Do you know I learnt today that the correct way to pronounce Dubrovnik is actually " Dooo-Bra-Nick", not "Do-Brov-Nick?! One of the locals was teaching me :) .
We woke to another brilliant blue sky and sun today. Apparently it was 37° here yesterday and we would believe it – the humidity is unbelievable in August. No wonder the travel guides say to avoid Europe in this month as it is the hottest and the busiest, as most of Europe empties out to this area.
Breakfast is included at hotel Lapad - Although the rooms are pretty small, the breakfast is really great. After that we got ourselves ready and met Fiona and Chris from our cruise, down in the old town. We had a wander around before that before the crowds – ha ha well that was our thought, except all the crowds had the same idea!
When we all met up, we bought tickets to Lombruk Island which is the small island you can see in my previous photos as we went up the cable car – it is just out from the old town and some locals were telling the girls that that is where they go to get away from all the tourists and have a swim.
It was about $15 for the little boat ride over and $23 to get into the National Park there. Happy to support the upkeep! We wondered around And it was lovely under the trees as it was getting extremely hot again today. We all climbed over the rocks and jumped in the ocean for a swim in the swimming area where they have steps bolted to the rocks. The water is aqualine blue/green and so clear you can see the bottom. This is the thing postcards are made off :-).
The water has a high salt content and you float really easily. We climbed out and over all the rocks, then went to a restaurant and had some very welcome drinks in the extreme heat – I love my mojitos and Graeme had a pint of cold beer and we all had lunch together which was lovely. Wondered around some more, then went into the old Monastery which is housing a display on the Game of Thrones atm and has the chair there – not sure if it is the real thing though, but looks pretty impressive. Everyone was lined up to take photos on it :-). It was interesting they had a documentary on the lead actors of Game of Thrones talking about filming in the old town in Dubrovnik and how the tourists would be walking up on the walls and they would hold a card saying ‘silence please’ when they were filming!
We wondered around some more, there are lots of peacocks roaming here and they are quite tame as there are a lot of people wandering around. After walking through the gardens – and there is an Australian eucalyptus tree there! we went to another bar while we waited for the boat to come back and had some more ice cold beers – as you do, they are 49 kuna! It is so hot that you need it for hydration (even though the nursing me knows it is really dehydrating ha ha!!) .
We got the boat back to the old town and wandered back through, but it was scorching hot and everyone was flagging and feeling burnt despite wearing lots of sunscreen. We caught the bus which is only about $4pp out from the old town, they are so full of people and heat, so you just sit very still!
We got back to our hotel and jumped straight in the pool, it was funny I had only taken a small bath mat towel along with us so we shared that to dry ourselves off and get back through the hotel to our room- looked weird when everybody else had big pool towels but never mind !
Had cold showers to wash off the salt and cool down properly then we had a lie down for an hour at 6 pm and just crashed! We have walked over 11,000 steps today, so have done pretty well – I am very grateful to have my energy back, more like the old days.
Went down and had dinner in the restaurant – there is a complimentary meal with the booking and it was fantastic, accompanied by a local band. The music was like om-pah style style which made you want to slap your legs and jump up and down ha ha!
When we got back we went and sat out on our balcony for the first time to enjoy the view and the neighbour from the next room came out and we got talking. They are from Frankston and he used to be the mayor there! We sat and talked about travels and enjoyed the balmy evening now it has cooled down . I was reflecting today how many people you interact with and meet on travels when you’re so far away from home, we must have met over a dozen people we have connected with already and really appreciate that. Plus the 2 degrees of separation thing is so true- keep meeting people you have things in common with like where you live or who you know!
Ready for bed at 10:30 pm as we have another big day tomorrow :-).
Day 8
We, Fi and Chris from Hobart, who we met in the cruise- all hired a private small boat for the afternoon. What a day it turned out to be! Tom the young skipper took is to places where there were no other tourists and it was magical. He also supplied some lovely local beer!
We decided to go on our boat islands cruise 3:45-7:45pm so we could catch the sunset and be out of the worst heat of the day and it was a great decision. Tom took us first to Sipan where there was an incredible blue cave and even better- no one else there! It was almost high tide but just enough head room to swim through the opening which opened into a cave about 10 by 3 metres.
The light inside was incredible- the crystal clear water reflected on the sand and with the reflection of the light on the limestone walls, we all glowed like phosphorus 😊!
We swam around inside for a while then Tom took us round to a small local village called Sudurad- where we were able to wander through this quaint little fishing village, then sat on the wharf at the little bar and enjoyed some Ice cold beers 🍻. The vista was one of complete time change and restfulness 😇.
After that back to the boat and around to Sipan harbour, then into another larger village called Lopud- this catered more to tourists but still on a small scale. We sat on the promenade as the sun set and had some more drinks and just enjoyed the beautiful scenery together. Back in the boat and into Dubrovnik to a small bay.
The whole trip was 1975 kuna in total- about 390 Aud for the 4 of us. It was only 5 kuna more each ($1) to get a private boat and skipper instead of the public boat, so was a great find and we got to go places we wouldnt have otherwise.
It was just one of those spontaneous days- The 4 of us walked over to the town area of Lapad afterwards and enjoyed fantastic pizzas at an Italian restaurant sitting outside in the still-hot evening on the terrace. Was so lovely to spend the day with the girls from Hobart and have no doubt we will see them again- funny thing was they have just done pretty much the same travel places as we’re doing, but in reverse. We must have the same interests!!
Walked back to our Hotel Lapad and packed up as we have a 3:30am alarm for flights, Dubrovnik - Zurich, then Zurich-Budapest. Got into bed at 11:30pm😊.
Over 17,000 steps walked today- phew an that wasn't including all the swimming!
....
2 comments:
Sounds all very wonderful. A time you can look back on as magical despite the heat. And all those lovely cold beers!!
So interesting that some of game of thrones was filmed there! Sounds like it was such a good find to do that tour - it can be so interesting going to the less touristy places to see what a place is actually like.
Hope your next flights are good! And have fun finding the chimeney cakes!!!! 😍
Post a Comment