Zdravo!

Which means hello in Croatian. After I typed up the last post, I had a Skype chat with Ollie and we managed to book the flights and ferries for our holiday.

We're flying out from Manchester and into Dubrovnik in Croatia, spending a few days in Dubrovnik (the pearl of the Adriatic, according to Byron), maybe visiting one of the islands on the Dalmatian coast, then onto Split. We'll have a day or so in Split, where we'll have to start calling it Spalato because we're getting an overnight ferry (and staying in a luxury cabin, no less!) to Ancona on the East coast of Italy and heading by train to Rome, then flying back from there.

I will confess, as I typed the last sentence I actually got a shiver of excitement. I know it's a tourist trap and I'll be on guard for pickpockets and having to find nuns to cross the road with and dodging scooters, but I'm going to ROME. I'm going to what was the Caput Mundi of the ancient world. I think going to the soggy remains of Haridan's Wall is exciting, and this place was the epicentre of it all. I was also informed that mozzarella bars are a real thing, so this has pushed the giddiness into really high gear!

Dubrovnik sounds like it's going to be fantastic as well. We had originally tried to find flights to Split, and flying into Dubrovnik was the cheaper compromise, but it looks like we've lucked out there. I've spent most of this morning on the Lonely Planet website, and the whole place just oozes with lovely things to see and do. And apparently there are 700 different types of wine produced in Croatia, so I'll have to take lots of photos in case my memories become hazy!

I'm sad that we're not going to Latvia and Lithuania, but they'll still be there next year. And there's no point being totally inflexible about holidays. It's a holiday, for goodness sake. You're supposed to be relaxed and happy about it, not shouting at the Skyscanner website because the only flights go via Dublin and cost squillions of pounds and your first born. If going to Croatia and Italy is easy, then so be it. I'll just have to man up and eat gelato, it'll be tough but I'm sure I'll muddle through.

I'm working till gone midnight tonight, so I'm still in my pj's but given that it's finally not raining I should probably get dressed and go and have a cup of tea outside.

Ciao for now!