Dubrovnik

Completely surrounded by tall defensive stone walls, Dubrovnik is a jaw dropping sight from afar, and we snapped many terrible photos from the bus in our excitement as we got closer. Many of the King’s Landing scenes from Game of Thrones were filmed here, and you definitely get an old medieval vibe walking through the streets. My hostel was right in the center of old town, and to get there, we walked over a drawbridge and through giant archways to get us past the city walls. A flock of birds flew out at me, and I managed to grab a timely snapshot. No cars are to be found inside old town, rather the lower part of the city is made of cobblestone alleyways crowded with shops and bustling tourists. The upper part is more residential, and much more relaxing to be able to look over the city without the hordes walking by. Dubrovnik was where I sadly left my Balkan tour group and began to venture out solo. Our first day, I headed to the beach with Denise, from my tour group, and an Australian-Greek girl Alex. Naturally, the water was incredibly warm, but the sun was brutal enough to only allow for a couple of hours out in the sun.

A walk along the top of the city walls is an essential activity, and I held off until late afternoon when the crowds had thinned out. The walk gave incredible views of the city and the surrounding waters, and took me a good two hours to get around. Every now and then you could see some clusters of ruined walls in the midst of the houses, often covered in cats lazing around, sole rulers of the ruins.

Before the sun went down, the three of us grabbed some ciders and went to Buza Bar, which was a little bar perched on the rocks between the wall and the sea. On the way there, we had a great conversation with an old lady on a balcony overlooking a street corner. She said she loved living in the city, but got upset when drunk people peed in her corner. We told her to get some buckets of ice water on hand just in case, which she thought was a grand idea. At Buza Bar, we watched the sun go down while drinking our ciders and reflected on how lucky we were at that moment.

The next morning, I rose early to photo the city in the morning light with as few people as possible around. It paid off, as the morning sun painted the the stone walls in a beautiful golden light. Outside the walls, I discovered a great swimming area and had an early morning dip. Then I wandered around the upper part of the city, looking down alleyways that gave small vertical windows across the lower city. For some reason, alleyways are one of my favourite things to photograph.

Not far from the entrance to the city is the Franciscan Monastery. While small, it did make for some great pictures. Later that day, Denise and I decided to do a kayaking trip around the city. The kayaks were in a gorgeous bay alongside the battlements, and we were excited to get underway. The waters were quite rough and we quickly made our way past the city and into a small cave. There, we pulled our kayaks out of the water and had some food. We then did some snorkelling, revealing some of the largest schools of (albeit small) fish I have ever seen, in crystal clear water. After another hours worth of kayaking, we headed back in, watching the sun descend slowly and showing us a pink/orange sunset.