Ballymena & Derry

We spent a week with mum's family here.  It was sunny and not a cloud in the sky, surely this must qualify as a Northern Irish miracle?

We've just been scooting around Ballymena and the surrounds to visit family. 

One of the days we drove to Derry via the Sperrin Mountains (which was a stunning drive). The Sperrins are gorgeous, rolling green hills that look more perfect than any watercolour painting could ever depict, white ponies grazing and frolicking in the lush wild grass, abandoned grey stone cottages and stone walls in varying states of disrepair and neglect, old men in tractors tipping their tweed hats as you pass them on the laneways...what a perfect start to my holiday with my parents :)

Derry was somewhere I had been before and suggested to my parents would be a good day out

We were only planning to spend a couple of hours there, but after wandering around the walls and visiting the little cafes that lined them, decided to make a day of it. We wandered through the markets, grungy cafes along the walls, visited the famous murals, and had one of the most interesting days out of the trip.

Zadar & Kornati N.P.

Day 1
My immediate thought upon reaching Zadar was 'Oh no, what a dump', a thought which was strongly reinforced upon reaching my hostel and seeing its location.  It was across the road from a quarry and on the edge of Zadar, a good 45 min walk from the centre of town.
Caught the bus into town, and got caught in a wild storm!!!  The rain was coming in hard sideways with gale force winds, and nearly sending everyone flying across the bridge...scary! Bought a roasted corn on the cob for lunch and waited out the storm under the city wall arch with about 50 other people.  Once the storm was over I walked to a bakery and sampled a Zadarska Gibinica, a local cake with sour cherries, poppy seeds, sweet cheese and crushed walnuts.  Grabbed a pizza slice on the way home for dinner.  Not seeing much in the way of good food here surprisingly.  Headed out for drinks at the local bus station (unfortunately the only place open at night for a drink!).

Day 2
Set off to explore Zadar in more depth.  Got a pizza for lunch in the main drag.  Walked up the belltower to get a view over the city, went to visit the famous sea organ.  Accidentally got on the wrong bus and had an hour long drive to the seaside at Diklo which was actually a really fun, scenic way to fill in some of the afternoon.  Made my own dinner given the inferior offerings being provided at the food establishments in town.

Day 3
Had my Kornati Islands day trip today.  Cruised around for several hours with commentary around the starkly beautiful Kornati Islands (think white rock formations against the deep blue sea), followed by lunch (except for me and 2 other vegetarians on board, they 'forgot' my order despite it being written on my receipt when booking and it was seemingly outside the realms of possibility to make up a vegetarian dish for us), stopping at a private island for sunbathing...I got a choice spot under an olive tree...fell asleep..what a lovely afternoon!

Split

Day 1

Left on the 6am catamaran from Korcula Town to Split. Got on board and ate my grapes and Corny bar for breakfast, and had a little snooze too.

Got to my hostel in the lovely Narodni Trg (Narodni Square) at 9.30am and dropped off my bags. Went to have a coffee in the kafana in the sqaure, then quickly checked out Diocletians palace ruins before checking into my hostel at 11am.

Met up with S & L from my Intrepid tour at the same kafana as I had frequented earlier in the day (they obviously have good taste in coffee being fellow Melburnians), then visited Emperor Diocletian's palace

 ruins again (properly this time), then to a gorgeous hotel restaurant for lunch. After lunch I bid S & L goodbye, then went to explore the underground part of Diocletians Palace. The above ground part still has some ruins left, but the city pretty much was absorbed into it as they started building later on.   The underground part is completely preserved, and gives you an exact model of how the above ground palace would have looked back then.

Went out for dinner with some people from the hostel.  Later it was decided we would hit the pubs together. We visited 4 pubs and met lots of locals and stayed out til quite late!

Day 2

  

Woke up a lil worse for wear from the night before, and slept in til about 12pm. Went for a walk to get a slice of pizza from the Riva. Just sat on the Riva taking part in the national pastime of people watching. I went wandering around the city just exploring all the laneways and cafes.

 

Met up with the same hostel people again for a pizza dinner, and went to a few bars again. Didnt stay out that long because it was FREEZING, blowing a gale, and a storm was brewing!!

Korcula

Day 1

I woke up alone in my hostel room, as my roommate had already left for a day of sightseeing.  I went into the bathroom, and upon exiting, the door handle promptly falls off.

I try to insert it back into the door to open it, but it just pushes the other part of the door handle onto the floor on the other side. So, at this point being totally alone in the room and not really having any other options, I climb onto the toilet and poke my head out of the bathroom window. No one around. I call out for help, realising probably no one will understand that anyway. No one responds. I spend the next 45mins perched on top of the toilet, waiting for a passer by to help me out of this situation.

Luckily the owner walks by and sees me. He has lost the spare key for the apartment, and he isnt sure how to get me out without breaking the door or window down. He climbs into the bathroom from the toilet window and tries to fix the door, to no avail. He climbs up to the toilet window, and has one leg in the window and one leg on the ledge (omg) and somehow opens the bedroom window and jumps in and fixes the door from there. Hooray Im free again!!

I go on my way and catch the bus/ferry to Korcula. We stop in a lovely town for a food/toilet break, Ston. It has a castle and a beach, I intend to go back there one day :)

Arrived in Korcula and went out to get something to eat. Notice they have Lamingtons in the bakery so of course buy one. Made me laugh to see something from home so far away!!

Day 2

Got up early and headed straight down to get a breakfast wrap from Fresh, then onto to the beach where I spent the entire day! Found an amazing beach so decided to stay there, and just swam and sunbathed all day. Perfect day :)

Dubrovnik

    

Day 1

Got an early bus to Dubrovnik today, it was so hot!!  Met our apartment owner and ascended the 163 steps required to actually reach the apartment. Harder than it sounds in the blazing heat when youre wearing a heavy backpack!  But worth it in the end, we have an amazing view over the city walls and the fortress.  Went into the old town to have a look, WOW, white marble and terracotta roofs everywhere!!!  And the old town was so well preserved!  Definitely a highlight of the trip so far, it was the most beautiful town Ive ever seen. 

Walked around the city walls and visited the Franciscan Monastery Museum, then went out for dinner to a fancy restaurant to say bye to everyone...Ive got so used to all the different personalities and will really miss them when they leave :(

Day 2

Today the people left in our group decided to charter our own boat to take us to Lokrum Island  .  Worked out to be just a little cheaper than the ferry with 10 of us, and our Captain said he would take us wherever we wanted to go during  that time!  I brought along a breakfast picnic of bread, cheese and fruit.  We sailed around the city walls and around the Lapad Peninsula before going to Lokrum Island.  Its an island right off Dubrovnik which was thick with pine trees and rocky beaches.  It also has lots of resident peacocks :) 

Once we got to the Island, everyone jumped in the water except me...I gradually had to acclimatise myself to the water as it was absolutely FREEZING!!!  After our swimming at Lokrum we still had plenty of time, so our captain took us to a small sandy beach with a coffee shop and we just spent the rest of our time there before heading back.

After those adventures I headed off to look for my new apartment, but became hopelessly lost somewhere on the Lapad Peninsula and had to utilise my rusty Polish (which is thankfully similar to Croatian) to figure out where I was and get to my street, as not a soul there spoke English.

I met Don, Janet, Mari, Sean and Lynn back on our secret beach and we had a snack of cold meats (not me obviously), cheese, bread, wine, olives, salsa, chips, etc, whilst watching the sun set!!  Then we went to a restaurant right on the harbourside for some pizza and watching fire-twirlers, followed by an icecream for dessert in memory of Rachel!  Great night!