The spectacular old town of Dubrovnik is perched on a small rocky outcrop strutting out into the Adriatic Sea. It is encircled by high and imposing stone walls with turrets and towers at each corner. There is some controversy over whether the city was built on an island, connected to the mainland only when a moat was filled in prior to the walls being built, or a peninsular. It seems pretty well stuck to the mainland to me though the Stradun (Main Street) was almost certainly once a marshy channel separating two settlements until the 13th century when they were United. We arrived in the afternoon and settled into our room in a nice home of a Bosnian Croat who had left Bosnia during the early 90’s, swapping houses with a Bosniak living in Dubrovnik. He said they literally just swapped keys and walked away from their old homes. We walked the old city walls on the first evening we were there. The sky was clear and the late afternoon sun was beautiful on the orange tiled roofs of the old city buildings, and deep blue Adriatic Sea. I especially enjoyed looking down into the quaint backyards and gardens sandwiched between the houses and the walls, and admiring the grape vines flourishing on roofs and terraces 15-20m high, only connected to the ground by a single trunk winding its way up the side of a building. Though Dubrovnik was under siege for 7 months in 1991 by Yugoslav people's army Serb and Montenegrin forces, there were few obvious remaining signs of damage. Liam was kept occupied watching a bunch of kayakers who had underestimated the afternoon sea breeze and after struggling for half an hour and making no ground, had to be picked up by boats and towed to shore. We enjoyed a night out to tea with one of out Uni classmates and soaked up the late night atmosphere and music along the limestone paved Stradun, the pavement shiny and smooth from the millions of feet (and probably carts) it has seen since it was built. The following morning we walked around the northern peninsular of Dubrovnik. Mapsme took us down lots of small paths where we could peer over backyard walls into charming vegetable gardens and orchards. In the afternoon we walked up the hill behind Dubrovnik and enjoyed peace and quiet looking down on the old city and a fantastic panorama of the coastline.

The coastal drive north passed through lots of idyllic seaside towns, worlds apart from the large spread-out port city of Split, which we reached just after lunch. A relaxing afternoon and wander through the shops within Diocletian’s Palace saw us catching an overnight ferry. We had a picnic dinner on deck watching a very spectacular sunset and mused over imagining we could be on a yacht or cruise. Reality kicked in as the sun disappeared and we tried to make ourselves comfortable in the basic seats we had in a cold part of the ferry. In the end we managed to find an empty lounge and sprawled out. When we woke in the morning we were looking at the Italian coastline. I could already taste the gnocchi, pasta, pastries and wine we would be indulging in over the next couple of weeks, and unashamedly vowed to forget my waistline.