Dalmatia - Croatia and Montenegro

The amazing orange roofs of Dubrovnik

After 3 and a half years calling ourselves Londoners it was time to say a VERY sad goodbye to the UK and commence the "longer way home trip". Suitably our final taste of the UK for a while was boarding an EasyJet flight from Gatwick, not quite the champagne breakfast at St Pancras that we had originally planned, but perhaps more representative of our travelling experiences of the past few years. Being now experienced in boarding budget flights we made good use of our knowledge of the dark arts and leaving several grannies and kids sprawling in our wake, we secured ourselves some seats for the long (by European standards) 2.5 hour flight to Split. Over the next couple of weeks we headed south through Croatia down the Dalmatian Coast, stopping in Hvar, Korcula and Dubrovnik before crossing over into Montenegro for a few days in Budva.

Split's harbour by night

The Diocletian's Palace in Split

Sunset in Hvar

Starting in Split, the first thing that smacked us in the face was the mid 30 degree temperatures, the likes of which we hadn't experienced for years and hence with which we (well I anyways) struggled for a few days. Despite only being a brief stay in Split before we headed out to the islands, it did provide us with our first taste of the amazingly blue, cloudless skies and the impossibly clear waters to which we were to become accustomed over the following weeks. Our morning really only allowed us time to explore the Diocletian's Palace, a quick stroll along the Riva and a visit to the seafood market - where we could see the beginings of a month-long seafood diet.

The impossibly clear waters of Hvar Town's harbour

A pasty ex-Londoner rents a boat

Hvar Town from sea

Some not very good pizza can be had in Hvar, but the setting is nice :)

More Hvar Town

Despite our struggles in the heat we did manage to walk up to the fortress overlooking the town

Another short ferry ride and we sailed in to Korcula with just enough sunlight left for us to make out the perfect circle of the old town walls jutting out into the Adriatic. While Hvar was a nice relaxing change from our last few weeks in London, Korcula takes this to another level, there is less going out, less bars, and less of the super dark tans, just a really chilled out, compact little town. It helped that we had an awesome apartment right in the old town, a couple of steps away from everything. We also took a boat ride out to the fishing village of Lombarda, with its little beach with yet more astoundingly clear water, actual sand for a change, more heat, more seafood. By this point I think we had been on a boat every day of our stay in Croatia which is a pretty good hit ratio me thinks!

The perfect little compact old town of Korcula

The Venetian St Mark's Cathedral

The view from our Korcula apartment

Us seeking to answer the question "How many squids can a man eat in a week?

More amazingly clear water, and unusually for Croatia some sand!

The amazing convenience of our Korcula apartment was evidenced on our last morning, when while finishing our breakfast of pizza we saw our ferry to Dubrovnik rounding the point of the old town, so we ambled back to our room to grab the bags and made it down to the port before the ferry had even finished docking. The best ferry ride was saved to last, with the big car ferry being a lot more of an experience than the fast but soul-less catamarans. Lying out on the open deck under the blue skies with not a cloud to be seen, slowly gliding past the rough craggy mountains, sprinkled with tiny little orange roofed (what else could they be in these parts) villages, watching the world pass by was one of the highlights of Croatia. It was much more of a journey being outside taking it all in, rather than just being transported from one place to another.

Aimes is pretty happy with her "small fishes" and octopus salad

Lumbarda, Korcula


A colourful Korcula sunset

Our Dubrovnik ferry arriving in Korcula



Korcula from the ferry

Jadrolinija Luxury


Dubrovnik by Dusk

Dubrovnik felt like a bit of a tourist wonderland compared with sleepy Hvar and Korcula, the morning queue for the tourists to enter the old town, the tourist menus at the restaurants and near absence of Croatians being testament to this . The only places that I could compare it with regard the number of tourists would be Florence and Venice, but like these there is a very good reason for this and I think that Dubrovnik manages to maintain its charm and beauty despite the somewhat amusement park feel. Like Korcula we had a great little apartment in the old town, which is something I'm definitely going to miss not living in Europe, I still remember our first night in Barcelona a few years ago thinking how amazing it was to be able to look out our window onto the little alley ways with their shuttered windows and washing strung out between the buildings.

Kids jumping from rocks outside Dubrovnik's walls

The highlight of Dubrovnik - Buza Bar

Aimes kicks back with a plastic cup champagne


The queue for Lokanda Peskarija (the best seafood in town), long but worth it


Catching up with Jamie and Nicki after bumping into them on the beach


The floating boats of Dubrovnik


Serbian Orthodox Church

Much of Dubrovnik's beauty is derived from the orange roofs so common along the Dalmatian Coast, but which reach their zenith here at the bottom tip of Croatia. The walk around the walls with views of all the roofs and crammed between them the usual number churches of a medieval town, is a rewarding one, however the highlight of Dubrovnik actually lies just outside the walls on the seaward side. The little bar of Buza, though expensive by Croatian standards (and according to Gerg many times more expensive than only a few years ago), accessed through a hole in the walls, with little tables perched precariously on the rocky cliffs was for us undoubtably the highlight of our stay. There's nothing like a few ozjusko's and champagne while watching the sunset, and if things do get boring there is always someone ready to dive off the rocks to liven things up a bit. In a bit of a small world episode we also ran into Jamie and Nicki from Aimes's old London work, and had dinner with some beers in the lane ways.

A few night shots with the 50mm prime



Some more of Dubrovnik's orangeness


Our Dubrovnik apartment

It just makes you feel like a beer doesn't it?

Aimes exploring Dubrovnik...

One more photo of Buza Bar

From Dubrovnik it was down the coast into Montenegro and the little beachside town of Budva. Maintaining the theme of the Adriatic coast, Budva has a nice little walled old town filled with, surprise, surprise, orange roofs and churches, though in this instance it has recently (in the 80s) been re-built and is perhaps a little too perfect... Though there was a sense of what immediately seemed familiar being actually somewhat different - be it the style of music changing to 80s power ballads (Lionel Ritchie, Rick Astley etc), there being lots of half built new buildings in place of the more traditional, loud/colourful advertising posted everywhere, and a bit more rubbish - that is, perhaps a little less polished than Croatia. For these reasons it made for very welcome change and perhaps more of a different experience than Croatia.

Budva's town beach and walled old town beyond

The ex-fishing village and now resort of Sveti Stefani just down the coast from Budva

Our Budva digs

Of course the biggest difference was undoubtably that western European tourists are in the minority, with most of the people being Montenegrins, Serbians and Russians, all of whom bring their own styles to the beach. However, the common theme was 'platform thongs (flip flops)' - a definite sign that we were heading east ;) Somewhat surprisingly there was very little Cyrillic text, so not that much opportunity to practice pre russia. Budva is a town of contrasts, from the sophisticated old town with an awesome jazz bar at which we had a really enjoyable evening, to the newer beach strip along the coast outside the old town, with fast food stalls and amusement arcades 4 rows deep and a good 20 minutes walk from end to end...

One of the many interesting books on display in Budva's Castle

Our first cloudy day :(

The town beaches are a little dissappointing, but our faith was restored when we took a trip down the coast to Sveti Stefani, a perfect little fishing village connected to the mainland by a sand spit, where we had yet another perfect cloudless day, and perhaps the clearest water yet - it was all becomming a little routine!