Croatia

Dubrovnic

• Dubrovnic is touristy but definitely and unquestionably worth it.  Despite the fact that you will probably be elbowing tourists out of the way on the main street, it is one of the most beautiful places I have seen.  All the streets are marble and after centuries they have been worn completely smooth and shiny by the foot traffic.  The alleyways are tiny and exciting and the outer wall is impressive to say the least. There are also little islands you can take an hour or so ferry to and explore is the "big" city gets to frenetic for you (it wont).

Above: main street, below: one of the alleys

• Mela Culpa is still the best pizza I have had pretty much ever in my life.  Right off the main street and just ask people, its well known
• There is a REALLY cool bar outside the walls on the cliff side facing the sea, I don't really even know how it stays there, its a bit hard to find, but there is a tiny door in the outside wall leading out to it.
• Lopud is a very "picturesque" island you can take a 1 hour ferry to.  It has an amazing sand beach that is about a half mile walk from the dock. 

• Dubrovnic Backpackers hostel was where I stayed, a very nice clean safe hostel where the mother of the family cooks everyone dinner and the son sometimes takes people out on the town with him. I thought it was an exceptionally good hostel but it is a bit out of town so you need to take the bus or a cab, both of which are doable but kind of a pain. 

Below is a picture of the sunset at the Montenegrin / Croatian border

Split

• Split is kind of the jumping off point for many of the islands, and so many times people do not spend enough time in this verrry beautiful and cool city.  Islands you can get to: Hvar and Brac, which are both most definitely going to!  I got stranded on Brac and had to stay at this old lady's house and she fed me boulibase and tried to talk to me in hand gestures since she spoke no english.

Above: crystal clear water on Brac at sunrise

• The main promenade is a palm tree-lined marble bit of amazingness, dotted with with coffee shops  backed by the original walls of the fortress.  

• Wandering around the insides of the fortress is good for quite a few hours of entertainment, and sometimes there are even plays etc that go on in the main section (below).  I was lucky enough to come while they were putting on a show of Romeo and Juliet