Well it’s 10.30am and I’ve had a hell of a morning already!!
Up early (yuck), get to train station, missed original train. This was okay, the next one got us there just in time. Couldn’t find the ticket station, finally get a ticket, race to platform, getting hangry. Get a choc croissant from the vending machine – not bad actually. Run to hop on train.
Hop on train, poor Sheldon gets super confused and is a day ahead, convinced we are missing out flights. Finally work out we are good, ticket man comes over. Give him our tickets, apparently you must validate your ticket (which they don’t tell you) and there is a 50€ fine each, unless we buy another, more expensive ticket. Buy ticket, frustrated. So is half the train, everyone is getting done for the same thing.
Get close to airport, realise I’m going to need to run to make bag drop. Say goodbye to Sheldon. Run the wrong way – ha! Should have taken 5 and checked the departure board. Get to terminal 1, read board, realise, run back. Get back, find out I have to take a bus. In true Italian fashion, there’s no bus times or info about how long it takes. Sheldon is in line. Run across to ask cabbie if I’m better going with him. No English. Bus arrives, run back. Bus nearly full, decide to take cab after all. Cabbie takes off and announces it is 15€ for 5mins. I have no choice. Speedy cabbie, good man. Much further than I originally thought. Thank god I took the cab!
Race into Terminal 2 (STA Travel, this should really be on my booking info FYI), lovely man puts me to front of line. Check in, bag dropped, made it, yewww!!!
But then, boarding is super soon. Commence next round of running. Run to customs, run to gates. Stop briefly for salad (haven’t eaten any freaking greens since I arrived in Italy, body is confused) then continue run to gate. Get to gate, biggest queue everrrr, stand in line for 25mins to check in… Negates all the running but thankful I hopefully burnt off some of that pasta and wine as I’m on a boat in Croatia for a week next.
So here I am on the plane to Dubrovnik, which is only an hour flight, and I’m truely ready for a nap! In good spirits – you just have to laugh at times like these!!
Made it to Dubrovnik, easy bus ride in. Beautiful city, I’m sure all you Game of Throne fans already know what it looks like.
We had booked a private room in a hostel, it’s very cute and a great location. It’s like a little attic. Met up with Gemma and Asti and went for lunch. Grilled squid of course, washed down with local beer.
Gemma and I walked the city wall. Spectacular views, it really is like stepping back into another time. Pics can tell the story. It was a very sweaty expedition – the pics tell that story too – ha!
Inside the walls it’s exceptionally touristy which I’m not a huge fan of. Didn’t last long there other than to devour a beautiful cherry and choc gelato mmmm.
Looking for a spot to watch the sunset we toured all around (walking off the pasta still from Italy) and settled on a pebble beach at a bar with swings. I promptly got motion sick (whaaaat?!) and had to move to a barstool. Pretty sure the barman was drunk.
Most beautiful and captivating thing I have seen was on night fall, the moon licking the ripples on the ocean a stunning girl and her German Sheppard arrived to play in the water. They swam together in the moonlight for an hour, the dog following her whenever they went and getting mighty upset when she disappeared under water. Beautiful to watch the love and fun between them… And no, I haven’t even been drinking to write this!
We also went for a late night dip. It took a long time to get us in the water but it was lovely once we were.
Dinner, we scouted for black squid ink risotto, apparently a local specialty. Found a place, my god the service is terrible here!
They do no give a shite about you and when you want your drink or if your main comes out 1.5 hours later (that actually happened) even after you had told them to forget about it when they realised the forgot. Anyway, the risotto was good but that was about it.
Home to sleep about midnight in our little attic before boarding the boat to sail Croatia for a week! Can’t wait. Blogging may be intermittent – not sure what wifi etc we will have.
