Kings Landing or Dubrovnik?

I know! Two posts in one day! But I was on a roll so I thought I'd keep going..

So our next stop was Dubrovnik, and like almost every place we went to, I had no idea just how much I'd like it there!

We arrived at the campsite and set up as usual, and we met the 5 new people that would be joining our tour which was really exciting! There were two Aussies, two Brazilians and an English girl who were all awesome.We were then dropped off at the walls of the Old Town where our guide was meeting us. She walked us around the outside of the walls and then into the Old Town for a walking tour. We wondered around the old town quite happily, as it was the evening so the temperature had dropped quite nicely so it made it a lot easier to enjoy the city. I had no idea what the Old Town would look like, so I was pleasantly surprised when it had a real Venetian feel to it (in terms of the architecture). After the walking tour we all went to a bar, but as you know that's not really my cup of tea so I headed back to the camp-site after about half an hour with Nat and Paul.

Our first glimpse at Kings Landing.. I mean Dubrovnik..

It's quite easy to understand why this place was so safe...

The next day after a relaxed start we headed into the city on the bus which was interesting. A group of us had decided the day before that we wanted to walk along the wall, so we got our tickets, filled up our drink bottles and started climbing. Thankfully we had decided to walk it in the morning and I am so glad we did because it was so hot at 10am, so any later wouldn't have been fun. The views from the walls were insane, you could see the whole city from some points, and nothing but ocean from others. It wasn't an easy walk though, lots of steps and in probably 30+degrees for over an hour... After we had finished we wondered through the city and got some lunch which was thoroughly deserved. After we finished eating some of the others went to the cliff bars to go swimming, but instead me and Phoebe walked through the streets of the Old Town, constantly stating just how amazing the place was, and how we so easily move there. We then found the stairs from Game of Thrones. If you've seen Circe's trial where she walks through Kings Landing (which is what a lot of us kept calling Dubrovnik when we saw something from the show and got a bit excited) then you'll probably know what stairs I mean..

Angus was thrilled by the heat, as you can tell

me trying to look like I'm not dying from the heat and the stairs and the walking..

The stairs!!!!!!!!

And the top of the stairs!

Once we had finished walking through the city we decided to call it a day, because the 'Topdeck cough' had then seriously set in and in the heat none of were feeling 100%. So we went back to camp, had cold showers (the thought of a hot shower was unbearable in that heat), did some washing and then walked to the market to get ice creams and see the fattest pug in the world. That afternoon was amazingly relaxed, we sat and chatted for hours, getting to know the new additions to La Familia, playing card games and listening to music. In some ways those kind of evenings are what I miss most about Topdeck, like the travelling was amazing, but the people were all so amazing, and the nights where we played games and talked and just had the best time doing nothing at all were the best. We were all amazed at how quickly the new people had slotted right into the group, especially the two Aussie boys, Nathan and Yoey, who brought with them their own tradition. They introduced us to Sebbie, which was basically an orange fluffy monster toy with a poking out tongue and crazy eyes. The tradition with Sebbie was that he was awarded to a person who had done something stupid, and they had to take him everywhere with them until he was passed on to the next unfortunate person in a ceremony that included a dramatic presentation and “The Circle of Life” from the Lion King.... Thankfully I was never awarded Sebbie, but the ceremonies soon became everyones favourite part of the evenings because Aussie Tom did such a good job of passing Sebbie over to the next person..

I absolutely loved Dubrovnik, but our time in Croatia had only just started, because next up was the Plitvice Lakes National Park, after a lunch stop in Zadar, so you have that to look forward to!