A short flight from Rome took us to the stunning medieval city of Dubrovnik in Croatia.

We landed at the airport and jumped into a taxi. The taxi driver asked for the address and I gave him the address of our apartment as listed on AirBNB. Turns out it wasn't an address, but it was written in Croatian so I couldn't tell. I rang the hostess, Petra, and she was one of these people who talks constantly and doesn't give you time to ask her questions or respond. She wouldn't be quiet long enough for me to ask for the actual address. I handed the phone to the taxi driver and he eventually got the address out of her. Apparently it was in a pedestrian zone, so he dropped us as close as he could and we went to the door. Petra wasn't there so I rang her again. She didn't answer the first 5 times and 10 minutes later, after standing in the baking 37 degree sun, I got hold of her. She started carrying on about how she was putting her baby to bed and she sent instructions via WhatsApp and I hadn't answered her. She wouldn't pause long enough for me to tell her that I only have WhatsApp when I have WiFi and since I didn't have WiFi on the plane or now standing in the street, I couldn't have got her instructions. Eventually I had to yell at her and tell her to please shutup so I can talk! I explained to her that I don't have WhatsApp to which she answered "You never told me you didn't have WhatsApp." I am going to invent a phone that allows you to reach your hands through to the person on the other end and strangle them.

Anyway, I eventually got the code for the key safe out of Petra and we managed to get into the apartment. It was in a fantastic location right next to the old town and only a few metres away from the beach. We were all hungry so I did some quick research and found a small hole in the wall that sold cevapcici sandwiches and we all went out to grab one.

After lunch we took a walk around the old town. Last time we were in Croatia, 3 years ago, there was an old guy was sitting on the medieval fountain in a Croatian traditional costume, playing some ancient guitar-like instrument with a bow, looking for tips. I remember complaining to Lidia that he only seemed to know two notes and never actually played a tune, just the same two notes over and over in the same rhythm. We walked into the old town with Madi and Jye and wouldn't you know it, the same old guy, wearing the same costume was sitting in the same place playing the same two notes in exactly the same way. I thought that maybe he could have invested some time in 3 years to at least learn one more note.

The fountain itself was as beautiful as I remember and I went to take a drink. Before doing so, I popped my hat on Lidia's head, over the top of her hat. When I finished drinking, she had forgotten it was there, and that she was wearing two hats, so I left it there to see how long it would take her to realise. Unfortunately, the kids told her after about 10 minutes. Party poopers. I did get some great photos before she cottoned on though. See the photos attached to this blog for proof. :)

We took the kids to Dolce Vita for an ice cream, which is an ice cream shop we frequented last time we were here and it did not disappoint. On the way out of the old town we stopped at a small bakery that sold burek. That was the start of a love affair between Madi and burek. We gave that bakery plenty of business over the next two days. In fact, Madi invented burek-fast. We also stopped into a supermarket where Madi bought a drink called "pipi". It was amusing enough to watch Madi drink Pipi, but over the next couple of days she gave me plenty of amusement with gems like, "What happened to my pipi?", "I like drinking pipi" and "Jye, do you want some of my pipi?"

The next morning we woke up and made breakfast in the apartment. I was quite proud of myself because I was approaching 30 days Awkwardo-free. Petra had an Italian percolator and I filled it with water and coffee and popped it on the stove. It took ages to come to the boil and when it did, it exploded all over the stove-top. I poured what little coffee was left into a cup and it tasted like mouldy crap. I then tried to unscrew the coffee percolator to wash it and snapped the handle right off. Awkwardo-free counter set back to zero.

We spent the next day exploring the old town. We also walked up to the fort which had amazing views over the old town. Jye recreated Cher's video clip of "Turn Back Time" on a canon, which I'm sure would have been very popular with the sailors. It was super hot (the weather, not Jye's performance), so after lunch we had a very refreshing swim in the Adriatic, just near our apartment.

That evening we had a burek, then took the cable car up to the lookout and watched the sun set over the Croatian islands while enjoying a spectacular view over the old medieval town. Then we came back down the cable car and had another burek before turning in for the night.