Hello hello and welcome to sunny Croatia!
A few weeks ago I decided I really wanted to get away in the October half term and luck was on my side. I managed to find return flights from London to Dubrovnik for £75 and when I searched accommodation for the dates, Booking.com was giving me a 50% discount on the hostel I was looking at. That's return flights & 4 nights accommodation for just £140. So naturally, I booked it on the spot. I haven't been to Croatia before, and Dubrovnik is close to Bosnia and Herzegovina & Montenegro so I could do 3 countries!
Day 1 London to Dubrovnik
I really wasn’t sure how early to get to Stansted Airport (no checked luggage) so I decided to arrive 2.5hrs early. It’s easy but expensive to get to this airport. The Stansted Express is a nice train but its presiding is based on demand so today cost me £35 return. Yikes! I’m very much looking forward to this trip though. It's going to be warm & sunny and I'm going to get some nice beach time!
I ended up getting to the airport at 2.30pm
for my 5pm flight and security took a whole 5mins. I had tons of time so I
slowly meandered through duty free then got Burger King for an early tea. I
can't remember the last time I had it, but it wasn't great! My go-to burger at Burger
King/Hungry Jacks has always been the bacon deluxe, but they don't have that
here. After a stop at Boots for some paracetamol, I noticed my gate had been
announced so off I went to find my gate. It was a long walk but I was one of the
first there.I took my usual airport selfie, and boy do I look like crap! I knew I felt like completely exhausted but I didn't realise how much it showed in my face. I definitely need this holiday!
Turns out the flight is being operated by Buzz, who I had never heard of. It also turned out that the plane was only 2/3 full and there was only 1 other person in my row. The flight went well and we landed 20mins early. That did mean however that the ground crew weren't ready when we arrived so we had to sit on the plane for 15mins before we could disembark.
Customs took 2mins. Quick glance at the photo page then stamped me in with not a single word.
There is a shuttle bus that takes people into town which is handy. Cost €12 return which is ok and it’s a 30min trip. First stop is the port of Dubrovnik and the second was at the cable car for the old town. I put my hostel into Google Maps and went to the gate to enter the city.
The walls are massive! Obviously they needed to be for their purpose, but man! I entered Buza gate and I was a bit dumbstruck. The buildings are gorgeous! I had to go in a straight line for a while, which meant down a long & steep staircase. Very long! I took a stack of photos along the way before finding my hostel.
After checking in to my room, I went straight back out to walk around the streets. Oh my goodness, this place is beautiful! Fortunately, there weren't a lot of people so I could take people-free photos. I went and saw all the sights.
I was also able to see the Jesuit Staircase. This is a famous filming location from Game of Thrones where Cersei does the walk of shame. It's closed & under renovation, but there was an open part of the fence so I could see it and get a photo.
After an hour or so, I went back to my hostel. I was exhausted so I showered and went to bed.
Day 2 Dubrovnik
I didn't have the best sleep as there were snorers & late comers during the night. I ended up getting up just before 8am, dressing and heading out. I knew from the cruise ship schedule that 5000 passengers were due to arrive this morning so I wanted to walk the city walls before they arrived. The entrance fee is €35 (yikes!) but the Dubrovnik pass is €35 and included the walls and several other sights. This is what I got as it is clearly better value.
The city walls walk is 2km and gives amazing views over the old town and surrounds. You can climb up the tower to get even higher views and you can peek out the windows. There are 3 cafes on the wall so you can stop for a refreshment. I think these would definitely be needed if you did this in the peak of summer! It's 22°C and I was sweating! It took me an hour to walk around with plenty of photo stops along the way.
Next I went in search of coffee. There is a gelato place that had a nice looking iced coffee on a sign so I went there. €5 and it was alright but small. Might look full but it was almost entirely ice. Could easily have had double the volume given the price.
By now, I was starving so I went in search of a burek. It's filo pastry filled with spinach, cheese or meat. I got a beef one. It was really tasty! Very greasy though. I ended up sitting on a step in the shade to eat. Then I filled my water bottle at one of the fountains in the street (it’s all free drinking water!) and kept walking around.
I visited the Franciscan Monastery museum which was alright. I was a bit fascinated by how old some of the books & pages were. One page was from the 900’s! That's an 1100 year old piece of paper! They also have an ancient pharmacy and paintings of course.
I walked around for several hours, checking out the souvenir shops, making friends with the street kitties and taking tons of photos.
I went to the Church of St Ignatius for a quick peek.
Then I went to the Rector’s Palace. This is spread over 3 floors and has a large range of furniture, paintings, iron chests and more furniture. There were also some guns, swords and cannons. I really like the buildings here. They are all white/off white stone and grand. Very much my type of building.
By now I was ready to go to the beach. I changed, slopped on my sunscreen and headed to Banje Beach. It's located just outside the walls, just 10mins walk from my hostel. It's a small mostly pebble beach but it's a beach. There wasn't a lot of people when I arrived which was good. I found myself a small patch of sand between pebbles and set my stuff out. The pebbles are really sharp on your feet so it took a min to walk to the water (it was only maybe 4 metres!). The water was crystal clear and sparkling in the sunlight, but it was also cold. This little human does not like cold water, even on the hottest day! I went in up to my knees and took photos, allowing my legs to adjust to the water.
I decided to get out and lay in the sun for a bit. I went to the beach club bar and got a drink then resumed my sunbathing. It was so nice and warm! I ended up getting another drink after a while and ended up almost dozing for a bit!
After a few hours, I packed up and headed back. I got a creme brulee gelato and sat by the harbour for a while before going back to my hostel. I needed to charge my phone and get rid of the sunscreen. It's very thick and sticky and I don't like it.
At 5pm I took the cable car up Mt Srd to watch the sunset. This was expensive for the 4min ride (€29!) but the alternative was a 1hr uphill hike in the heat. I made my way to one of the viewing areas and waited. It was a very underwhelming sunset unfortunately. I started to get cold so I made my way back to the cable car.
I chose an Italian restaurant for dinner tonight. There seems to be a huge Italian influence here and very little traditional Croatian food. This place has an excellent rating although it is fairly pricey, even for touristy old town Dubrovnik standards. They don't take bookings, you just queue up and wait. I had to wait about 30mins for a table. It's small, seats about 24-30 people and has just 2 front of house staff. I was famished by now, having not eaten since the pastry at 9.30am, and let my stomach order for me. I had the burrata with prosciutto, followed by the truffle pasta with shrimp, and finished with the rozata. The burrata and prosciutto were absolutely delicious. The truffle pasta dish was nice although I had some prawn shell bits and antenna in mine. I’m very confused as to where they come from too as the shrimp were those minuscule ones the size of a fingernail and definitely too small for the pieces of shell & antenna that I found. The rozata is a Croatian creme caramel and it was really good. Cost a lot at €55 but oh well.
After tea, I went back to my hostel to shower and get ready for tomorrow. I'm off to Montenegro in the morning!
Day 3 Montenegro day trip
I got up early today as my pick up was at 6.25am. I quickly got ready & walked to the pick up location just outside Ploce Gate. It was only a 5min walk, especially since there were no tourists around.
I was picked up a few minutes late and offered the front seat. Cool no worries. The driver told me someone else would be joining me as it was a full van today (8 people). That person turned out to be a lovely American girl a bit younger than me. There was also a couple from France, 2 female friends from Canada and a father son duo from UK.
It was a 1.5hr-ish drive to our first stop and the guide was very chatty the whole time which was nice. We had to do the border crossing as Montenegro is not in the EU, so we got stamped out of Croatia, drove through no man’s land, then got stamped into Montenegro.
The scenery was lovely, especially when we got sunrise and fog at the same time.
Stop 1 was a town called Perast. It is located on the shores of the Bay of Kotor, which is a beautiful bay. Here we had the option to go on a short boat ride to the Our Lady of the Rocks Church, which is on an island in the bay. It's a small, man-made island that took 250yrs to build and has a church on it. We had the island to ourselves and 15mins to look around.
The boat driver then dropped us off in Perast town where we could have a quick look before heading back to the van.
Our next stop was Kotor, about 20mins down the road. The people actually increased the size of the land by adding rocks in the bay, pushing the waterline back by several hundred metres. This increased the size of the town but also means the massive cruise ships can dock literally in the centre of town because the water is deep. They just step off their ship, cross the road & enter the city walls! Today a big Marella ship with 2000 passengers had just docked and an Azamara ship with another 2000 passengers had docked nearby.
The first stop was coffee and cake. I wanted to try the krempita which is crunchy pastry layers filled with sweet whipped cream. Like vanilla slice but with cream instead of custard and more layers. The coffee was horrendous but the cake was delicious. The UK duo and the US girl joined me for this then we went our separate ways.
My goal was three C’s: coffee, cake & cats. Therefore, once I had my coffee and cake, I went in search of cats. Kotor is known as the city of cats and has so many of them! There is even a square unofficially called cat square. I meandered through the alleyways taking lots of photos and looking in all the souvenir shops along the way. I really like Kotor so far!
Finally, I found cat square. There is actually a fenced off section of grass that has multiple enclosed dog houses with blankets for the cats to sleep in and food & water bowls. There were tons, about 20! There were all sorts: solid black, black & white, calico, tortoise shell, ginger and mixtures. The 1 tortie was actually a real bully! She kept attacking all the others! There were adult cats and tiny kittens, healthy ones and sick ones. A lady next to me said there is a local lady who comes to feed them and takes them to the vets if they need to go, which is good, but there were still some sick cats there.
At one point, I squatted down and called to a white kitten. She came running over and climbed straight up onto my lap! Oh my gosh, she was so precious! I picked her up as I stood up and put her on my chest. She was absolutely adorable and was completely content, purring her head off. I was, and still am, 100% in love ❤️ Several times she climbed onto my neck and shoulders but I moved her back to my chest. I took plenty of photos of course. Every cat owner knows that once a cat is sitting on you, you are stuck until they decide to get off. Well I had an hour of free time left so I was content to spend most of it with this little angel.
The volunteer lady came along soon after though and started pouring out food for all the cats so the kitten wanted to join in. Obviously, food trumps cuddles when you're hungry! I took a stack more photos, then left them to it, hoping I could get back to see them again. I would absolutely love to adopt her and bring her home 🥰😍
I continued walking around and finally chose some souvenirs. I got a mug for school and my shot glass. Then it was time go to meet at the van. I am DEFINITELY coming back to Kotor and spending time with the cats.
Our next stop was Budva. It was about 30mins
drive with terrible traffic. By now it was lunch time so most of us went to a
restaurant recommended by the guide. I wanted to try the local sausage
cevapcici (like koftas) so that what I got. Here, we sat by the water and
watched the cats.
The food took forever to come out. Considering the restaurant was almost empty it took about 40mins for my sausages & chips. It was nice, but nothing special.
I walked to the old town and entered the walls. Here it was much smaller than Dubrovnik or Kotor, and much narrower streets. I looked in some shops and took photos. Many of the cats here are skittish and afraid of people, so I couldn't pat many. I found a little beach (just ok) and ended up walking around with the US girl.
We walked back towards the van together and stopped at a gelato shop that was recommended by the guide as well. Decently priced too, only €3 a scoop. I got 1 scoop raspberry & 1 scoop Nutella with some white chocolate sauce. It was absolutely delicious and I would have it again!
We then began the drive back to Dubrovnik. We ended up taking a 5min ferry across the bay to cut 45mins from the trip which was good.
Once back in town, I got a can of Somersby passionfruit cider and a bottle of rakija (fruit spirit, like fruit brandy) to try. I sat on the terrace at my hostel drinking the cider while writing this. I also tried the rakija. I got the raspberry flavour and you just drink it straight. It tastes like raspberry cordial with a little kick. Quite nice but it's only 21% whereas the traditional herbal rakija is 45%.
I decided to go out and try one of the burger places for tea. They had some truffle fries that sounded good. I headed off and got a seat straight away. I ordered a burger with beef, caramelised onion, brie, rocket and honey mustard sauce. Turns out fries are included but they had run out of truffle sauce so I just had plain mayo. Unfortunately, the burger wasn't anything special. Just alright. Shame really.
I went for a walk around and decided to get some churros for dessert. I got white chocolate sauce & caramel sauce on them. I sat outside the Rector’s Palace to eat & watch the world go by. These are delicious.
Then I decided to head back to my dorm as I didn't really know what else to do. I showered and hung out in my dorm. My room absolutely stinks this evening, like rotten stinky socks or feet. It’s really bad! I'm tempted to go ask the reception staff if they have air freshener. Gross!
Day 4 Bosnia and Herzegovina day trip
Another early start today for my second day trip. I got ready and went to wait for my pick up at the bus stop. A car arrived and picked up 3 of us who took us to another meeting point to wait for the mini van.
There were 8 people on this trip as well. This time 2 French, 2 Finnish, 2 Aussies, 1 USA and me. It took about 20mins to get far enough out of the town before our driver began giving us info about the day. From there, it was another hour to the border. It was a fairly quiet trip. The driver gave us info, we listened, nobody asked questions. Too early in the morning I think!
The main border crossing can be busy so he took us to a minor crossing on a side road. We handed over our passports, got stamped out of Croatia (or so we thought!), drove 5m and gave our passports to the Bosnian border. Unfortunately he did NOT give us a stamp to enter Bosnia and Herzegovina. I really like collecting passport stamps so this was a bit disappointing. The Aussie couple agreed with me.
From here, it was a short drive to Kravice waterfalls. We were the first tour group to arrive which was awesome. It costs €10 and you pay at the gate then walk down a stack of stairs and steep road to get to the falls. At the bottom it is quite misty since the waterfalls are powerful and spraying water everywhere. It was a beautiful sight. The falls are 25m high and 120m wide. Since it is autumn and the leaves are changing colour, it wasn't as green as I have seen in the photos but it was still very pretty.
After taking a stack of photos, I sat in a chair in the sun for a little while. The tour buses had started arriving now and it was getting busy and hard to take photos without people in them. I decided to head back up to the car park since we had 20mins left. You can swim if you want but it was too cold today.
Our second stop for today was the city of Mostar. This place is famous for its circular shaped bridge called Old Bridge. We parked and our driver walked us into the old town. He gave us a restaurant recommendation and told us what shops to avoid (ones with no currency sign on the price tag) then set us loose. We had 3hrs to explore on our own.
My first stop was the bridge. I knew the big buses hadn’t arrived yet and I wanted to get some pictures before they did. I saw the bridge from on it and next to it.
Then I took the stairs down to the river bank to get photos from below it. These are the money shots that everyone wants. They are all over the tourism campaigns for Mostar. I took some photos then some annoying people came and stood in the background of my selfie so I left.
I called my mum as I left and talked to her while taking her on a tour of the streets of old town. We saw some gorgeous resident black and white kittens (oh my heart 😍) then walked across the bridge to the east side and through the market stalls. There is a huge Turkish influence here thanks to the Ottoman Empire ruling Bosnia and Herzegovina. There were so many Turkish/Bosnian tea sets!
Afterwards, I walked around for a while and bought my souvenir shot glass. It was super cheap, only €3! Then I decided to go get some lunch. I went to the recommended restaurant and sat on the terrace under an umbrella (the sun was scorching and I didn't want to get burnt). On a recommendation from my waitress, I ordered a veal schnitzel stuffed with local prosciutto and local cheese. I also got an iced coffee and a Coke Zero.
The coffee was terrible, tasting like dirty water. Oh well, it was only €2. I can't wait to get a nice boutique coffee from an independent (preferably Aussie) coffee shop when I get home!
My meal was HUGE! It was a massive log that had been deep fried and served with chips, salad and a cheesy white sauce. It was very very good though and I managed to eat all the meat and some of the chips & salad.
I had a feline friend join me so I shared a little of my veal with her. She was super friendly and cute!
After lunch, I went for another walk around and headed back to the river for some more photos. There was a crazy man standing on top of the bridge in budgy smugglers while his mates were collecting money. No idea what the money was for but eventually this crazy man did a high dive from the bridge into the river! A quick Google search tells me the bridge is about 100m high at the midpoint. Bloody hell that's a high dive! Our driver told us that the river is about 6m deep in one particular spot directly below the bridge and if you miss it, you're a goner. A couple of months ago a tourist had a few drinks and took a swan dive off the bridge for fun and they never found his body 😳
I walked past a gelato shop who was charging just €1 per scoop so I decided I could have some dessert. I got 1 scoop of caramel and 1 scoop of apple. Both were delicious I don't think I've had apple ice cream before. It tasted like apple juice.
Then it was time to head back to the van. We had a long drive back to Dubrovnik ahead of us. Not long before the border we stopped at a town called Neum for toilets & snacks. It had lovely views over the water.
At the border, we asked our driver for a Bosnian stamp. He said he would ask, but when we got to the Bosnian booth, there was no guard! Nobody performing border patrol for Bosnia! Nothing! Clearly, they are not very strict with their border security! This was also annoying because we couldn't get a stamp. The Croatian border guards gave us a stamp, which was essential. Upon inspection of my passport, I noticed I did not get a stamp this morning when I left Croatia! Neither did a couple of other people. Bummer!
During the rest of the drive I was almost asleep. I was so tired! We were dropped off at the same place we were picked up and I headed back to my hostel.
I grabbed my rakija from last night and went to the Buza Bar to watch the sunset. I went down below the bar on to the rocks and sat watching people jump off into the water while also watching the sunset. It is a very popular place to be! There was a local man jumping continuously off the 6m high cliff jump (he said he does it every day until sunset) and a couple of others joined him. We ended up having to cheer on a British guy who stood up there for 20mins scared to jump. Eventually he did and the entire bar cheered and clapped.
The sunset was beautiful tonight. It was a bright orange ball with some wispy clouds. We also got to see the pirate ship go past a few times, one of them having the pirate ship literally sailing into the sunset. Perfect timing!
I took a ton of photos then when the sun had set and the colour gone, I headed back to my room. I ended up sitting on my bed for a while before deciding if I wanted food or not.
I chose a restaurant just near my hostel at the bar of the Jesuit stairs and had a traditional Dalmatian pasta. It’s a rolled type of pasta with a slow cooked beef ragout sauce. It was really really nice!
Then I went and sat down outside the Rector’s Palace again to write this while digesting my dinner. After I finished, and I got sick of the noisy children running around disturbing my peace, I went and got some gelato.
I went to the same place I got my iced coffee from on Wednesday and chose a scoop of Nutella and a scoop of mint chocolate. Such a difference to Bosnia as this cost €8! I took it to the harbour to sit and eat overlooking the boats. The mint choc was nice but the Nutella was awesome. It actually had a consistency like mousse as opposed to ice cream and I loved it. Might have to get some tomorrow before I leave!
Then I headed back to my hostel to pack and get ready for bed.
Day 5 Dubrovnik to London
I woke several times during the night (party people & snorers) and finally got out of bed at 8.15am. I slowly got ready and packed the rest of my things. My own was to leave everything in my locker while I go for breakfast then come back and get it before heading to the airport.
The terrace overlooking the harbour of the restaurant I wanted to go to was closed until 9am so I had a walk around the town again, collected my backpack and checked out. Then I headed back to the restaurant called Gradska kavana Arsenal and got a table at the front with the best view. I ordered the eggs benedict, freshly squeezed orange juice and a latte. All breakfast options come with a bread basket with 3 little bread rolls & 2 croissants, along with jams, honey & chocolate spread.
The juice was good, definitely fresh, and the coffee was the first semi decent coffee I've had all week. It wasn't a latte, but at least it tasted like coffee. It was such a lovely peaceful place to spend my last few hours in Dubrovnik. I ended up getting an ice coffee after my meal so I could spend a bit longer there.
After I was done, I went for another walk along and saw a band marching through the streets. No idea what for, but I do know that something is happening today and all museums are free to enter.
I made my way to the cable car station to get the airport bus, which was there when I arrived. I was the last person to board and it was a very full bus. Not a single person moved their bag from the seats so I could sit and I ended up right at the very back.
At the airport I made my way to security which took only 10mins. Very surprising given how long the queue was! It actually took longer in the queue to refill water bottles after security!
I had a walk around the duty free shops hoping to find some decently priced wireless earbuds, but they don't have any selections electronics at all. I gave up, went through immigration and sat at my gate to wait.
Croatia has been a really nice break that I definitely needed. The weather has been incredible, the old town is gorgeous and there quite a lot of things to do. I did not expect it to have such a big Italian influence, with a vast majority of the food/restaurants being Italian. It is also quite expensive. A caprese salad is €20, 200ml glass bottles of Coke are €5 and ice cream is €4 for a small scoop.
Some tips: stay in old town but bring ear plugs if you're a light sleeper. Get the Dubrovnik pass. It's the same price as the city walls ticket & includes other attractions. Do the city walls at 8am when they open before the heat & crowds. Check the cruise ship schedule before you book. The last thing you want is to go when 20,000 cruise ship passengers are in port. Definitely do the day trips to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to Montenegro.
I hope you've enjoyed this! It's back to London now. I've got 3 international & 1 domestic day trips coming up so stay tuned!