Dubrovnik, Croatia

Aug 31 - Sept 3

So many people have told me that Dubrovnik is their favourite place in the world. And I have to say... I don't really get it. Yes, it's beautiful but it's incredibly touristy. I think for me the thousands upon thousands of tourists rammed into the Old Town each day just took away from the charm that it would otherwise have had.

I started my first day in Dubrovnik with a walk around the Old Town. Pretty little old town! The streets are a mixture of stunning historical buildings, restaurants and tourist shops. Lots of Game of Thrones is shot around Dubrovnik...but I don't watch it, so it's lost on me!

I left the main strips and discovered there were less tourists and smaller, much more stunning streets. 

The Old Town is tiny so it doesn't take long to see it all. Once I was done I went to Lovrijenac fort. From there I got a pretty good view of the Old Town and its walls.

Then I went back to the Old Town and walked along the walls. 25m high and almost 2km long, the walls have surrounded and protected Old Town for hundreds of years. The stroll all the way round offered views of not only Old Town, but also the fort and nearby islands.

Free cocktails were poured at the hostel in the evening to make for a nice chilled out night in.

After a slow morning lazing about the hostel, David and I walked along the coast, passing various beaches before stopping at Lapad beach for a swim and sunbake. I continued to walk around the coast after lunch but eventually hit a dead end. 

Later in the afternoon I met up with a bunch of people from the hostel and we hiked up Mt Srd. We timed it so that we were up the top for sunset. Infact, the sunset stretched out just about the whole length of the hike. The hike up was almost better than the view at the top! We got constantly changing views as we got higher and the sun got lower. 

At the top we watched the sun go down and got to see Dubrovnik by night.

While up the top we had a look around the war museum, filled with fascinating stories and pictures of Serbia's attack on Dubrovnik. 

We opted to get the cable car back down because the rocky path we walked up wasn't lit and therefore would've been tricky to descend. We had dinner, then free wine at the hostel and finished the night off with card games.