Dubrovnik - jewel of the Dalmatian coast

I'm back! Did you miss me??

I never thought I'd be the beach holiday type, until Dubrovnik that is. And the best thing was, there weren't a tonne of tourists around and it wasn't full of bucks/hens parties. I've been dying to go for ages and check it out, I've heard such good things about Croatia. I've never seen such clear, clean and turquoise waters. The water was so enticing and it one of those few times where I truly wished I could swim - yep, that's right, I can't swim and I come from a nation of swimmers! So sad, but there is a story to it (another time perhaps).

Friday
We landed in the arvo and took ourselves to our villa accommodation. Luckily we had enough people to book private accom because I hear the local hotels charge a mint. Dubrovnik hugs a cliff so lots of stairs, eek! The view from our place was AMAZING - we had a view of Old Town, it's harbour and also Lokrum island.

View from our villa

Lokrum Island

We spent the arvo at Banje beach nearby, it was a pebble beach unfortunately and so you had to traverse the hot hot and sometimes sharp pebbles to get in and out of the water but the water was luuurverly.

Tiny toes at Banje (a pebble beach, the usual beach in Europe it seems)

After a shower & change, we headed out to a lovely seafood place where M even tried a few morsels of fish. FISH.

Fantastic Dubrovnik sunset

Saturday
On our way to Old Town harbour, we discovered a bakery selling exciting donuts (deep fried and filled with jam, yummo) which we took to buying as often as possible for breakfast. From the harbour, we took a Three Island cruise to discover the wonders of the Elafiti Islands nearby. On the boat ride there, I puzzled P with my reading of two books at the same time (and also my amazing ability to be at different stages of the one book, all within a short timeframe. Yep that's right, I was cheating and checking what's coming ahead :P)

First up we visited the islands of Kolocep and Sipan, beautiful beautiful waters there.

Waters of Kolocep and Sipan

Me at Kolocep

We had a fish lunch courtesy of the cruise, was so yummy despite the sweaty boat men who were handling it. The leftovers were hand fed from the back of the boat by one of the grizzly old boat men. Unfortunately he managed to get nipped by one of the crazy seagulls that were flying close by to get some of the goods.

Hungry hungry hippos

Of the islands visited, last but not least was Lopud. Lopud actually had a gorgeous sandy beach on the other side of the port and we wished we had more time for it. I tried my bestest to swim but I often panicked and ended with a gullet of salt water. The others helped me to tread water and float but I refused to go further than where I could touch the floor with my tippie toes. Lucky for me that the waters were fairly shallow and you could splash out away from the coast for ages without leaving the comfort of the ocean floor.

The bluest and clearest water I've ever seen!!!

Cute widdle sea urchins at Lopud

Sunday
It was B's birthday, happy nearly 30 woman!! We decided to take a tour to neighbouring Montenegro. It wasn't as thrilling as I imagined it to be, not quite what I saw in Casino Royale but eh, we did stop at a lovely bay on the way to some of the towns (Kotor & Budva). Unfortunately it often felt too hot to move so we probably didn't end up seeing the best of these places. Our nutty old tour operator more than often mumbled to himself and didn't wait for us too long before launching into explanations of things (still in a grumble mumble). Like I said, it often felt too hot to do much, especially listen!

Sooooo tanned, my mother would not be impressed!

Mountains at Kotor

The oldie was also trying it on with one of the Cypriot old ladies on the bus methinks. He kept encouraging her to sing Greek songs with him, the funny thing was her hubby looked soooo like the tour guide - maybe he thought he was in luck! Unfortunately the tour bus ended up stopping at a duty free shop near the end of the trip, regardless that most people wanted to get back to Dubrovnik and out of the hot hot bus (air-conditioned my a$$) and we reckon that the tour guys bought a whole load more than they are allowed to, because they actually distributed their items evenly throughout the bus, so it would look like everyone bought a little something - dodgy!!
After a shower and change, we celebrated B's birthday with an ultra nice dinner was at the cool and exxy Nautika, just outside of Pile gate and overlooking a little bay. Nice!

Monday
B2 headed off back to London and the rest of us decided to spend our time at Lopud (yes again, we loved it so much we made time for it). As luck would have it, we got more of a speedboat trip to Lopud as the rest of the crowd were doing the Three Island cruise on the big boat instead. The ride to Lopud was awesome and so much more quick which gave us hours at Sunj beach.

Me at Lopud, again !!!

Sunj Beach

I did a bit of floating on my back and even some light snorkeling, all on the shallower end of course. It was niiiice. The gals even scurried away to the nudie section to get a more even tan - yep that's right folks, think about it....M just shook his head when he found out.

Pigeon bidet - have to share....
I saw something that truly repulsed and disturbed me. See illustrated photographs below:

Yep, the pigeons cooled and cleaned themselves (very much in a bidet fashion) at the top of the fountain only for the water to flow down through little pipes for people to use as their DRINKING WATER. Gross. Nobody seemed to actually look up far enough to realise where the water was coming from and they kept re-filling their bottles or drinking directly from the pipes. Someone even let their spaniel cool off in the pool of water near the pipes. No doubt it was pumped back up for the pigeons to use as bidet water and for someone else to drink - mmm tasty.

A few boo hoos (but such is life)
- I lost one of my favourite every day earrings (little hoops) but I like to think a little fishie is wearing it deep in the ocean. Sob sob sob
- I managed to get heatstroke on the last day too and a bit of sunburn on my back. I had to spend some part of that evening lying in a dark room with an ice pack to my head, drinking ice water and chugging nurofen. M reckons it was because my thick, black hair trapped the heat - hmmm lucky for him he has no hair !! :P
- Klutz that I am, I also fell through the plastic sun lounge and therefore got a gash on my leg. I was trying to juggle food and sit down without getting a wedgie, y'see ?

All in all, Dubrovnik is a beautiful place and is highly recommended. We all agreed that we'd definitely like to come back one day, I really hope I can!