We're back!!!

We're back from Croatia and had a fab time! The weather was so hot - 36C at times! The people were lovely as was the part of the country we went to.

It was a very early start, having got up at 4am, yes 4am, to get to the airport and due to their check in desks breaking the queues were massive as there were quite a few flights going out that early that we only had time to grab a sandwich then board the plane. Everything went smoothly and we were at the hotel so early we couldn't check in! So sitting still in our England clothes we drank at the pool bar til we could get to our room.

Over the course of the week we had a balance of doing things and laying around pool/sea side - partly you couldn't be on the go all the time as it was far too hot! Our hotel over looked the harbour and international port where many cruise ships docked - and my they were massive. One day there was 4 ships docked in the harbour which meant an additional 10,000 people in the old town. The tiny old streets in the walled city can not cope with that many people so we were lucky to be able to see how many there were at the harbour and then we could judge whether we should go into the old town or not!

Having only saw one ship we ventured into the old town of Dubrovnik on one day to go up the medieval city walls that surround the city - hmmm, i was not brilliant at walking up to these, lets be honest i wasn't great on the Lincoln castle walls! Daniel held onto me until we got to a part of the walls where it was high solid sides and then i was a little better. Great views of the old town with all the hustle and bustle down below but it was incredibly hot! It took a while to do one complete circuit mainly because you need to keep stopping for shade and water.

When we came down we decided to got hunting for the Dubrovnik Festival tickets as we were lucky enough to be staying there whilst this music festival was on - they open up all the historical buildings for concerts and performances so it seemed a good thing to try and go to. We eventually found the ticket office - though it was well hidden - and bought tickets for a guitar trio held in the Rector's Palace which was where the old mayor type person lived in the past. The concert was really good, it was classical guitar pieces, sounded brilliant inside the palace. We did however clap a hell of a lot, when they came on, when they went off, when they came back for another bow, for their encore, our hands hurt, it was insane. They even got flowers at the end like at the opera. They came out for two encores after the crowd clapped so much and ended up being in unison clapping, it was a little strange. They did do a got section where all three of them were playing the same guitar, that was impressive. After coming out of there at 11.30 the old town was still buzzing, but we made our way for the bus as we didn't know when the last one was. Daniel took some great pictures of the old town on his new camera, though you do feel a little bit of a pleb when you are posing and he's taking a load of pictures on different settings!

From the old town we also got a boat to one of the islands Lokrum which is not too far away. It only had on it a botanical garden, fortress, monastery and a cafe. It was a very green island though the botanical garden part was not what you expected it to look like, it was very grayish in colour and had lots of cacti, where as outside the garden was green and colourful. We spent some time on the rocks sunbathing and trying to get into the sea - it was very rocky and slimy on the rocks. There was also fish and shells with legs crawling around in there which you tried to avoid but it was fun. We couldn't access much of the island though as they had threats of forest fires, we tried to get through on some back paths but had no luck. In the end we got the boat back and went for some delicious gelato - apple ice cream was amazing!

Thomson who we booked the holiday through did run excursions to the islands but we decided to visit Lopud ourselves as we didn't want to visit some of the lesser interesting islands and they were built into the trip so we decided to brave the locals mode of travel to Lopud! We got the water taxi (also known as a tiny little boat practically in the water with a crazy driver) to the port, then found the ticket office and got some tickets to Lopud (which was also several hundred kuna cheaper than the Thomson trip) and boarded a ferry. There were no announcements on this ferry, consequently we almost got off at the wrong island as we didn't know if it was Lopud or not! Thankfully i glimpsed a sign on our way off and realised it was the wrong one so we sat back down! Another half an hour later we made it to Lopud, this time the right island! We tried to be a little like Bear Grylls on Lokrum but due to so much of it being shut off we couldn't be at one with nature, so we tried here. We walked across the island to get to the sandy beach and that felt more Bear Grylls like. We were doing well when a massive butterfly flew by, i then screamed when it got to close! Doh. The beach was lovely, quieter than we expected and surrounded by posh yachts anchored out to sea. We stayed for lunch at a beach hut called Charcoal Grill, Daniel had a kebab in honour of the local Charcoal Grill takeaway at home! Lopud's was surely better quality! My fried squid was delicious! After more tasty gelato and pivo - aka beer we got the evening ferry home, which felt like it took forever and the taxi boat back to the hotel.

The only excursion we did book with Thomson was a wine tour. For 315 kuna - £37 - we drank a lot of wine. I thought we'd get given a few small glasses which we'd have to spit into a pot but we had at least 10 glasses and a lot of nibbles. The vineyards were only small but the owners we so generous - they sold you thier wine but not for much money - one bottle we bought was only £3.50. We even tried the world's best dessert wine - that was a little more expensive so our bottle is saved for a special occassion. Needless to say by the time we got back to the hotel we were a little tipsy!

We did the wine tour on our last full day as we were being picked up early Sunday morning for our flight. That is the only thing with package deals, they get you to the airport so early for your flight you end up sitting there for ages.

So now we're back...what to do??? Plan next year's holiday i think :)