Croatia baby!

CROATIA BABY!!

I'm excited just saying that we went to Croatia -imagine how excited we were going there.
The trip was a bit deurmekaar - that's disorganised/crazy (spelt badly) for non-Afrikaans reading this. We hadn't actually booked anything for the Croatian leg of our trip except the flight back in four days via Manchester. There was a provisional camping booking and we had a tent with us (minus tent pegs which were taken away at the airport security check) but we didn't have any Hungary to Croatia transport booked.

Anyhoo, we finally booked a train from Budapest to Zagreb, Croatia, while walking around with Emz and Delboy the day before so when the morning came, we had to get from the airport, where we slept with them (we don't get to see them very much - every second counts) to the train station.

It was a bit of a tight squeeze cos we needed one bus and two trains to be exactly on time or we'd miss our train. But as I said earlier, everything in Budapest is great transport-wise and our transport was all spot on and we made it with time to spare. Here I am about to embark looking slightly knackered. I couldn't sleep in the airport and kinda sat watch over the bags while the other three slept like babies.

But I got some shut-eye on the train.

We also met an American girl, Kelly, who is now a facebook friend, in our carriage. We decided to stick together and tour about Zagreb before we all headed to Dubrovnik - again, we hadn't booked anything. We decided that after all we'd been through, the 16 hour bus trip didn't sound so appealing so stuff it - we booked a flight for later that night. That freed up the day for getting around Zagreb - the Croatian capital.



Here's us in Zagreb - the beautiful statues at a fountain.



And here's us with Kelly, running around Zagreb.

We had lunch together and I got my first taste of calamari in a long time - way too long - then more touring and the obligatory ice-cream stop.

Kelly took this one of us in front of... some nice-looking building.

We buggered around for the day and then headed to the airport together. The bus dropped us off and left us with a bit of a walk. There was one other guy also walking so we got to chatting and he gave us some good advice about a campsite - turns out there was a campsite much closer than the one we were going to atay at. We jotted down some details and his number in case of an emergency and parted ways.

We arrived in Dubrovnik late - at about midnight and the place was a hive of activity. We caught a bus to the new recommended area, walked around in the dark a bit to find the campsite, put up our tent (minus tent pegs) and hit the sack at about one. It was still warm.

The next morning we booked in and decided we needed a day of rest. Instead of touring around, we'd spend the day at the beach and go through to the old town later on. Good plan - the weather was good and we soaked up some much needed viatmin E from the sun (or whatever vitamin the sun gives you - what am I - an encyclopeadia!?)

After a few hours, we decided it was a bit too hot so we had lunch looking out over the beach and had a Croatian beer or two... Ah - this is the life. Jealous anyone?

When we eventually headed to the old town, instead of going in straight away, we went for a walk up the mountain and hit a viewpoint where we got a stunning view over the Adriatic and some islands...nice!

Then we hit the tourist info - Alan's favourite place in a new country - and armed with a map, went exploring. This is us at the Onoffrio fountain.

It wasn't long before we started feeling the stomach contract. But there was a problem - there were more places to eat in the old town than in the entire Munster region in Ireland! And Cath can't make decisions when it comes to choosing a place to eat (I'm not great either mind you). We eventually chose a place that did a mean pizza and calamari... and beer.

After the meal we explored the harbour, bought an ice-cream (we didn't want to but it would be insulting to the locals NOT TO support their business), ...

... found a cosy nook for a romantic smooch

...and set up the tripod for one of those cool 'everyone is walking around behind us but we're really still' photos in one of the busiest streets in the old town.

... and eventually caught the bus back to the campsite.

The next day we hit the beach again but the weather wasn't SOOOO great. We needed to do the city walls tour in the old city so we had to be there by a certain time before the walls closed. We headed through and spent about half a day walking around the walls alone!

Looking through one of the stone windows...

Uber-babe in the middle of the wall tower.

And then, around the other side of the town, looking out over the harbour side, we found a game of waterpolo being played. Which meant we had to sit down. Just as well I'm not afraid of heights or... oh no wait, I AM SCARED OF HEIGHTS!!!!! Holy crap this was a far fall. The game was good to watch though. Look forward to seeing how Croatia does in the waterpolo now - there's no chance any of those players were standing or holding onto the edge of the pool - they were bloody out to sea!

The city walls tour continued and I snapped these...

And Cath snapped these... he one on the left is just asking for a dodgy caption but I will restrain myself.

And last but not least, this one looking out over the rooves of the old town. Stunning, it really is.

We had to dash to get to church but made it and then had this photie on the church steps afterwards.

Then it started raining so a quick cuppa while we waited for it to pass before we moved on with our little look-around.

A bit of shopping and, you guessed it, more ice-creams.

We had some vouchers for a restaraunt near the campsite so we headed back to eat there and get an early night (anything before one am would do) for a change.

The next day was our last but our flight was only at around 10pm so we had the whole day for the beach. Good weather again luckily...

Here's me trying to kill off my book and a photo of the lesser-spotted Croatian angel fish.

Campsite - we forgot to take the photo before we packed up the tent. So this is me 'sleeping' in standing position...

And Cath snapped this sunset as we were heading to the airport on the bus. On the trip[ to the airport we drove for about 10 minutes and then passed the campsite that we WOULD have stayed in before we met your man from Zagreb who told us to rather stay at the other site. IT WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. Just as well we chat to everyone huh?

And with that we flew to manchester.