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.

London adventures

Aug 25 - 31

With my five days in London, between Iceland and Croatia, I managed to squeeze in quite a few adventures. Here's the highlights:

Brixton
On Friday night, Mike and I started out at Pop Brixton, a really cool outdoor space with a whole heap of food and drink stalls. There was also a place out the back for table tennis and other PG-rated fun. We ate, we drank, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Then we went to the Blues Kitchen and saw the coolest band on the whole planet. It was a 10-piece brass band called 'Old Dirty Brasstards.' They pumped out pop tunes, old and new, on their trumpets and trombones, giving it a unique blues-pop mix. There were no vocalists; the lyrics just came from the crowd, where every single person was loving it. Amaaaazing.

Night out in Camden
Saturday night was a hectic one. Drinking games at home, followed by ripping up the dancefloor at The Monarch. From what I remember...a lot of fun!

Notting Hill Carnival
I went with Mike, Phoebe and her friend Fran to the infamous Notting Hill carnival on Monday. The atmosphere was unreal. We saw bits of the parade, full of colourful costumes and upbeat Carribean tunes. We saw a bunch of bands, including an awesome percussion group that had more energy than you could possibly imagine. We glittered our faces and drank very expensive drinks. Fun day!

Borough Market
Everyone has been telling me I *have* to go to Borough Market for lunch... I don't really know why it's taken me so long! But I finally made it. I met up with Mieke on Tuesday and we roamed around every inch of the market to ensure we were making an informed decision for our meal. I ended up with pad thai and Mieke had a pie. Yum. I know I'll be going back soon to try more!

Comedy
On Tuesday night Jen, Mike and I went to Top Secret Comedy in Covent Garden. We saw an improv group called Shoot From the Hip who entertained us with improvised games and skits. All of them were hilarious and quick-witted... I don't know how they do it! Amazingly, the show was 'pay as you feel' - no set price!

Iceland Roadtrip: South Coast

Aug 22 - 25
Hrollaugsstadir to Reyjkavik

The south coast. The part that everyone raves about! Hence why we saved it for the end of our roadtrip.

I'm gonna jump ahead for a sec and just explain that I had a ridiculously blonde moment and accidentally deleted all the pictures on my camera on our last day in Iceland, which has forever destroyed all my epic pictures of the south coast. However, Rach has kindly provided me with pictures to fill this blog post.

Our first stop on the south coast was a glacier and I can't even begin to explain how epic it was. Maybe the coolest place in Iceland. Maybe just the coolest place ever...

We had spotted Vatnajökull glacier while driving the previous afternoon and were beginning to get an idea of how massive it was. 8100km sq, to be exact. Our first stop was somewhat of an 'ice lagoon.' We stood at the edge of a lake filled with icebergs that had broken away from the glacier, absolutely in awe. Some of the ice bergs were incredibly bright blue. I can't explain how jaw-dropping this was.

While there we spotted some seals playing in the freezing cold water.

The lagoon eventually opens up into the ocean. Along the black sand beach we found huge chunks of ice that had washed up.

Keen to see more of the glacier, we drove to Skaftafell National Park and were able to walk up fairly close to it.

Our last stop for the day was Fjadrarglufur Canyon. Absolutely stunning. We were able to walk alongside the canyon for a while and even saw a waterfall - though it did require jumping a fence and walking out onto rocks that immediately gave me vertigo. I lasted all of three seconds, but Taylor played around on the death-rocks for a while.

That night in Vik we had a bit of a dilemma when the weather turned nasty. Outrageously windy and rainy. Eventually we decided it would be impossible to put up a tent and managed to nab the last cabin in town. Or...out of town, really. We drove up and around the hills for twenty minutes, on shocking gravel roads, to find this adorable little cabin.

In the morning the weather had calmed down, thankfully. Back in Vik we had a roam on the black beach. There were huge rocks in the water that reminded me a little of the Twelve Apostles. There were also huge basalt columns that we climbed part way up.

We were lucky enough to spot some puffins while we were there too!

Our next stop was perhaps a little under-researched. We were off to see a plane wreck which we assumed was somewhat of a roadside sight. However...it was a 4km walk from the road. A tediously boring, flat 4km where we had nothing but pebbles for scenery. However, the plane wreck was unlike anything I've ever seen before. Apparently it was a US Navy plane, which crashed there in 1973 when it ran out of fuel! Fortunately, everyone survived.

Adam, who had crippled himself with a potentially-sprained ankle a couple nights beforehand, decided that he wanted to hobble the whole 8km there and back...so we cooked lunch while we waited for him.

Then off to explore more glaciers! The next stop was Mýrdalsjökull glacier, Iceland's third largest glacier. There's a volcano underneath the glacier that is meant to erupt every ten years or so, but hasn't gone off since 2000! Eek. Luckily, it didn't erupt on us. The thing that made this stop particularly awesome was that we got to walk ON the glacier. Amazing. Considering it's made of ice...it wasn't at all slippery!

Skógafoss waterfall was next. 

A quick but steep climb landed us at the top of the falls, where we continued to walk alongside the river, finding more and more waterfalls the further we walked.

As we drove along the ring road we passed by Eyjafjallajökull - the volcano that famously erupted in 2010, grounding flights all across Europe.

Seljalandsfoss waterfall was our final stop that day. Given that we'd now seen maaaaany waterfalls, you could say this one didn't 'wow' us at first. 

But we quickly changed our minds when we realised we could walk behind the waterfall. Incredible.

We drove another hour or so, hoping to get as close as possible to the 'Golden Circle' which we would be exploring the next day..our last day on the road!

The geysir, our first stop for the day, was another massive highlight for me. The area was full of hot springs, one of which erupts with a huge fountain of water every three minutes or so. I've just never seen anything like it!

At Gullfoss waterfall, "the #1 thing to do in Iceland", I had my beyond-stupid moment and deleted all my pictures..so it's fair to say I was in a pretty average mood and perhaps didn't enjoy the waterfall as much as I would've otherwise. But yay...Lovely waterfall? I think personally I prefer the ones that are less jammed-packed with tourists and offer something unique (like the ones we had to hike to, or the one with the epic rainbow, or the one we walked behind)

Pretending I'm not devastated that I just lost all my photos...

Skyr cheesecake cheered me up! (Skyr is like yogurt...but better. I'm addicted to it!)

We stopped at Laugarvatn lake for lunch and then set off for Pingvellir National Park. This is where the American and European tectonic plates meet. Or, don't meet, really. Every year the plates pull 2cm apart and currently there is a gap of 7km between the plates. I was absolutely gobsmacked when we were told this. 7km?! Huge. From Pinvellir you can see the edge of the American plate very clearly because there's a huge rock cliff.

Pingvellir is also significant because its where the first Icelandic parliament was held, thousands of years ago.

Site of the first parliament, with the American tectonic plate boundary behind

While there, we saw our very last waterfall!

Late in the afternoon we arrived back in Reykjavik, somewhat exhausted. We said farewell to the boys who were going to sleep overnight at the airport, in preparation for an early flight, and Rachael and I went out for dinner. Our first real Icelandic meal - all the rest were cheap camping meals...I never want to eat tuna pasta again. We both had the traditional meat soup and I also had a spelt bagel with smoked trout and salad. Delicious! 

We went out for one (very expensive, quite disgusting) drink and then crashed in a REAL bed with REAL pillows in our hostel dorm. What a luxury.

It's been quite a journey in Iceland but I can say without a doubt that this is the most beautiful country I have ever been to. Despite the dramas, it is still easily one of my favourite countries...so far :)