Dubrovnik + Trstenik

Day 3
Ahhhh what can I say... I was a tad nervous about going to Dubrovnik, my dad had mentioned it wasn't a safe place at night and a few others sort of flinched when I mentioned I was going there. Well maybe in some parts of Dubrovnik but I didn't notice at all and was very conscious of it! New town Dubrovnik isnt anything special BUT the old town - "it's fake" "it's a movie set just up for summer" are just some of the comments of the fellow passengers on the boat made! You walk down stairs into the old town and you are treated with white shiny stone walkways (they are only shiny now as they have been walked on for so many years and it has rubbed them smooth!) beautiful shop fronts, water drinking fountains with cold cold water spilling out of them, all this while you are surrounded by an amazing wall that wraps around the town. I had hoped that all of the shops running down the main street (they all looked the same but in a beautiful Hollywood way) would be full of hand made arts, crafts and local produce but instead were full of souvenir shops where a lot of the items would of been made in China :( After a little stroll around the brother and I decide to walk around the wall... This was a great idea in theory but in reality it was about 35 degrees and it was the middle of the day. We marched around taking a few photos but by half way we were hot and bothered (considering we were both in a bit of a mood to start with it didn't get any better). Problem being there in only 1 way up and down so u have to do a full lap... Blah!! As we approached the end of the wall, we could hear some screams of joy... We look out over that sapphire blue Adriatic and see people not only swimming in the open ocean but jumping off the small cliffs on the outside of the wall into the water. We scramble off the wall and try to find this spot. 

Winding through the back streets we find a small hole in the wall that leads out onto a cliff side bar (the best bar in the world... Well best view!!) on the other side of the railing we see people jumping! It looks like fun but also very scary. The brother is up for it straight away as I just get my feet wet. He climbs to the middle size rock, sizes up the jump and leaps! I am much more hesitant and decide against it as I was a tad sunburnt from the day before, didn't have my bikini on and didn't like the fact that you had to get washed up on the rocks to get out! But it sure did look fun... We spent some time here watching some crazy people jump from ridiculously high rocks before heading back into town to look around some more!  

As it was getting late In the arvo we decided to meet up with the girls from the boat at the best bar In the world to have a few cold beers and discusse our days. After a few, we decided to all go back to the boat, get changed and go back to old Dubrovnik again for dinner and more drinks! As 2 of the girls had been to Dubrovnik before, we followed them to one of the  back streets to a nice little restaurant with tables out the front. It was here that we had one of the best dinners of our Croatia trip, including these flat oysters that I ordered... Interesting but tasty!! After the best meal we went and had night caps at the worlds best bar and watched the moon set over the sea.... That's when we found out the worlds best bar had the worlds WORST toilet - 2 camping porter loos (little family size ones) in the same outdoor cubical with pee flowing out the bottom and all over the floor all the while overflowing with loo paper - great night ended... Full stop! (it seriously was the worst thing ive ever ever had to experience!) anyhoo off the bathroom subject and back to the beautiful almost full moon setting over the ocean, at this point I realized how truly lucky I am to be able to experience adventures like I'm having, I'm very grateful for the all of the opportunities I've been given! 

Day 4
The next morning I had to rush back out to old Dubrovnik to buy the brother his birthday presents. There are these nautical stripy shops all over Croatia (the quality of their products was high) and got him the white with navy stripe towel and boardies he had been eyeing off everytime we passed a shop... (i even went the extra mile and purchased nautical paper and sticky tape!!) Can I say that I also LOVED this shop (I also got the girls loving this shop) but I showed self control and didn't buy myself a thing!!! I did this while he washed clothes... Sucker ;) 

We set sail again about 1pm as we had lunch on the boat before stopping for more swimming and an afternoon of relaxation and napping before pulling into another beautiful harbour town to moor for the night!!

The captains dinner was that night so we all dressed for dinner on the boat but we were a tad unimpressed as it was the same as lunch and the captain didnt spend much time with us over dinner... Ahh well tomorrow will be another beautiful day of swimming and relaxing!!!