, Dubrovnik is visibly a lot more commercialized and touristic than either of the Montenegrin towns I visited: its main boulevards are perpetually packed with tourists from all over the world (British, American, German, Canadian, Japanese, Korean, French, Russian...) and the streets are lined with classy restaurants and tacky souvenir stores. In fact, Dubrovnik's Old Town has the feeling of simply being one big tourist attraction, rather than a genuine living settlement. That's not to say that it's not beautiful, but I definitely got the feeling that I'd seen everything I needed to by the time I left. There is a lot to Dubrovnik as a city beyond the Old Town, but I didn't see much of this and I'm unsure whether there's much really to see there.
From Dubrovnik I took a bus to Split; this lengthy journey took me through some outstanding, rugged mountain scenery, quite different to the lush green mountains of Montenegro. Again I found a hostel within the city's Old Town, but Split's Old Town has a very different feel to any that I've visited before: it's clear that it's just another part of the city, feeling lived-in and alive. I decided to stay five nights here, as a sort of break living in a real city after having visited so many tourist-orientated towns and doing so much sightseeing. As a result I haven't seen or done a great deal of note, though I've really enjoyed my stay nonetheless. The city is attractive both within and without the Old Town, and although the beaches aren't great I've still been making the most of being able to swim in the sea and relax in the sun.
Tomorrow I'm taking a ferry out to Brač, a nearby island, and staying in the town of Supetar there. After that I intend to visit a couple more islands before heading inland to the capital, Zagreb.

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