Day 2- Dubrovnik

We had planned on getting up at 7am, so we can go out in the cool and beat the tours to the City Wall of the Old Town. However, we ended up getting up just before 8am. We got to the city wall at 9am, so it wasn't too bad and the weather wasn't too hot at that point.

We started walking around the City Wall at Ploce gate. This part of the wall had the steepest climb and was deemed to be less busy by the Lonely Planet, so a good starting place. The views of the old town was beautiful. The terracotta roof tiles that covered over each building was a classic sight of Dubrovnik. The coast line and mountainous views were also amazing. My boyfriend and I enjoyed watching the kayakers at sea struggling to steer and move forward.

Trying to look cool in the boiling heat

The climb got very hot quite quickly. My back and chest turned red quite spectacularly at the end the day. It was the only day we forgot to apply sunscreen! 

We then went on the cable car and got to the top of Mountain Srd. We overlooked the city from 405m, admired the views of the Old City, Lokrum Island (which we planned to visit the next day) and the Elafiti Islands. It made me fully appreciate how small old town actually was. 

After an eventful morning, it was time for food again. We went to the restaurant I wanted to go to yesterday evening- Konoba Ribar. We ordered a Greek salad and stuffed squid. The stuffed squid was filled with ham and cheese and it was delicious. One cannot come to the Croatian coast and not have seafood!

We had a lazy sit down at the harbour after our lunch. It was so hot that we just didn't feel like doing very much. We gathered our strengths after a nap and a read, and went back inside old town to look at a couple of churches. But I was still too sleepy to really appreciate them or learn any history. 

It wasn't too long until we had another rest and a cool drink. We went to a little cafe directly looking out to the sea. The view was beautiful but the drinks were ridiculously over-priced! We could see a lot of people swimming down below and quite a lot of people jumping off the rocks. I was impressed but also slightly disapproving of such actions. In my head, so many things could go wrong. One could do a belly flop, which would be painful; landing head first is also a possibly, although rare, which could render one unconscious; landing butt first means spinal damage is also possible... Yeah, you can call me paranoid and over-cautious...

After drinking some iced coffee and taking in the fantastic view of the sparkling waters. We started wondering around old town a little bit more. 

We went around the small alleys rather than the main streets to avoid the crowd. The small alley ways were much more enchanting and we got glimpses of the locals living there. We could often see freshly washed sheets hanging on washing lines, basket ball courts and even a music school. It's comforting to know that there are still locals that live in old town and it is not just a tourist destination.

I still remember a little town I went to near Suzhou, China called Wuzhen. It was packed full of tourists. There were no residents, just shops and restaurants all aimed at tourists. It seemed like that was the only reason why the government preserved it. Such a shame because it was absolutely beautiful, but it's beauty were slightly tarnished by the artificial tourist industry with one aim- to make money. 

We had dinner at a Croatian tapas restaurant. This restaurant was nicely decorated and felt very homely- the kitchen was open and it was just a kitchen you'd get at a normal person's home! The food was good. We had a stuffed tomato, black risotto, veal salad and bruchetta with a twist- the twist being a sardine on top. The black risotto was a bit too fishy for me, same with the bruchetta, although it was nice. The veal salad was delicious and the stuffed tomato was very good too. The stuffed tomato was stuffed with mushrooms and ham, if I remember correctly.

We stocked up on some snacks, fruit and breakfast for the next day after dinner. We are planning to go to Lokrum Island tomorrow. It will be the first time we will get to swim in Croatia! I'm very excited!