Traveling Around Croatia: First Stop - Dubrovnik Pt 1

So I know I haven't blogged in for-EVER! Life just kind of got in the way, actually work got in the way. I've been studying while working to qualify in my line of work, and I am very pleased to say that I now have! As fantastic as that is, and a massive weight off my shoulders, my time was getting stretched pretty thin and something had to give, unfortunately it was this blog. But now that is over and I just got back from my holiday in Croatia and I have so much to tell you! 

I'll start from the beginning. We were invited to one of Ciarán's pals wedding in Dubrovnik and we decided that if we were going to fly out there anyway, we might as well make a holiday out of it. After doing some research (reading a whole load of blog posts about Croatia) I decided that we should travel from Dubrovnik to Korcula, Hvar, and finally Split before flying home.

We booked a very early morning flight from Gatwick so we also booked into the Bloc hotel in the South Terminal the night before, and it was awesome!! We checked our luggage in the night before, so zero queues, and in the morning (5am !!) we stepped out of the hotel and were right at departures, we sauntered through a very quiet security and went in search of coffee and pastries. After a relatively short flight and a well needed snooze, we landed in Dubrovnik to beaming sunshine and the rest of the day ahead of us.

Getting to the Old Town from the airport couldn't have been simpler, we popped to the Atlas ticket desk to buy our tickets, stepped outside, shoved our suitcases into the bus and got dropped off at the Pile Gate, no hassle. I could barely contain my excitement as we stepped through the gates into the Old Town and I was faced with a beautifully conserved medieval city, as we wound our way through the cobbled alleyways to our apartment I couldn't wait to ditch our cases and get exploring.

We were out in the sunshine soon enough, and after grabbing a quick bite at literally one of the first restaurants we saw simply to keep the hanger at bay, we decided to walk the Old Town walls. Now we made this decision at lunch time under a parasol with a cold beer in hand, we did not give any thought to the fact that we would have zero shade on the walls and with the sun at its highest we would be looking at temperatures of 30 degrees plus....we were total idiots! There is a reason every blog and every travel guide suggests doing this very first thing or in the evening, it was hot! I have never been so thankful for the bottle of water I carry everywhere or the sun lotion I was wearing, or the ice cream stand about a quarter of the way round. 

I loved walking the walls the views were amazing and you really appreciate why Dubrovnik is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. One thing I would say is the only plus to going when we did is that it was fairly quiet. I didn't have any trouble getting people free shots, and only had one moment where there was a small group of people behind me waiting for me to get out of the way. Meanwhile I was oblivious with my camera glued to my face. I was blown away by how beautiful it all was. I absolutely adored the combination of colour with the vibrant terracotta tiles, the deep blue of the sea, and sandy neutral stone walls. If you're a Game of Thrones fan you can totally understand why it has been used to film scenes of Kings Landing. I secretly wished I was wearing a floaty skirt so I could swoosh around pretending to be a warrior princess!

Playsuit

Birkenstocks

Sunglasses (similar)

I love love love this playsuit! It's so light, airy and comfortable, it's also loose fitting enough that you can eat what you want ;) I really like the little bobble detail around the hem of the legs and the elastic waist is really flattering. Did I mention it's a total bargain?

We had heard from a couple of Ciarán's friends who were also going to the wedding. So when we finally made it to the end/back to where we started, we made our way down the main street to the bar they were at, but not before stopping at the fountain to fill up my water bottle. Such a novelty to be able to get drinking water from fountains! (I drank the water from this fountain and others, and was fine the whole time, but please make your own decision on whether you want to do this. I wasn't given any confirmation the water is drinking water, but lots of other people were drinking from the fountains too. I really don't want to be the reason you get poorly on your holiday!!)

I had decided during our planning of the trip that I really wanted to take the cable car to the top of Mount Srd, but I particularly wanted to go at sunset. This was the only thing I insisted we do the whole trip, and boy was it worth it! We found out when sunset was meant to be and got the cable car up the mountain about 45 minutes before. There is a lovely bar and a viewing platform looking over the old town when you get to the top. We didn't go there, we left the building and turned left following the cliff a short way until we were looking out over the sea and the islands. Here we had a perfect view of the sun going down and were able to see the exact moment it hit the water. It was  just spectacular and I think it's an absolute must when you visit.   

This was such a perfect ending to our first day and it absolutely stole my heart!


(I was planning on Dubrovnik being one post, but I just have so much I want to tell you about that I have had to split it into two posts because it was just getting too long. Stay tuned for more on what we got up to in Dubrovnik, particularly where we ate!)