Dubrovnik - The Jewel of the Adriatic (Croatia)

After our adventurous journey, we awoke the next morning to a view of the sparkling Adriatic Sea, which we enjoyed while eating brekky out on our balcony. Thanks to the help of an equally lost Croatian lady, we found our way to the Old Town of Dubrovnik without too much wandering. After talking to four different tourist offices, we still didn't have a map or any useful information, despite Dubrovnik being one of Croatia's major tourist spots. So we relied on our wits and the ever-faithful Lonely Planet.

Dubrovnik's Old Town is surrounded by solid walls that reach up to 25 metres high. We trekked the 2km around the top of the walls, getting a fantastic view of the city and the ocean. As the guide books all said, it was the high point of our visit. Karina even made friends with two little old Japanese ladies, who kept offering to take our photo.

We took the afternoon easy and finished the day off with a relaxing dinner (eaten where else but on our lovely balcony). Dinner almost didn't happen though, because we'd bought some tins of tuna to make some pasta, but discovered that the apartment didn't come complete with can opener. Simon went downstairs to ask the landlord to borrow one, but it turned out their can opener was broken! So, much to his chagrin, the landlord's son was sent to a neighbour's house to track down what may have been the only functional can opener in the street. So dinner was saved, and we celebrated with a litre of wine, which this time we bought on purpose and had no trouble finishing!

The next morning we discovered that we had no hot water, so after freezing cold showers, we headed off on a boat trip on the oldest boat still sailing on the Adriatic (it used to be a pirate ship). We got a great view of our apartment high up on the sea cliffs as we sailed past, then visited 3 islands - Kolocep, Sipan and Lopud. Despite the beautiful weather, it was still a tad chilly for swimming, and the few sand beaches weren't particularly inviting anyway. But we did eat about 15 fish each (no kidding) for lunch, cooked fresh on the boat. Yum!

Fortunately, we worked out how to turn on the hot water, so our showers on our last morning in Dubrovnik were nice and hot. We took a last walk around the Old Town, visiting the third oldest pharmacy still in use, a couple of monasteries where Karina was grossed out by saintly body parts, and had a massive meat platter for lunch (being a bit sick of fish after yesterday's effort).

After lunch, it was to the airport to brave Croatian Airlines and Olympic Airways, for the journey to Athens.