Hvar Hvar Hvar Hvar

Hands down one of my favourite places in the world is the island of Hvar along the Dalmatian coast in southern Croatia.  It's fun, sunny, boozy and the water is simply stunning.  This being my second visit to the island I knew roughly where to go and what to see, and had a great old time here!

We walked along the coastline and stopped at every available swimming spot on the way.  Every single one.  It was amazing!  The crystal clear, blue waters of the Mediterranean (in this part of the world) need to be seen to be believed.  So here goes...

 

 The day started with Chewy slicing up an orange cave man style, with a sharp little stone.  He was very proud of himself for this feat of manhood.

One of my favourite pictures.  This incredibly cute dog followed her owner into the ocean with a massive leap, and continued to frolick in the water for some time after!

 

The above 4 pictures were all taken at Hula Hula Bar along the waterfront.  Tasty cocktails and all sorts of other drinks.  I highly recommend the strawberry something (I genuinely cannot remember what it was) which was icy cold, refreshing and deeelish...the perfect drink at 3pm.

 

Catching some last rays in the evening sunlight.

Hvar, I love you and I would pretty please like to come back every summer.  We met some truly lovely and very very fun people at the hostel, which led to a night of debauchery, booziness and lots of fun.  If you're looking for good bars head to Kiva just along the main strip.  It's sweaty and hot, but has a killer dancefloor, great tunes, and the revellers spill out onto the street because the bar gets to full.  And after that you can either take a boat to a nightclub called Carpe Diem, or party in a club in an old fortress.  You really can't lose. 

Sightseeing & Icecream in Dubrovnik, Croatia

We decided to be quite snap happy once again in Dubrovnik, this beautiful city just lends itself to taking a multitude of touristy photos.  So we walked along the walls, had some a lot of icecream, watched people cliff jumping and then strolled back to our accommodation via some of the most beautiful views I've ever seen.  We were only there for one night as Dubrovnik is pretty expensive, so we just made the most of it that day.  If you want to see what else we got up to that day, have a look at the previous Nishta post!

 

Nishta Pure Vegetarian Restaurant, Dubrovnik

This absolute gem of a restaurant is one of my favourites.  One of my friends stumbled upon it last year whilst roaming the streets of Dubrovnik and took me there, and this year I just had to go back.  It was amazing!

Nishta is small and compact, so either book in advance or turn up at a bit of a random time, or just be prepared to wait for a bit really.  It is definitely worth it though.  Their menu clearly distinguishes what is vegan (most things are), vegetarian, raw, and gluten free.  All this makes ordering an absolute breeze.  

 

Home-made iced tea.  In what is one of the cutest bottles going around.  Loved it!

 

I opted for a 'small' (read: enormous) salad bowl, and chose from a plethora of fresh ingredients and pre-made salads.   It was vegan and gluten free.  Because we were feeling quite hungry, we decided to share the starter pictured below.  Called 'Simplicity' this beautiful dish is raw zucchini pasta accompanied with three different raw sauces: sundried tomato-date-olive oil sauce, pesto with fresh herbs and sunflower seeds, and a creamy cashew nuts sauce.  It's vegan, gluten free and raw.  

 

Chewy decided to go for the veggie burger, which was a barley-lentil-bean burger with smoked seitan, vegetables, and sweet potato sticks, and is also served with a coleslaw salad and nishta-made ketchup.  It is fully vegan.

 

Nishta can be found in the old town of Dubrovnik, and I highly highly recommend going there even if you're not a vego yourself.  Last year we went with a group of boys, and all of them thought it was delicious.  Definitely worth a trip to Dubrovnik in my opinion!

Kotor & Sveti Stefan, Montenegro

A gorgeous old town and a beautiful beach all in one day? Yes please.  Kotor is an easy and short bus ride away from Budva, and is one of the towns dotted along the stunning Bay of Kotor, as well as being home to a cute old town.  Sveti Stefan, although rocky, is a lovely beach only 5km away from Budva.  We nearly didn't manage to leave, but after finally hailing a bus and running a good 100m to get to it we made it safely back to Budva for a night of partying in one of the many clubs.  Although clubbing in Budva seems to be different to elsewhere I've been (there was no actual dancefloor and everyone stands around tables and just sort of shimmies around to the beat, what?) we met a great group of people at the hostel and fun was had by all.

So without further ado, here are some pictures from those two lovely places!

 

Giant slice of pizza for $1 anyone?

Cider & Stunning Views in Budva, Montenegro

Montenegro, or Crna Gora, is an amazing, albeit fairly small, country.  Our already short stay there was cut short by one day due to airline problems, which saw us spending the night in Belgrade, Serbia.  But nonetheless, we made it to Podgorica by the next morning and then caught a bus to the coastal city of Budva.  

Budva is beautiful, vibrant and sun-drenched.  And there are a lot of Russian tourists there.  A lot. I don't think my Cyrillic has ever been this good!  We had a pretty chilled out time in Budva on the first day and just explored the Old Town, went to the beach, and had the biggest slice of burek I've ever had and ever will have in my life.  It was a monster.  Unfortunately we didn't get a picture, but I kid you not it was enormous and I didn't eat for a day afterwards because it filled me up so much.  Oh and it was tasty as anything.  

I also need to mention our amazing accommodation, it was one of my favourite hostels ever!  We stayed at Saki Hostel, and Saki himself i what can only be described as a total lad.  On arrival you are treated to a shot of homemade rakija and a slice of cake.  What better way to arrive?