How to make tarts...and have I told you that my neighbour is nuts?: In search of the sun

'Olly and I have jetted off to Croatia for a bit of fun in the sun.

We are currently in Dubrovnik which is a pretty town but lacking a little local je ne sais quoi.

Given the terrible weather in Paris, our priority is to find the sun. Yesterday's quest for sun involved reading and falling asleep on a walkway. Mind you, that experience was rudely interrupted when some little twat 'accidentally' stepped on my stomach while trying to step over me. Today we spent the whole day lying on the beach trying to get a tan with our 15+ suncream. I ventured into the water but 'Olly proclaimed that it was far too cold for her to go in. Whimp!

The food so far has been ok. On our first night we found ourselves in a little pizza bar - our two waiters did a fine job of helping us enjoy our experience which included giving us mystery shots of some random liquor. We shared a pizza, salad and a good hangover in the morning.

After a snooze on the wall

Last night we thought we'd try some local cuisine and so ventured out to a little Bosnian restaurant called the Taj Mahal. We had tried to get in the evening before but they were fully booked. I have to say, the food was delicious. Not quite sure what we had but it certainly wasn't Indian as the name might suggest.

Given it was a Saturday night and Dubrovnik is the place to party we decided to hit the cobble stones and go for a boogie! In keeping with our usual stylish and sophisticated selves we downed a few buckets of alcohol and bore witness to some incredible bogan tourist behaviour. Those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones so I will admit that my behaviour wasn't squeaky clean at our final destination - an enormous nightclub hidden inside the old wall.

Oh Danny-boy - how you were an idiot

We were lured to this nightclub by two Americans and two heavily tattooed Englishmen and when we arrived we were greeted by scantily clad dancers in cages and a huge stage with a few djs and a laser light show. 'Olly amused herself while I was being 'wooed' by one of the young Americans - he lived in Barcelona and wanted to teach me the salsa (how romantic!). Ha! I had been up to my old tricks and told them we were from New Zealand. This proved quite difficult to follow up as they proceeded to ask a series of geographical questions for which neither I nor 'Olly had any idea.

My American love of 2 hours and I didn't quite see eye to eye on how the evening was to conclude. A fake name and number sufficed and I merrily skipped down the stairs with 'Olly to go home. [Olly also made it quite clear that it was hometime]. There was another display of Croatian efficiency upon our

Dubrovnik by night

departure as we had to find out own jackets in the cloak room - not quite sure where the guy had gone. I found myself helping a few people out too - one Croatian man took offence to me speaking English to him. He said: "I am Croatian, no need to speak to me in English". My response was: "I am not Croatian, I am Australian and I don't speak Croatian and more importantly, I don't actually work here. But if you would like me to give you a coat hanger for your coat, I would be happy to do so". He declined my request.

It was dumping down with rain on our way home and being old revellers

Olly is going to throttle me
when she sees this photo

that we are, we were pre-prepared with an umbrella. We escorted a young 16 year old girl to the pile gate - she said that nightclub was one of the only places you could get in underage. Charming.

The next morning my headache was compounded by the knowledge 'Olly had secured some photographic evidence of the previous night's antics. Hmm.

Tomorrow we have a big day of travel as we are heading to Hvar. We have an 8am bus to Split and then a ferry to Hvar Town on Hvar Island. It should be interesting!