Day 92 (Monday 10th August)
We have arrived! Dubrovnik it is so beautiful 🙂
We did not spend the day doing what we intended which is a story we will share later.
However, as Dubrovnik accomodation is so sparse and expense in August we have ended up with an Airbnb apartment to ourselves! Harrah. With wifi and aircon and washing facilities for less than $10. Winning.
Day 93 Dubrovnik
The old town in Dubrovnik is very cool. Surrounded by 4 walls (yes used in the Game of Thrones Series) it has soooo much history. We did a history walking tour in the morning and learnt how Dubrovnik was populated, formed, built and finally merged into Croatia. Numerous wars and earthquakes disrupted the city many times. There are many super old buildings, some which have been rebuilt in the exact same place 3 times such as the Cathedral Church. The Saint Blaze Church was built in 1715 and is still as it stands today. We found the tour really interesting and enjoyed exploring the streets afterwards. In the afternoon we went to a beach only accessible by foot. The water was clear…although kind of dirty with the odd bit of rubbish it. Just as we were leaving it started to rain…like terrential rain. We got absolutely soaked to the bone, the side walks were flooding. Thankfully our Airbnb ppl who were looking after our bags let us get changed in their house and it stopped raining enough to catch the bus which only just came in time for us to catch our bus to Split! Even the bus ride has been an experience (nearly left witout Sam, busdriver talks on the phone while driving and even had an alcoholic beverage at the rest stop). We arrived at our hostel and the state of the outside had us asking ourselves what we’d got ourselves into. Luckily, the inside was as per the photos when we booked and had everything we needed…Aircon! A large room with comfy beds, huge lockers, a kitchen, small but clean bathrooms and even free computers. A good hostel.
Dubrovnik old town!
Day 94 Split
Today was our one and only day to explore Split. We walked around the Old town and saw the usual Churches, Palaces and bell towers. We had lunch in a park behind the markets then went to the beach! Not quite as wonderful as the Greek Island waters…but warmer, it was a refreshing afternoon. Then we attacked some stairs and climbed to a view point over Split. Back at our hostel we cooked dinner, thankful for the rare kitchen facilities and packed our bags ready for an early morning get away to Hvar!
CroParadise Hostel
Split Beach
Split Old town
Day 95 Caves Tour
We took the ferry to Hvar today, dropped our bags at our hostel and went on a 3 caves tour! It was amazing!
We went to so many different caves and swimming spots around a few Croatian islands. Photo opportunities were limited due to out broken waterproof go pro so you’ll have to take our word for it. We saw a stunning green cave which we swam in, an amazing blue cave – just for exploring in a boat and many other awesome swimming spots. One cave we had to swim under water to get to! We could do jumps off some rocks and most of all enjoyed swimming in the warm, clear ocean water. We met the most lovely American family from California. The dad, Jeff was especially lovely, even treated us to Gelato which he refused to let us pay for. We went to the Island of Vis and enjoyed the Venice influenced township and then the Pebble beach. Only accessible by boat, the view under the water was super cool. Bright blue, deep clear water, surrounded by rocks, it was a wonderful spot to finish our day in, not leaving until 6.30pm.
Crystal clear sea water from the tour
Sunset in Hvar
Day 96 Stari Grad and Fortress
Today I went to Stari Grad and it was awesome. Sam chilled at the hostel and went for a walk.
Stari Grad was a bus ride away from Hvar and was much quieter than the touristy Hvar. I went for a short hike up to a outdoor church area. It was an extremely hot day. Even the locals were complaining. After that I went for a swim in the bay, the water again, warm, clear and with beautiful views of the island in front of me, it was heaven. It was nice for each of us to have some alone time, a rarity on this busy, budget trip! We both climbed the Fortress of Hvar, which protected the town hundreds of years ago. It provided a great view of the city has well as some interesting history.
Stari Grad pictures
Day 97 Zlatni Rat Beach
Zlatni Rat Beach was super cool. Although the lunch provided with our boat trip was terrible (just lettuce, bread and tuna), and although we spent more hours on the boat than at the beach, it was the only viable way to get there and totally worth it. The beach is pebbles, not sand, and is surrounded by clear aqua green water for about 5 metres out, then it drops down to maybe 8metres and then again further out another drop maybe 10m. The water is blue where it is deeper but still crystal clear. It’s deceiving how deep it really is. Despite how busy the beach is, you can swim out 10m from the shore and have the ocean almost to yourself. You can float without effort due to the heavy salt content in the water. We had less than 3 hours so enjoyed some sun, shade, swimming and took some photos. Once back to Hvar we had a quick dinner, topped off with some Glelato/Crepe. We caught the ferry back to Split for one night, so we could catch the bus early in the morning to see the famous Plitvice Lakes. We went back to the same hostel which was good, despite two people having a little too much fun on the bottom bed of Sam’s bunk at 3am in the morning.
Day 98 Plitvice Lakes and Zagreb
We caught an early morning bus from Split to the Plitvice Lakes National Park. Half an hour from arriving it was pouring with rain, we were hoping it would subside and not affect our day too much. We purchased a poncho (already had one thanks to Diane and Nancy!) and set off to walk around the lakes, we were grateful for the cooler weather. The lakes were beautiful. Clear aqua water, waterfalls and beautiful scenery. Unfortunately it did start to rain, so the usual 5hr lake walk we did in 3.5hrs and were still soaked to the bone by the end. A quick bite before we caught our bus to Trieste. We met another lovely Brazilian guy at the bus stop and it ended up the 3 of is had to stand in the isle for thr first 1.5hr bus trip becuase they sold too many tickets for our bus. We got to Trieste over an hour later than scheduled, not unexpected due to the same lateness from the morning bus. We walked the 10mins to our hostel and went straight to sleep.
Samandxt 