Dubrovnik - the jewel of the Adriatic!!

Well...where do I start.

Am in Dubrovnik and its is absolutely fantastic. So picturesque. Every street is a photo opportunity, the buildings are great and the view of the ocean is spectacular.

I ended up finding this fantastic apartment right smack bang in the middle of the old town. Its a ground floor apartment (no steps to haul suitcase up) that has a TV, microwave, fridge, shower toilet and washing machine. I'm so impressed. The furniture is 60's kitch but who cares. All for 55 Euros.

Remember that laundromat I told you about in Split. Well it ended up being owned by an Australian. I was finding it difficult getting any accom in Dubrovnik and she knew of someone who had apartments. Anyway, his was full but he knew of someone who had a vacancy. Again, I was shown into the place so didn't have to find it.

Its only 10 metres to a great Pizzeria. Round the corner, is a tiny supermarket. Very handy.

So, I'm staying here 5 nights which will be lots of time to see things.

Today, I spent 2 hours climbing the fortress walls (the circle the whole old town) and you can walk around the top. Boy was it hot!!! But I made it....

Then I had a nice cool couple of beers (Croatian beer is lovely) and then had a siesta. And now I'm here at an internet cafe which would have to be the trendiest I've seen. (Plus keyboard is exactly like the one at work so I feel very comfortable)

So...as you can see, I'm impressed with Dubrovnik. On Friday, I have booked a trip out on a sailing yacht (big one) it takes you to three islands plus has an English guide on it.

The only thing bad about Dubrovnik is that Liza's song hasn't come true (yet). Only Kris will really know what that means!!

Bit of overview on the general trip....

Only hassle really is getting from place to place....

Florence to Ancona
Two trains - Florence to Bologna, then Bologna to Ancona (Ferry Port). Bloody Bologna!!! As I've mentioned, Italy doesn't tell you the platform until about 10 mins prior and then its a mad rush to the platform. Well on the TV screen it said platform 6 which meant hauling case down flight of stairs, plus up flight of stairs. Then they went and changed the platform twice. However they only made the announcements in Italian. So I had to keep going down the stairs, checking the screens, going up the stairs, going down the stairs ...you get my drift.

Then to top it all off, the aircon on the train was busted and I had 6 sweaty italians to share it all with!!!

Bus - Split to Dubrovnik
6 hours instead of 4.5. Very windy roads, traffic jams, crowded bus, with mix up of seat allocations and a very grumpy bus driver who didn't speak a word of English. Then I was supposed to get picked up at the bus station and got a phone call saying catch number 1 bus to the Pile Gate. They don't seem to think that this would faze you a bit. So, I then have to find a number 1 bus (which was fairly easy). Luckily the pile gate was the last stop and then I was met!!

Good thing about that trip was that I got to have a pee in Bosnia. It actually goes through Bosnia for about 1 hour and we stopped at a rest station.

All the fun of travelling.

John and Kris will really emphathise with me on this....

Greg - thanks for the joke (loved it) Pls send me your email address. I've only got it on my memory stick which is back at the apartment.

Thanks for all the comments - glad to see that people are reading it.

So.... see ya from Dubrovnik - I think I may go and see a couple more old buildings and then have another beer or two....

Cheers Kay