Thanks to Dubrovnik. After knocking off the Z on touch down in Europe we didn’t manage to venture further than Zagreb International (which is soon to be demolished, which will make a drastic improvement), we entered our first real destination of Dubrovnik, pearl of the Adriatic.

What a ridiculously amazing place to start this adventure. Lea was right, if we didn’t plan ahead James would never leave, it might even take the full 8 weeks for him to stop crying at how surreal this fairy tale town is. Built to prevent those within it from the atrocities of wannabe conquerors, Dubrovnik has seen more of it’s fair share of horror in our lifetimes alone. And there’s no sense of blame or resentment here. Except of course towards the Serbs* for needlessly bombing nearly every house…oh and to Croats for making them a reluctant part of their Kingdom…and thereby encouraging the Serbs to bomb them. But the town thrives again, albeit as a tourist trap, with a Prague meets Disney feel, and seems bound to become an exclusive resort town of the future. So we feel lucky to be here when we are, 20 years earlier or 20 years later would be a very different experience.

We’ve walked the wall (and no, that’s not a Throners reference), been up the recently repaired cable car (destroyed by war), walked barefoot on the Stradun, taken multiple flights of Croatia (in wine form), cable car’d to the Napoleon’s fort, found our previously unused calf muscles, ferried to Lokrum island (the “Rotto of the Adriatic”), watched a lightning storm roll in from Buza bar (perhaps signalling that winter is coming…not a GoT reference), smashed a lamp in our apartment (Lea said we did them a favour), saw the Game of Thrones store (yes that’s a GoT reference), James got thirsty, Lea got hungry and thoroughly enjoyed this first leg of our epic honeymoon (one leg Lea didn’t eat).

*The sentiment towards Serbia in this blog is a mere reflection on the comments of our walking tour guide and not of the author who is sure most Serbs are as likeable as their tennis playing point of reference. However, it is a stark (not GoT reference) reminder of how close to the surface tensions remain in a generation of our age that was born into war.