Dubrovnik

A.K.A Kings Landing for all you Game of Thrones fans out there! For those of you who aren't, Dubrovnik doubles as this fictional city for some of the filming of the series.

We are actually staying in Mlini, which is a resort just south of Dubrovnik, as Dubrovnik would have bust the budget! The reason for coming here was of course to visit Dubrovnik itself but yesterday we were pretty exhausted after the ferry ride that was a journey in itself.

It involved complete and utter confusion. From the moment we boarded - about 3 hours before the ferry left - until getting through passport control in Croatia we, and seemingly everyone else including the staff, had no idea what was going on. Firstly our sat-nav took us to completely the wrong place for the port in Bari. When we found it and 'checked in' as we should we were just told to wait in a big carpark where people were still trying to sell us selfie sticks... Chaos at the gate continued into the car deck so we were relieved to arrive up to our cabin. 2 tiny bunk beds - one broken - and a wash basin. The facilities on the ship do not appear to have been changed from the 1970's and the CD selection since the 1990's. The crossing itself was fine and in the morning the chaos continued with a 45 minute wait to be allowed off the ferry and a further 1 hour 45 to get through passport control.

I am learning a very important lesson this trip. No-one queues like we British but I think they could do with learning ;)

Back to Croatia. Mlini is a nice quiet resort. We are staying about 150 steps up from the beach area but this is getting off lightly compared to some of the places. Yesterday we swam in the sea and chilled and had a beer by the water.

Today we headed into Dubrovnik by boat. The majority of our time was spent in the Old City where it is surrounded by walls, a bit like St Malo. Being Game of Thrones fans ourselves we booked into a walking tour to hear about the filming of the show and the history of Dubrovnik.

It really is a great looking city. Thronging with tourists again (us included!) and most of the Old City is just restaurant, souvenirs, restaurants, souvenirs and so on. Our landlady - who I would estimate to be in her 60s - did say its not like it used to be when she was younger. The tour was interesting and included a visit to the Fort Lovrjenac whose entrance has an inscription in Latin reading “Freedom is not to be sold, even for all the fortunes of the world”. Which is particularly interesting as for 450 years Dubrovnik paid the Ottoman Empire a fortune every year to remain independent... At the end of the tour we got to sit on a replica of the Iron Throne so unlike most of the characters in the show, we had a happy ending.

Tomorrow we move north to a place called Kastel Luscik near Split for four days and hope to finally do some washing!!Read more