Wednesday

I Heart You Croatia!

Last Tuesday, Alex and I fell asleep at 1am, woke up to the worst alarm ringtone of all time on a blackberry at 4am, took quick showers, brushed our teeth, combed our hair, wore sunglasses to hide the dark circles (me, not him), kissed my family goodbye, got in a cab to Gatwick, fell in and out of sleep for 2.5 hours, congratulated a couple on our flight who were eloping to get married, and finally woke up to find ourselves in beautiful Croatia.

We've both previously travelled to Croatia in 2010 so we knew what to expect, and to say we were very excited to go back is an understatement.

We met our friends who were already waiting for us at the airport, threw our stuff into the back of their car, found a tiny toilet cubicle to change into our swimming stuff, took a stroll through Dubrovnik Old Town, and finally did what I like to do best.. Swim in the sea and bask in the sunlight. And holy hellcats, what sunlight there is in Croatia (this is from someone who comes from Africa).


On our walk to the old town, we came across this bridge. Legend has it that this used to be a prime suicide spot and people put locks on this fence in memory of people they had lost. Alternatively, tourists say this is the bridge like the one in Paris where lovers put their initals on locks and throw the key into the sea to ensure their love survives all. I know which story I prefer - the romantic one!

  
These are the panaromic and breathtaking views we had the pleasure of seeing on our walk into the old town.


 After endless wandering and working up a sweat, it was time to dive straight into the sea.


We were quick to get undressed because the heat was unbelievable and we stayed in the water for an hour or so because it was so much cooler. Unfortunately we had to leave Dubrovnik after a few hours, but saying goodbye wasn't that hard as we were travelling to the prettiest little town I've ever seen, Neum:


Neum is filled predominantly with Croatian's who live there throughout the year, but during the summer the town is visited by swarms of people from Bosnia and Herzegovinia as it is the only town in the area with a sea. The adriatic sea is shared with Italy but unfortunately we didn't have enough time to take a little boat down to Italy's coast too as we were only visiting for 4 days.

The reason why we ended up in Neum even though it is a little outside of central Croatia (in case you were wondering), is because Lana's grandparents built a summer house in Neum and permanently moved when they both retired. She's been going every year since she was a kid. 

Lana is one of my very best friends and I was starting to miss her a lot as she was gone for the whole summer, so when she invited us to come visit we jumped at the chance. We have already seen Neum before in 2010, and we absolutely loved it then, and fell in love with it a little more now. 

The town is exactly what you would expect from a seaside town with 40 degree heat - LUSH. The people are lovely, the food is amazing, the water is heavenly, the sun is the hottest I have ever known.. It is my idea of the perfect summer holiday!

Our 4 days there were a blur of watching sunsets, doing forward rolls in the sea, eating AMAZING seafood fished out straight from the sea, drinking so much alcohol and having to swim in the sea the next day for hours to get over our hangovers. It was too good to be true!

Even though we were there for such little time, we still got to experience a lot of drama, as usual. One of my other best friend's, Lorna, lost her room key.. Which evidently led to her being locked out. Alex and her drunkenly tried to devise a plan to climb over the roof and jump into her balcony from our balcony to get into her room through there. It is safe to say that plan didn't work. 

As usual I made friends with all the locals and invited them to stay with me in London should they ever visit, and somehow we also had time to squeeze in a heated debate on Harry Potter and how amazing the books are (duh), but how some illogical and irrational people do not agree. She who must not be named even had the audacity to call Dumbledore, Dumbledwarf! The fool!

It was the perfect little destination to visit for a short but sweet vacay and I've already told Lans that I can't wait to come back next year!


   See you soon! xoxo

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