Escape to myself

Today i took a full day trip to three islands off the coast of Dubrovnik. The trip was all in including lunch and all the wine and soft drinks you could neck down. I should have known it wasn’t my kind of trip but i still enjoyed people watching. A group of 19 of the loudest US frat boys who were absolutely obnoxious and were pretty drunk by noon. The trip home was quieter as they were a bit sleepy. There were also French, German, Spanish and a group of eight Scottish women who also boozed all they could. I enjoyed watching the stereotypes. nonetheless it was a really enjoyable day and I met some lovely people and the lunch of hake and salad was delicious and convivial despite the upbeat disco sounds all day. I managed to escape on the islands wandering the back lanes and finding small, unfrequented, corners.

Kolocep

This was the first island we visited. A very pretty village but only a few inhabitants. Like all the islands the resident population numbers hundreds but the number of holiday apartments belied its hectic summer population. But today was quiet.

Lopud

The most beautiful of the islands in my opinion with a beautiful park, a monastery, little alleys snd stairs leading into the mountains. Charming churches and restaurants with a delapidated and abandoned communist era hotel next to the most modern swanky one. A quirky and lovely island. The Beckhams stay here and again the size of the hotel and number of holiday homes shows how busy it must become in high summer. From a medieval population of about 2000 and a thriving commercial economy it now has less than 500 residents.

Šipan

This is the largest island and was our second stop. It as fortified in the fifteenth century and was a centre for shipbuilding . It has a reputation for having the most olive groves per hectare in the world. Two main villages with some charming churches. It still has land mines from the Serbo Croatian War.