Dubrovnik, Croatia

Thursday October 11 /12

A sunny beautiful day that we decided was best spent on the beach.

First we had some brunch in a restaurant with a great view of the harbour.

This beach was a sandy / small pebble beach, filled with quite a few people.

We basked in the sun, had a couple drinks, and swam in the refreshing ocean.


Later after dinner we stumbled upon an outdoor live jazz music bar.
One man played the saxophone and banjo and the other man played the guitar and sang. It was great.

Next to this bar was a building that we could hear was also playing live music. We checked it out and it turned out to be a private party for a biology/ pathology conference. Ross scored some free wine and we wanted to stay, but we were not dressed to fit the occasion.
We finished the night off in an Irish pub

Friday October 12 /12

Time for site seeing.

After breakfast we walked around the old town's city walls.

2km of wall encircle the old town.

It was a nice walk around the town's perimeter.

View of the town from the top of the walls.

View of the sea and the 11th century fortress.

We took a cable car, 405 meters up Mount Srd for even better views of Dubrovnik as a whole.

You can see the old town, surrounded by the walls and Lokrum island (which we will visit tomorrow).

This is the old town's main road by night.

There were a number of important football, and by football I mean soccer, games on.

Ross wanted to see the Scotland Wales game, but they were only showing Germany Ireland and England San Marino. They were interesting games and the pubs were packed.

After the games we found the skybar where the music was pumping and the people were dancing. Ross and I joined in and had a fun night.







Saturday October 13 /12

The day began with heat and sunshine.

We had a bit of a late start in the day but took the ferry to Lokrum island in the afternoon.

A gorgeous island found in 1023.

The island is a nature reserve and a special forest vegetation reserve.

It is forbidden to stay on the island overnight.

Home to several peacocks and beautiful rocky beaches.


Ross and I enjoyed the sun and the sea.

We explored the island and did a bit of rock climbing.

This is Ross swimming in a small lake called Mrtvo More aka the Dead Sea.

Crystal clear water flowing in from a small cave.

The last ferry back to Dubrovnik left at 1700.

Ross and I walked around the town snapping some pictures of some of the old architectural buildings, statue's and fountains.

We walk to the other side of the old town to get a picture of the entrance gate.

You can see the sky - our beautiful day turning black.

Ross and I decided we should get back to the hostel before the down pour.

As we were walking back.. people were becoming a bit frantic, all walking in the opposite direction Ross and I were walking. All of a sudden the wind picked up and umbrellas started to fall over. The wind was so strong one of the umbrellas went air borne and flew over Ross and I, up and away.
There was one more huge gust of wind, which made tables blow over and we heard glass breaking. Ross and I reached the scene and the wind had died.

2 tourists were injured. One middle aged women had a huge gash in her head from the broken glass - I tended to her. The other tourist was young female with a smaller cut to the head and a chipped tooth. She was in shock and Ross was tending to her. Having a bit of language barrier with the tourist, I managed to get across that I was a nurse and it was really important that we keep pressure on the head wound. I stood there for about 20-30 minutes, holding paper at a constant pressure to the wound, until the ambulance finally came.

It was a bit intense, and surreal as Ross and I were walking toward the disaster but were completely unaffected by it.

We rested in the hostel a bit before heading back out for dinner. After dinner, we set out in the down pouring rain to try and find this bar that we read about. We were unsuccessful and completely soaking wet. We wanted to stop some where for dessert  and the only place we found open along the way, happened to be a fancy hotel restaurant. We were dripping wet when we entered and got a bit of a look from the server but he seated us and we enjoyed some drink and delicious dessert.

Sunday October 14 /12

Despite having a great time in Croatia and Bosnia, I had 2-3 more abscesses form. So I decided to go back to England with Ross to seek proper medical attention.

Our flight left later in the afternoon so we went to the beach to enjoy the beautiful sea views one last time.

We played some cards then caught a taxi to the airport.

After an uneventful flight, we arrived in London around 7pm. Took the train to Cambridge and got settled at Ross's place.

Split, Croatia

Grgur Ninski - Bishop in 10th century.
Now a huge statue that is symbolic for the city.

Tuesday, October 9 /12

Arrived in Split at 9am and found our hostel.

We went for breakfast - not pizza this time.

Ross ordered eggs and sausage, which we learned that sausage = hot dog, which is so disappointing when you are looking forward to having a nice juicy breakfast sausage.

After passing by the huge wizard looking statue, our first site to see was the cathedral and bell tower.

We walked up several stairs to the top of the bell tower for fantastic views of Split.

There was an underground bazaar with some touristy shops and a museum.
We decided to check out the museum and it turned out to be several rooms that all looked the exact same with nothing but some plain rocks in them. It was so ridiculous that someone could actually charge tourists to see this
'museum' that Ross and I just laughed hysterically pretending that it was the most interesting thing we had ever seen.

There was a chapel on our map that we thought we would check out. But we had troubles finding it. We did a bit of rock climbing, thinking that maybe we could get in the back way.. but turned out to be a dead end.

We continued to walk around trying to find it. When we finally stumbled upon it, it was closed.

There was an open gate to the chapel around the side, that said no trespassing. We just walked in a little ways to get a picture of the chapel to say we saw it.

We went for a nice dinner and to a few pubs after, but the place was pretty dead. We walked around the old part a bit and got some photos.









Wednesday, October 10 /12

We woke up to a beautiful sun shining day. We ate breakfast in the Diocletian's Palace square.

As you can see, it was very yummy.

We bought our bus tickets for our next destination, packed up our bags and headed to Dubrovnik around 3pm.

We arrived around 8pm and got settled in our hostel, which was in the middle of the old town. We had dinner and some beers.

Hvar, Croatia

Saturday, October 6 /12

Hostel Orange terrace

We arrived in Hvar around 430pm and made our way to the hostel, called Hostel Orange.

We had dinner by the ocean and went walking along the coast line.

Ross was eager to see what the water was like so he ran down the rocks to the sea and he slipped. Nevertheless, he and I danced the night away in a club.. wet foot and all.



Sunday October 7 /12

Went to the town square for breakfast - pizza, a perfectly healthy breakfast, right?

This is the Cathedral of St. Stephen.

Built between the 16th-17th centuries.

We walked around a bit, then it was off to the beach.. which is rock based, not sand.

We laid on a stack of recliner chairs and basked in the sun.

Ross did some snorkeling and we played some cards.

We went for dinner at a place with a rooftop terrace. The food was good and the place had a nice atmosphere because there was a huge celebration going on, we think they were Norwegians, having a good time.

We walked around a bit and had some dessert at a place with live music. We went to some pubs but didn't stay out too late.

Monday October 8 /12

Pizza breakfast again! I swear that's all they had in this town for breakfast.

Then we climbed the Hvar Fortress.



Originally built in the 16th century and reconstructed several times due to various destructions.

It had a fantastic view from the top of Hvar town.

We had some ice cream and went to the beach again for the afternoon.

It was more windy than yesterday so we only stayed an hour or 2 then went back to the hostel and played cards on the terrace.

 It had a great view for the sun set.

We enjoyed dinner at the harbour and then had an early night.




I listened to the Saskatchewan Rough Rider game that played at 10pm our time. They beat Toronto and it was a good game to listen to. We packed up our bags because we left via the ferry at 745am the next morning back to Split.

Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina

Wednesday October 3 / 12

We arrived in Mostar around 330pm. The sun was shinning magnificently. We navigated our way to Hostel Miran. Once we were settled, we headed out into the town.

This is the famous Stari Most or in English, the old bridge.

This Ottoman bridge was originally built in the 16th century. Standing for 427 years until it was destroyed in 1993 during the war (bombed by Croatians).

Standing on the Stari Most

The bridge reconstruction took place from 2001 - 2004. Local material as well as stones recovered from the old bridge were used in the reconstruction.

The bridge stands 24 meters above the river. It is 4 meters wide and 30 meters long.

After touring around the town and dinner, we tried to find the old Catholic Church in the darkness.
We stumbled upon a cemetery. The location of the church on the map made it appear like it was right where this cemetery was. So we decided to climb up the stairs - turned out to be 204 stairs leading to nowhere. Fortunately, it gave us some great night views of Mostar.

We never did find the old Catholic church.


Thursday October 4 /12

Ready for the day by 10am. We had a tour organized by our hostel owner, Miran. Two other girls joined Ross and I.

It started with a traditional breakfast. Some sort of pastry with either meat or cheese embedded in it and a yogurt drink.


We then walked along a small bridge, where we came to a Mosque.

Shoes off, head and legs covered. Beautiful look for me eh?

We learned about the traditions of the Muslims, how and why they pray and worship the way the do.

It was interesting.

There was a spring running from a cave, which has some of the cleanest, purest water in the country. It was very refreshing!

Our next stop was a small religious village named, Međugorje (meaning, "between the hills").

It featured this church, St. James Church, a Roman-Catholic parish.

The next stop after this village was to the Kravice waterfalls and silly me, I forgot my bathing suit back at the hostel.. So instead of touring the church, Ross and I were on a mission to find me a cheap bathing suit so I could swim in the waterfalls. This was a difficult task because it was out of season to be buying bathing suits. Luckily I found one, a bit small but it would do the trick.

The Kravice waterfalls were amazing! The water was freezing.. but the sun was hot.

We swam, rock climbed and enjoyed.

We could have spent the whole afternoon there but the tour had to move on at some point.

This is me sunning myself, trying to dry off.

Next we visited a fortress, it was under construction but we walked around the top of it, getting great views of the city.


A women lived in a house very close by. She provided us with fresh juice and fruits -pomegranate, oranges, grapes.

Then we proceeded to the castle. A winding stair case to the top for more great views.

We arrived back at the hostel around 530-6pm.

A great day of tours.

We headed into the old town for some supper and went to a few of pubs that were around.
An early night for an early morning.

Friday October 5 /12

We had a white water rafting trip booked.
First we had to catch a local bus to the town of Konjic.

An hour later we arrived and we were served a traditional Bosnian breakfast. It was some sort of flour based dish with cheese. Ross could barely eat it. I didn't mind it as much and ended up eating about half of it.

Next we had to suit up. They provided us with wet suits and booties - unfortunately they were XXL.

Haha the wet suit just hung off of me.

The booties were equally too big so I ended up just using my water/hiking sandals.

Luckily, they found a wet suit that fit me a bit better.

We waiting around for awhile, basking in the beautiful sun.

Then this small car came. The raft was fixed to the roof of the car and we were off. Drove about 40 minutes to where we unloaded the raft.

 Ross and I were the only ones on this tour, so it was just us and the guide.

We rafted / paddled for 5 hours!! It was exhausting for just the 2 of us.

But we enjoyed it.

Beautiful scenery and we hit some decent size rapids. The water level was low so we would occasionally get stuck on the rocks, but it was all part of the adventure.

We had a small meal once we arrived back at the tour company's office. Then took the local bus back to our place.

Dinner then we decided to hit the pubs / bars.

We were in one pub that had a night club in the basement. We saw tons of people go down there so we decided to follow. It was crazy packed. People were shoulder to shoulder. You had to push through people to get from the bar to spot on the floor.. There was absolutely no room for any kind of dancing.. although Ross and I attempted anyway :)
There was another club suggested in our guide books called, club oxygen. We didn't know where it was, so we overpaid a taxi to take us there to find out it was closed. We met a stranger and asked him where a good place to party was and we ended up back at the same club we were in before.
We stumbled home around 2-3am.

Saturday October 6 /12

On the bus to Split, Croatia, then ferry ride to Hvar Island, Croatia.
Details to come with my next post.