Blogs from Croatia, Europe - page 188

In all honesty, I wasn't too keen on visiting Dubrovnik. Shame on me. How mistaken I was. The Old Town of Dubrovnik was an absolute eye opener and somewhere that we would both recommend visiting. We stayed in two different guest houses as we ended up staying another night longer than intended. Both were run by the most lovely people ever and the rooms were spotlessly clean. One even had air conditioning which was an absolute bonus as Croatia was feeling the effects of the heatwave that was causing deaths in some parts of Europe. The first elderly couple spoke minimal English and had us laughing non-stop. The old guy kept on chattering away to us in Croatian, repeating the same phrases over and over in the hope that we would understand him if he just ... read more

After feeling to relaxed and comfortable on Vis, we were sad to leave our little bit of paradise. With backpacks firmly in place, we set off on the early Tuesday ferry to Hvar. Lonely Planet describes Hvar as 'fast becoming the choice for the swanky international jetsetting crowd' Our first impressions of Hvar, was a little more wanky than swanky. But then again, it might have been the heat, the heavy backpacks, the sudden appearance of chain stores like 'Lush', the ridiculous bus timetable, the cost of the left luggage facility and the hoards of tourists in Hvar town that was making me a bit less than chipper. Due to the bus timetable (bus leaves 10 minutes BEFORE the ferry arrives - next bus... 4 hours later) we spent the day looking around Hvar Town and ... read more

We arrived at Vis in rapidly rising temperatures and made our way to the Tourist office in a bid to get some accommodation booked. We were worried that we hadn’t pre-booked accommodation on the island but as it turned out, this was a good thing. The girl at the office made a call and within five minutes an elderly lady came to collect us to view her apartment. Sweating like cattle, we lugged our packs up the hill and walked up the final steps to be faced with the most beautiful view of Vis. The apartment was a great find. Only five or so minutes walk to the ferry point, band new inside, spotlessly clean and a great big balcony. The apartment next to us was empty and remained so for the rest of our stay ... read more

It seems everyone has something to say about Croatia so we waved goodbye the British summer and spent a few weeks backpacking around the Dalmation coast. After leaving the busy port area of Split we caught a bus and headed along the coast. Passing along the way, the most beautiful inlets of inky blue water. Outside the (barely) air conditioned bus, the temperature was rising and the sky was deep blue. We passed stunning little towns such as Trogir and Primosten and we were soon both wishing we were touring the country in our own car - we would have loved to have stopped and explored them all. Croatia was certainly getting the thumbs up so far. We arrived at the small town of Sibenik, not expecting much as it was only serving as a stop-over ... read more

• 7-8 Hvar Rise and shine, it is time to find a smaller non connected chunk of land off the coast of Croatia. Oh yeah, its 730am, my “landlady” woke me up because she needed to keys to the place back… I would have discussed my dissatisfaction, but I do not believe she knew many other words in English other than “key”. I stuck it out anyway regardless of her taking the keys and headed towards the docks around 900am. I have not been on the internet or spoken with Camille in many days, so I stopped in a shop and spoke with her, and wrote a couple emails expressing my “aliveness”. Step two ride the hour long ferry to Hvar and find somewhere to stay. The ferry wasn’t bad, with the exception to the lady ... read more