I have another love-Croatia. I am sitting on a white pebbly beach in 30 degree heat with the Adriatic sea in front of me. And 500ml of Croatian beer (well what Kristen left of it while I was swimming). The water is crystal clear. There are parts where you can get into the water like a pool (to avoid inadvertently stepping on a pesky sea urchin) and the water is refreshing.
Our Eastern European tour starts this evening from Dubrovnik. Kristen and I arrived yesterday (after a 6 hour train through Hungary and Croatia-got to experience border control on a train and two more stamps in my passprt). We spent half a night in Zagreb near the airport awaking just after 4am for a very early flight to Dubrovnik. On the plane watching the sun rise and the full moon set -the moon was bright red thanks to some trick of light-was a nice start.
We arrived in Dubrovnik and set out for somewhere to eat breakfast as many places had yet to open. I cant emphasise how early it was. Once we found somewhere Kristen discovered a classmate from uni 5 or 6 years ago was in the same place eating breakfast. She lived in NZ, moved to the UK and was on holiday in Dubrovnik. Time to cue the small world song.
As Kristen and I soon discovered we were unable to check into our accommodation until our tour leader arrived (we were joining a top deck tour for an eastern europe trip). However we could leave our luggage.
We took a bus to the old town and walked the walls, after spending over an hour trying to find the entrance. Lunch was seafood at a nearby place along with a litre of local wine. We finished waiting out the time till we could check in at a white pebbly beach and the aforementioned beer. All was serene.
Cue-later.....
We went back to our allocated accommodation at the allocated time to be informed that the people joining us and our tour leader had been held up on the border crossing from Montenegro and they werent due for another hour. And we still couldnt go to our room (a shower at this point would have been nice).
So we plonked ourselves down at table on the hotel verandah to wait. And vent (I can understand issues with arrival times when crossing borders but at least let us into the room). Luckily our venting was overheard by a couple of guys who were also in the same boat as us, so they joined us to share the venting. Soon we were joined by another lady who was in our group. Us five were all waiting (complete with our luggage left in reception). We had all been in Dubrovnik for the day and were ready for some time to change and for dinner.
We checked again with reception at the same time the tour leader rang in-they had had a bus crash in Montenegro and were waiting for alternative bus. We were told we could now check in and the shared included dinner would be the next night as they were not going to arrive until close to 9pm. So the five of us went and found a place for dinner nearby and got to know one another. They all seemed nice enough and we were all close in age. When we got back to the hotel we were told the rest of the group had arrived but no word from the tour leader or did we get to meet her until the next morning. Welcome to organised tours in Europe.