Dubrovnik,Croatia

In my last blog I forgot to mention beautiful Hvar, Split, Trogir.....probably hangover.
We boarded the ferry from Split for the two hour trip up the coast. Our entire group had fallen deeply for Hvar, and given the chance, we would have stayed there for the duration of the trip. But our plans were set an there were more adventures to be had.
The ferry left at sunset and headed north towards Split. There is something about the romance of travel that comes out in a slow boat ride. We passed sailboats passing in front of the setting sun, and watched the small uninhabited islands of Croatia slip from view into the darkness as night fell. The moon was out in full, which created a vibrant moonbeam on the water that trailed our ship along its path to Split.
Our ferry from Hvar docked in split near the entrance to Diocletian’s Palace. We parked our bags with members or our group, then we ventured through the gates into the city to seek out our hotel and find the best path to get there from the dock. The Adriatic side of the palace is enormous, stretching at least two city blocks before devolving into a mishmash of Medieval and more recent structures. The boardwalk near the entrance is alive with street vendors, cafe and general tourist activity. As we made our way into the palace walls, I was stricken by the shock of being back in a city after spending the past 3 days in the peaceful confines of paradise.

Hotel Slavija is inside Diocletian’s Palace, and was surprisingly easy to find within the narrow, dark medieval streets. Soon we retrieved our group and rolled our cases along the cobblestone streets and alleyways and checked in. Split is not an easy place to navigate for the first time visitor. I highly suggest scoping it out first, like we did.

We took a day trip about an hour north of Split to the famed city of Trogir. We left the confines of Dioclencian’s Palace for the local bus station. Catching the bus to Trogir is very easy, the schedules are in plain site and people are very helpful in providing directions. After a bit more than an hour of traveling through local roads we arrived at the gates of Trogir. It reminded me a bit of a land based Korcula. Church towers and tiled roofs appear behind heavy stone fortified walls.

The city is small which makes it very manageable on a day trip.

So I left Herceg Novi and went off to get a boat to a place in Croatia called Dubrovnik. It was okay though I met 2 guys from Australia which are awesome guys. They pursueded me to go and visit Australia and New Zealand.

Bruce and Adam didn't have any accommodation booked so we planned when we got of the boat to search for it. A whole heap of scary and obsessive women came up to us trying to get us to come with them for acommodation, the 3 of us settled on the least scary looking one who had a place in the old town.
Dubrovnik is amazing and we can't say enough nice things about it. The old town is paved with all marble...which for me isn't the safest thing when you're always slipping. The water is crystal clear that you can see everything underneath you!
I went to an island one day with the guys and climbed a hill that over looked the town and then we lazed about for the rest of the day!
The night life is amazing so many people out and about and alot of street performers, we went to a few clubs and stayed out till sunrise and drunkenly tried to climb this thing on the wall that i cant explain!
Sadly we had to leave to soon....!
Yet another stunning drive, as we followed the coast down to Senj, and then cut east to the Freeway. Leaving Senj was incredible. Once on the freeway, we had about a 2 hour drive to Zadar, and crossed under some more mountains in a really long tunnel.

We arrived in Zadar and easily found a nice place to stay in Borik (The Albin). We spent the rest of the day and next morning exploring Zadar, capturing some wonderful pictures, and hanging out in Croatian style.