The Final Countdown. Day 42: Split, Croatia - Ljubljana, Slovenia

Today was a long travel day. It began with the 8.25am train from Split to Zagreb, the capital of Split. The lady had given us a table seat which mean we sat opposite each other, and when we got on there was practically no one else around. There was nothing to say whether a seat was reserved or not, so when people got on with reserved tickets they had to bump people out of their seats. Just before take off,  5 girls ended up sitting at our table and the one opposite, even though the train was empty, but thanks to the reserved seating business they weren’t able to spread out further. They were loud and really annoying. I wasn't happy. Oh well. 6 hours this train journey took and it was very, very windy (as in, not in a straight line). Dan and I chatted, and then did a bit of blogging once the path became less windy. We even climbed up into the clouds which was quite beautiful, and the moment it hit 12pm we ate our salads.

We arrived into Zagreb late at about 3pm and piled off the train after the 5 loud girls. In the station we found some huge lockers for very cheap, which made our exploration of Zagreb far more enjoyable! It was around about here that I discovered Dan, in my definition of the term, has not actually been to Zagreb. “Which way do we go, and what should we see?” I asked him. He didn’t know, which confused me, as I thought he had been here. “But haven’t you been here before?” I continued. By “been here”, he had stayed near the airport, and popped into the city - saw a single building opposite the train station and wander to the pharmacy just next to the station. That rendered him slightly useless for Zagreb recommendations!

Across the road from the station was quite a lovely square with a small market selling mostly flowers, off-the-back-of-a-truck clothing, and strawberries. There was a lovely building here with some pretty flowers which we spent some time taking photos of from every conceivable angle. We continued to follow our noses towards the centre, on the way passing what from a distance we thought was another market, but turned out to be a student fair, like an O Day kind of deal.

After being in this for a short way, we felt really old so decided to skirt it, and in doing so found the main square. Oddly enough, here was another market, but this one looked pretty local and seemed to be selling lots of nice things. Rounding the corner, we found another market - I think we found another 2, both of these were packing up for the day (or maybe hadn’t opened), except for one lady selling jewellery in the middle. We ended up passing her about 4 times in our journey around Zagreb.

We continued up the street, and saw a few bars that had reasonably cheap beverages. We did a bit of a loop, found the cathedral, took a photo of it, and then returned to one of the bars. Basically we had seen most of what there is to see in Zagreb, I reckon. There was a wine on the menu that was really cheap and large, so we ordered one each. When we tasted it, it was like it had been watered down. I actually googled it and we had, in fact, ordered watered down wine. Apparently it’s a thing! So we ordered a full strength red and a white, just to be on the safe side…

And that was our time in Zagreb. At 6.30pm we had another train to catch - this time to Ljubljana in Slovenia so we returned to the station. As we wouldn’t get into Ljubljana until about 9pm, we decided to have dinner on board. A quick stop around the supermarket at the station, where we bought a giant 1L bottle of beer and some local brand softies and a quick trip to the bakery for some baked goods, and we were set for dinner.

When the train arrived it had lots of different names on each of the carriages, which makes one think that the train would split up at various times. After Dan went and asked, I pushed my way onto the Ljubljana carriage and found an empty compartment. We don't like compartments but there was no choice. Dan and I purposely spread our stuff out so no one was tempted to join us!

We poured our beer into our sippy cups and scoffed our baked goods, feeling nice and full. Not too long after setting off we arrived at the border crossing. The Croatian side asked a few questions, gave us a stamp. So many bloody Croatian stamps! Why do the Croatians love stamping, but other countries don’t? Soon after the Slovenian border lady came past, and threw us quite a lot of questions (complicated, after our 1L of beer), but I think she might have just been doing it while she was scrolling through our passports. There’s so many stamps that I can imagine it’s pretty hard to figure out, and then all of our visas for the UK and Germany also make things confusing!

She finally left us alone (with no damn stamp) and we settled back again. I thought as we were riding along - I could do this forever. It was beautiful, and just sitting back watching the world go by is so peaceful. The scenery was lovely with the sun setting outside, and at about 9pm we arrived in Ljubljana.

The walk to our accommodation was a bit arduous. When we got to it, there was a sign on door saying Check in at Hostel o2 down the road. So we had to keep walking just as I was wanted to throw my luggage all on the floor. However, check in was easy enough, and then we had to go back to the apartment and up a few flights of stairs. Oh well! It’s just one night.

Before crashing out hard, we did a bit of research of what we actually wanted to see in Ljubljana on the morrow - the map was very helpful as it had little explanations of things to do so we chose the ones we liked the sound of, consulted our “bible” for a few other suggestions and then it was time to sleep.

Til next time,
xx

The Final Countdown. Day 41: Split

We had two choices for buses to Krka, one at 8am and one at 10.15am. In the end, we chose the later one because we really needed a sleep in - I for one was getting sick of being woken by alarms! I packed our salads (and sneakily put the rakija in too), Dan grabbed the wine in our sippy cups, we donned our bathers and made our way to the bus station. The town we needed for Krka was Skradin, but this wasn’t listed on any of the signs for Platform 1. Eventually a bus pulled in and we sat in our assigned seats near the front. I wanted to jump off so I could use the ATM, but found myself unable to get off the bus. There was an argument breaking out over the front seat of the bus. Two French women had apparently especially chosen the front two seats so they had a view. A lady was sitting there already. The lady was saying there’s no assigned seats. The driver said there were no assigned seats. The argument continued until the French ladies won.

I managed to quickly jump off for the ATM now but it wouldn’t give me what I wanted, so back on the bus I went. The journey was uneventful after the arguing - it was pretty windy so I had to chew gum to make sure I wasn’t motion sick. About 1.5 hours later, we arrived at Skradin and I asked the driver how to get tickets for the way back. He said either from the river or from the little office - but that’ll probably be closed.

We followed the signs until the ticket office, where we were pushed in front of, then bought our tickets. They weren’t cheap but they were cheaper than if we had come at the peak time of the year! The park is huge, and we didn’t have the means by which to explore the whole thing (namely, a car), and the bit we wanted to see specifically was the waterfall that you can swim in. Therefore, we knew there was a boat to the waterfall at 12pm so when we found the queue, we joined it. Ended up being the last people to be let on, which was a relief as we thought we would have to wait a whole hour for the next boat. Turns out at peak times they just keep the boats rolling, so we wouldn’t have had to wait long, but still - much better to be on our way!

We had to sit inside as all outside chairs were taken, and put on some sunscreen in anticipation of our swim. The waterfall was hidden from view, and once we were off the boat we had to follow a little path. At first we struggled to find a place to set up - everyone just seemed to be leaving their things at the base of the tree roots but I had wanted somewhere were we could also picnic later too. In the end, we just put our things under a tree a small distance from the water and decided to figure out the picnic later.

And so we stripped down to our bathers and made our way to the water’s edge! It was cold but not like Kravice Waterfall in Mostar, but I was also forced to enter the water quickly as there was a queue behind me! It was not deep here, there were lots of rocks but with sandy bits in between. The water was so clear, we could see everything. Dan kept his glasses on this time and I had my contacts in, so neither of us put our heads under the water this time. 


We waded out to the "photo" spot, and took a few ourselves. It isn’t quite as beautiful as Plitvice Lakes, or as large, but it was still damn beautiful! Especially able to be in it was spectacular. There was a rope stopping people from being able to get into the waterfall (it was pretty hard flowing) so I was happy I had climbed all over the waterfall at Kravice.


As we were hogging the photo spot, a lady offered to take our photo on our GoPro. I went to offer to take hers but her phone wasn't waterproof and I didn't feel comfortable doing that…I think she was a little disappointed but I’d rather her disappointment at not having a photo than me dropping it in the water.

We found a rock in the water to sit on. From here, we witnessed some dragonflies mating and watched the sky change as the sun popped in and out from behind the clouds - it wasn't really that cold now, either.  We paddled over to the edge of the waterfall - you could get close to the corner of it, and took some more photos I loved putting my hands in the water flowing down the rocks - it was gushing very strongly and made a lot of bubbles.

By now we were hungry and it was time for lunch. A flat spot with a lovely view and a tree stump for a chair came available so we nabbed it for our picnic. Ever industrious, we drank the glass of wine we had packed in our sippy cups and ate our salad which was actually quite tasty in the end! We also shuddered our way through the rather terrible rakija I had sneakily packed.


We wanted one more dip in the water, and to explore the right hand side this time. We nicknamed it the “mangrove swamp” as there were more trees and tree roots in the water over that side, as well as being a fraction shallower. We found another rock to perch ourselves on which covered us up to about our shoulders, and watched the world go by. When we started to get a little cold, it was time to jump out. In all, it was beautiful sitting here in the waterfall. It’s what we had come to do - basically the only reason we had come to Croatia at all. It was probably a far greater expense than necessary but whatever - I enjoyed it and I think Dan did too.

There’s a path around the outside and up around the waterfall which takes about an hour. It was beautiful seeing all the different trainees and pools, all different colours depending on the light, the depth and whatever was growing in the water. There was some wildlife too - we saw some baby duckies and some froggies sitting on lilypads. I sad myself down in the middle of the path to take piccies of some of the beautiful deep blue dragonflies that inhabit this area. As we started to make our descent, I saw some people crowded around a corner and realised there were some super teeny weeny kitties there! When we walked down the path, we found a third kitten, who got a little frightened and joined the other two who were playfighting.

We took some photos and they let us pat them - even their little paws! I love kitten paws. They were all playing rough with each other, and maybe only a few weeks old.

At this point, it got a little less pleasant.  When I stepped back from the kitties, something landed on my arm. As I went to brush it away, I felt an intense stinging pain in my forearm, which spread down to my hand and up my elbow. "FUCK something sting me!” I shouted loudly, and in front of children. It really, really hurt. I think what bit me was yellow and green, and may have been a horsefly. My initial reaction was that it was a bee or a wasp as I’ve never been stung by either of these, and is something I’m pretty phobic about.


Within minutes a lump had appeared and there was a stabbing, tingly pain every time I moved my arm. I wasn't particularly happy about this. Over the remainder of the walk, the pain began to dissipate a bit, which was a relief.

By now it was time to go back to Split, so we went back to the boat ramp. There was a big queue here - we thought the boats would be going constantly like they were that morning, but found out that the next boat wasn’t until 4.30pm. We managed to position ourselves close to the front, my arm still bothering me a bit, so that when the boat finally let us on (they were all standing there just watching us all for half an hour), we got ourselves some seats with a nice view out the front. Unfortunately the seats were possibly the most uncomfortable flip seats I’ve ever had the misfortune of experiencing, but at least we had leg room - the people behind us could barely even lower the flip seats! Rather hilarious, really.

The boat landed at 4.50pm and we legged it back to the bus station - the bus we wanted left at 5pm. We got there to be greeting by quite a crowd. And we waited. One bus came, we all surged forward, but it wasn’t going to Split. Some people got on, minimising the crowd. Another bus came, we all surged forward, but it wasn’t going to Split. Again, this thinned the crowd a bit. A third bus came - also not for Split. This was getting ridiculous, as the next bus was meant to be there at 6.10pm. The crowd had thinned but was now expanding again - for those who intended to get the 6.10 bus. Finally a bus to Split arrived, almost completely full.

Dan and I were pretty close to the front of the surge, and it seemed to take forever but we finally managed to buy 2 tickets and hop on board. We took the last 2 seats next to each other. We sat here til 6pm as the bus kept letting people on - although there wasn’t enough seating space for everyone, because each bus is run by a different company so they probably wanted to try to take the business of the 6.10pm bus.

We finally made it back into Split at about 7.30pm. We went to dinner on the foreshore at a place that was supposed to be a cheap eat but turned out to be pretty expensive. I had a seafood risotto which meant I had to shell the prawns (not a fan of this) and some nice beers. Even though it wasn’t quite what we expected, it was still lovely sitting out on the terrace in the lovely Mediterranean night air. No partying for us - back to the accommodation as we had - you guessed it - an early train to catch in the morning.

Back at the accommodation, I cooked the salad (as Dan calls it!), we packed and called it a night.

Til next time,
xx

The Final Countdown. Day 40: Mostar, Bosnia - Split, Croatia

Today was our last day in Mostar and I was certainly sad to say goodbye. To the city and to the wonderful hosts at our hostel! And also the lovely people we had met here - this was the first social hostel where we had actually interacted with other human beings.

We woke up (with a bit of difficulty, thanks to the litre of wine the night before), packed a bit, and then went down to breakfast. Majda wanted us to help arrange the cushions on the chairs because they had to be removed the night before when it rained. We failed pretty miserably at following her instructions, and she was [hopefully mock] exasperated with us!

After the lovely breakfast with more of that awesome Bosnian bread, it was time to finish our packing. We shouldered our luggage and headed downstairs to say our farewells. Majda gave us both squeeze and told Dan, “You look after Sasha!” And we said goodbye, and walked out the door. Not before one of the ladies working there opened up the big gates as we approached, which was quite hilarious as we thought it was so we didn’t have to climb through the tiny gate. It wasn’t, but it was good timing!

We walked the few minutes t the bus station laden with our things, and waited for the bus to arrive. It was a little bit late, and Dan bought some soft drinks and chips with the remaining Bosnian convertible mark. He got me a cucumber flavoured Sprite. Interesting, since he hates cucumber. It was very cucumbers. Probably quite good with a gin! Although it got progressively more shit as it got warmer…

I fell asleep for a lot of the journey, as seems to be my want of late. So exhausted that I just pass out the moment I’m on moving transport! Didn’t even take a travel sickness tablet. It wasn’t too long before we reached the border crossing - I jumped off the bus and quickly peed (all that damn cucumber Sprite!). The border crossing here didn’t take all that long as our driver managed to nab first place in front of another bus that arrived at the same time.

We drove down the road a little way after leaving Bosnia, and on entering Croatia it took a little bit longer as one guy on our bus got a good interrogation.

Apparently I fell asleep again, according to Dan, after we left the border crossing and stayed asleep for a lot of the journey towards Split. At least it makes it go quicker! I feel bad for Dan as I’m pretty awful company, but seeing as I’m such an awful sleeper at the best of times, I really do need to take any opportunity I can get. It’s like I’m a baby that needs to be walked around the block in a pram to be able to go to sleep…

We arrived into Split at about 4pm and by now I had a pretty one-track mind for lunch, as we hadn’t eaten anything except the chippies. We had a little bit of difficulty finding our accommodation - this time we opted not to stay in the Old Town because we just wanted to be close to the bus station, but to be fair, everything is pretty close to the Old Town in Split. As we approached Apartment Merika, a lady downstairs spotted us and jumped up - it was the owners sister. She saw us into our room and got us set up, saying that her sister would be around shortly.

Literally a minute later there was a knock at the door and I could have sworn the original girl had just changed clothes - they looked so alike! Dan paid up while I researched where to go for lunch.

I settled on a gastro pub/street food on the other side of the Old City, and the weather was warm enough to don our shorts. We reached the restaurant and found a high table outside and perused the menu. There weren’t a lot of things, and it was a bit more expensive than we thought - but it was cheap by Split standards. We had simply gotten used to the ex-Yugoslavia price tags we had been experiencing the last few weeks!

I went with a raw tuna salad and Dan with a fish stew, which came in a big bread roll. The gastro pub had barely any indoor seating - it was designed to take your food away! We weren’t completely full at the end (we hadn’t eaten all day) so also grabbed some rosemary potatoes, which were delicious.

We figured now would be a good time to enquire about the bus or train to Ljubljana so the plan was to wander through the Old City towards the bus and train station. On the way, we passed a supermarket so we got some things for the next day - as the idea was to go to the Krka National Park, we thought we would take with us a packed lunch.

So we bought ourselves some wine (duh) and ingredients for a salad, and continued towards the bus station. On the way, we noticed that the train station seemed to have a specials notice board for trains to Zagreb. Upon enquiring, it turns out we were eligible for these cheap tickets, so figured why not! Let’s get a train for a change - there’s been oh so many buses, and the train was considerably cheaper.

We continued on to the bus station to get tickets for the Krka NP for the next day. The lady who served us was, frankly, a bitch - even thought the sign said we could get return tickets she refused to sell those, and was not particularly clear about where we would be able to get return tickets, until she spoke loudly and slowly into the microphone “YOU WILL HAVE TO BUY THE RETURN TICKETS THERE.” Thanks. You could have just said that the first time, bitch.

As many tickets got as possible, we found a little gap along the tracks of the railway which would pop us out right near our accommodation. Turns out about 10 minutes walk from where we were was a little beach, which I had no idea was there! Dan had been there before, so we grabbed the bottle of wine, a towel to sit on, the bottle opener which was provided by our accommodation, and walked to the beach.

Beach is a bit of a stretch of the term, it was mostly concrete, but there were still a few people swimming. There as no way we would be swimming with the fading light and warmth, but we thought we would dangle our feet in the water. We walked around the whole bay until we were at a corner, and set up camp here. Shoes off, towel down on the concrete. The water level was too low for me to be able to reach the water unless I perched my bum on the edge and streeeeeeetched, I could dangle my toe in. Dan, of course, couldn’t stop getting his feet wet in the cold water.

We sat here and people watched, drinking our 1L bottle of wine (which proved to be a bit too much). A styrofoam box floated over to us, which broke the serenity. Dan fished it out with his long legs and we put it in the bin - doing our little tiny bit for the environment! We poured one final glass into our sippy cups to keep for tomorrow at Krka, and packed up our things and headed for home.

On the way, Dan heard some train noises, and decided he would come back a little later to take some photos. We managed to duck into the supermarket near our accommodation just before it shut and picked up some blue cheese and crackers (because I was desperate for something salty after the wine!) and some puddings for dessert.

Back at the accommodation, I “cooked” the salad (while eating cheese) and while Dan was back at the station taking some photos. I put in gouda, Roma tomatoes, sausage, green of some description, some mushroom and balsamic salad. We would see how it would go - hopefully a success!

It was time to call it a night - it had been yet another long day of travelling and we would have a big day on the morrow.

Til next time,
xx

Summer of Fun: Croatia & Montenegro

Read all of the Summer of Fun here, as we enter the final instalment.

30 May
ITALY TO CROATIA

My expensive flight out of Rome to Split, Croatia passed smoothly enough. I was holding my anxiety at bay, sitting underneath the propellor wings of the tiny plane but once in the air, coupled with the amazing service on board, I relaxed. I was still pissed off that this was a £225 flight, as opposed to my original £60 flight, but tried to push that to the back of my mind.

I drank a large glass of awful wine, looked out the window at the spectacular Dalmatian islands, and soon we were descending.

It was super easy and inexpensive to catch a shuttle to the Port where I had booked to stay in a hostel close by so I could walk there in the morning to start my Travel Talk tour, Sailing Split to Dubrovnik. I checked into my hostel room and crashed out on the bed. As I lay there, waiting for my phone to charge, I heard someone's voice out in the lobby. It sounded familiar. Surely not. I peeked out the door.

"Supreet?" I tentatively called, and sure enough, she turned around. She had been my dorm mate in Florence. "What are you doing here?" 

Turns out, Supreet had made a detour away from her original plan, which landed her in exactly the same hostel as I was staying. The world truly is a small place, as it had been in Pisa too. Pleasantly surprised, we grabbed some late lunch together and caught up on what had happened in the previous week of our respective adventures.

We drank and talked the night away before retiring, and I got myself ready for sailing the seas on the morrow.

31 May

I didn't need to do much in the morning so I made a quick stop at the supermarket to get some snacks. While there, I made one final check of where I was supposed to meet the ship.

Where I was supposed to meet the ship..in..wait..what? Why does my itinerary say I'm travelling Dubrovnik to Split? This must be a mistake. I frantically started going through my emails but, being out, was finding it very difficult. I raced back to the hostel and perched, panicking, at the computer.

"Is everything ok?" the hostel receptionist asked. 

"Um, not really? I think I've been sent the wrong travel voucher!!" I tried to remain calm, but it wasn't working.

"Here, use my computer, it's faster."

I checked my emails. Here is where the problem lay. Now, I fully take responsibility for what happened, however, having worked extensively in email marketing I would never, ever have sent an email like the one I received, and I didn't notice the change because I didn't know what I was meant to be looking for. My first email confirmed Split - Dubrovnik, 31 May.

2 weeks later, I had received a second email, the title saying "Correction" and an identical copy of the email body. Except it wasn't identical, I discovered. Split to Dubrovnik had been replaced by Dubrovnik to Split. I didn't notice. Simple as that. My first reaction was to check the date: perfect. I never in a million years expected the direction to change. And in my defence (even though I do understand it was my own stupidity), nothing was highlighted; no "Please note, there was a mistake with the booking and the boat you selected does not run on those dates" etc. Needless to say, panic stations ensued. The receptionist allowed me to use the phone and I called the emergency number.

More panic ensued, and then dread, as I decided that I would just forego the whole thing. The gentleman on the other side said that, while I will miss the beginning, I could meet the ship at the first port in Slano at around 4.30pm that day, so basically I'd barely miss anything.

After my panic died down and I could think mildly logically, I decided this would have to do. I shouldered my backpack, walked back to the port and bought myself a bus ticket from Split to Dubrovnik, repeatedly mentioning that I wanted to get off at Slano.

The bus ride along the coast was actually beautiful, but I had little capacity to appreciate it. I felt like a fool, I was stressed and I constantly replayed my arrival conversation over and over in my head. After 4 hours, we arrived at Slano and I was deposited on the side of the road, with a general hand wave in the direction of the water.

Making my way down to the water front, I walked into a cafe and asked if I was in the right place. She replied that the boat hadn't come in yet, but yes, Lav is the pirate ship I am looking for. I settled down with a double vodka to calm my nerves and I waited for my ship to arrive.

Before long, a speck on the horizon. As it came closer, I could see the skull and cross bones and the unmistakable look of a pirate ship. This must be my chariot, I thought, and I summoned my courage, took a deep breath, practiced my speech and approached the ship as it was docking.

A young gentleman jumped off the side, hand extended. "Sasha? I'm Dan, nice to meet you."

I shook his hand, saying "Yep, I'm the missing one," and threw my bags on board. Everyone already knew my name, of course, and they all introduced themselves to me warmly despite my idiocy. Dan was the Travel Talk tour leader, and he took me into the kitchen to run through the trip notes. The ship could house 25 passengers, but our tour, not quite being high season yet, only had 13 pirates on board. This meant that almost everyone got a room to themselves. Naturally, I was in room #6 and I had the only room with a standup shower. I was extremely pleased with my lodgings and immediately distributed all of my belongings as far as possible.

The boat docked here at Slano, and Dan gave us a brief tour of the area. I chatted and starting getting to know my fellow ship mates - tonight we were to be having dinner ashore before setting sail in the morning.

I was glad for bed time; it had been a rather awful, stressful, panicky day. All will be well on the morrow.

1 June

We awoke for breakfast; fresh bread, french toast and meats. We sat on the top deck, soaking up the sun. The boat docked in the middle of the clear, smooth water. It was time. It was time for me to make the jump. 

I was frightened, of course. I'm scared of heights; I'm scared of falling. I climbed shakily up the steps, and onto the slippery banister of the ship. Holding onto the rope tight, I took a shaky breath, before I let go and - JUMP! 

SPLASH into the cold, cold water, eyes open, blue as far as I can see. I splashed my way to the surface, exclaiming at the cold, and I felt proud of myself for jumping. 

After a little while, we climbed back aboard for lunch. We all sat down to a table with a big bowl of soup, crusty soft bread and some cheese. Naturally, we thought that today's lunch was soup, and so we poured big bowls for ourselves, scooped the cheese in (when in Croatia!) and tucked in with gusto. Ante, the barman returned to the dining room, looked puzzled, and shouted in his brusque Croatian way, "Why have you eaten all the cheese?"

It was round about here that we discovered we would be receiving three-course meals on board, and the cheese had been put there in preparation for the main course, which was to be pasta.

***

Today's island: Mljet. This is the island that Odysseus became trapped with Calypso for 7 years, being forced to make love to her while faithful Penelope remained faithful, faithfully back home in Greece.

The remainder of the afternoon saw us docking at Mljet and having a splash in the inland salt lake in the centre of the island. When we returned to the boat we rifled through the bag of costumes for tonight's themed party: The Pirate Party. There were some group games including a treasure hunt, beer skulling and bobbing for apples. Team #1 won, and we were rewarded with a giant cocktail to share, and thus we drank and partied the night away as pirates on the pirate ship Lav.

2 June

The next few days passed in a similar fashion.

Eat.

Splash.

Drink.

Sleep.

Repeat.

The morning's consisted of getting up for breakfast before 10am, lazing on the top deck, waiting for the boat to dock so we could have a morning splash, lunch, and then a siesta before we docked to explore that day's island.

Today's island was Korcula, famous for being the homeland of Marco Polo. There were a few uncomfortable heads today as we explored the sleepy little island, retuning that evening for dinner and cocktails overlooking the bay. And also overlooking the wealthy's yachts.

This evening we went out for a bit of a dance (on the stripper pole?) and had our first grappa (also called rakija). If anyone remembers me talking about palinka, this is Croatia's version of face-melting liquor. It was a faint blue colour, and tasted exactly like rocket fuel. Collectively, we struggled to keep it down.

Turns out, it's rude to refuse rakija, and also turns out that one is expected to shot it before almost all main meals. Over the course of the week, we tried many different varieties, some more shudder-inducing than others, and definitely some which fought battles to stay in.

3 June

Hvar was today's island, and after our normal morning activities, we docked and walked to the very top of the hill to look out over the bright red rooftops to the green islands in the brilliant blue water. We stopped at a beach-side bar (of which there were hundreds!) and Kaylin and I sat with our toes in the water. Evening time, saw a belly full of mussels (after grappa, of course) before we danced the night away.

4 June

Today we were bound for Brac, and this was my favourite island. This island boasted an inflatable playground in the middle of the ocean which was not only a lot of fun, but was also surrounded by beautiful scenery. We slid down slides and got flung into the air on an big balloon pillow and ran across slippery barrels, often going arse-up into the water. The afternoon was a lazy one, snoozing on the beanbags out in the sand. 

This evening, we had the trash bag party where we created costumes out of nothing but garbage bags. As we were docked on the shore, many people came up to the boat and took photos of us as we looked rather hilarious. We partied and Kings-Cupped the night away.

5 June

Makarska was the flavour of the day with a gorgeous mountainous backdrop. In the evening, we went out for a few drinks, including getting tequila poured down my throat on the bar top to herald in my birthday in the right way. We then made our way to a bar in a cave and danced it up. The crew stopped and sang happy birthday for me when it reached midnight, and not long after I took my now-old and decrepit self back to the boat.

6 June

My birthday! In the morning, I had a bit of a fuzzy head from the night before (or maybe I was still drunk..). When we jumped off the boat, a few of us swam to shore which was quite an effort, but fun. Today we were to be arriving in Split - which was all oddly familiar seeing as I had been here before! It was a hot hot day, and so spent it rather lazily wandering the streets, getting gelato and looking at the market stalls. This was our last night on the boat and we started to bid our adieus.

7 June

Today, I had to make my way back to Dubrovnik, which served as another reminder of my original idiocy. However, I was a pro now and so made my way to the bus station, bought my ticket and settled in - again - for the 4.5 hour trip. This would be my first time landing in Dubrovnik and I was looking forward to seeing the town I had heard so much about.

I initially struggled to find the B&B Vila Marija, and then also couldn't work out how to get inside, but finally a lovely lady approached (she had ducked out) and made me right at home. I was astounded by the amazing service and would definitely recommend when you go to Dubrovnik! She sat me down and recommended a lot of things to do. When taking my passport, she realised that it had been my birthday and returned with a delicious block of Croatian chocolate which I consumed in about a day.

Dubrovnik Old City was about a 20 minute walk from the B&B and I set off in the late afternoon sun to have a peek. Maria had advised to avoid the city walls before 6pm as it would be teeming with tourists from the cruise ships and so, heeding her warning, I waited until the evening. The walls entirely surround the city and the view inside and out was spectacular. Red roofs as far as the eye could see one way, clear blue water the other.

It had been another long, exhausting day and so I returned and crashed for the night.

8 June

Lords and ladies, welcome to Kings Landing.

Today I had booked to do a Game of Thrones walking tour as the Old City is where the set of Kings Landing is filmed. I naturally got on the wrong bus, ended up somewhere (I don't even know where), and ran all the way back down the hill to the city, arriving at 11.03am, puffing, but just in time for the start of the tour. I found a hand fan in my bag which the lovely Smita had given me when I was so sick in Egypt, and that couldn't have been more welcome on this steamy hot day.

The tour was a lot of fun and walked us all over the inside and the outside of Old City. Our guide had been a costume designer on set and so she had a little bit of inside gossip for us, and she held up stills from the show to compare where we were standing with the view behind. To be honest, the tour was fun - but the real cool thing about it was then watching Season 5 on my return and instantly recognising all of the places; I had stood on the steps were Cersei descended, at the scene of the fateful Purple Wedding.

At the conclusion of the tour, I (and Shazza) got to have a seat on the Iron Throne.

That afternoon, I hopped on a ferry (after getting on a wrong bus - AGAIN and missing the first ferry) over to the lovely little island of Lokrum. Lokrum is a gorgeous little island just off the coast and is home to an ancient monastery and a botanical garden nature reserve. The island is overrun with beautiful peacocks who were not shy about shaking their tail feathers, and I found a painfully cute inland salt lake to have a splash in. I caught the last ferry back and, as it had been a long hot day, I retired for the evening.

9 June

MONTENEGRO

One of the recommendations from my lovely host was to take a day trip to Bosnia or Montenegro as they were very close to Dubrovnik. I decided on Montenegro and was picked up in a minibus early in the morning.

Our guide was a brusque but factual Croatian gentleman who drove us the hour to the first stop, Kotor. Along the way, we passed through a passport check and at some point, he received a speeding fine.

Montenegro was, quite simply, beautiful. It is one of the world's newest countries, declaring independence in 2006 and its name is derived from monte - mountains, and negro - black: Black Mountains. The rolling horizon surrounded the towns and formed a dramatic background everywhere one looked. Our guide explained a little bit about the Croatian War of Independence in 1991, but as he had been a teenager at the time and bore the awful memories, didn't want to discuss in great detail.

Kotor in particular took my breath away. The town was nestled into the mountainside, with the clouds looming low and obscuring the mountain tops.  It was green and lush and old.  We ended the day in Budva. Here I splashed my feet in the sandy ocean and for the first time in a while, felt a little homesick. I hadn't seen a sandy beach for a very long time - as opposed to a pebbly one - and it made me think of home. I quickly remembered I was in Montenegro of all places, and was snapped back to reality. 

Our ride back to Dubrovnik was a sleepy one and this time, as we passed through passport control, I had my passport stamped - to my delight. It had been another incredibly long, tiring day and so one last farewell to Dubrovnik's Old City and I packed it in for the evening.

10 June

Today was my last day in Croatia and the last day of my Summer of Fun. I was tired, sore, overwhelmed, tanned, broke, wide-eyed-with-wonder and quite ready to return to London. I thankfully had few problems at Customs (as I flirted quite extensively with the customs boy) and returned to London soil enriched with experiences anew.

***

Here concludes my Summer of Fun, traipsing around Greece, Egypt, Italy, Croatia and the last minute addition, Montenegro. It was 33 days start to finish and had been the longest I had ever been on the move for. It had its challenges, it had its tough times, expensive times, but each of those showed me that I was able to muddle through and logically work my way out the other side.

It had its breathtakingly beautiful times, it had its emotional times where I was standing before relics I had only ever read about, it had its fits of giggles and it let me make lasting friendships and meet interesting people along the way.

Highlights, because everyone loves a list, include:

• Running and cartwheeling at Olympia
• Eating mindblowing Greek salads
• Seeing the Pyramids, riding a camel and descending into the Valley of the Kings
• Hot air ballooning
• Everything to do with Florence, including the food and the beautiful sights
• Game of Thrones tour and exploring Dubrovnik
• The dark mountains of Montenegro

Quite the adventure, and it led me directly into the glorious English summer we are currently experiencing.

xx