We made it safely to Dubrovnik on Wednesday evening, and noticed that standing outside the airport was a little warm… but that was nothing compared to today. Today (Thursday), it was 34°C; it’s now gone 6:30pm, 31°C, and I can barely stop drinking water for long enough to have a beer. That’s how serious it is.

Anyway, back to our arrival. Arriving slightly early at Dubrovnik airport, we were met by our host who drove us back to Dubrovnik itself, enjoying the stunning red sunset over the old town on our way. Arrival at our guesthouse was via a maze of windy steep little streets, which we were warned we should not try to walk down; use the steps! After a quick tour of our mini-apartment, our host sat with us on our private balcony to give us some orientation on a map of Dubrovnik, including the nearest supermarket and pizza place, both of which would still be open.

The nearest supermarket wasn’t so “super”, as is usually the way, but it was big enough to buy essentials (beer, wine, nibbles). The pizza place was just down the street, where we were probably overcharged for beer (25kn for a pint, about £2.50), but certainly weren’t overcharged for the pizza: 50kn each, for their “medium” that turned out to be more “large”…

We treated ourselves to a lie-in on Thursday morning. Having not thought to check what equipment was in the kitchen, we hadn’t even bought coffee in the supermarket, deciding that it would be good motivation to get out and find breakfast. Not so easy, as it seemed like we were too late for breakfast, too early for lunch, so we settled for coffee and Diet Coke near the main port in Gruž, before buying our ferry tickets for our journey to Korčula on Saturday.

At lunch, we discovered that eating out generally is quite cheap (as long as you stay away from the prime tourist areas), and we definitely overpaid for our beer the previous night. A huge plate of squid for Clare, with homemade gnocchi, and a big tuna steak with croquettes for me, and a couple of beers, for only 20 quid.

We found a slightly-bigger supermarket after lunch; they called it a hypermarket, but it was smaller than Prudhoe Co-op. We had to be very restrained with what we bought, because we knew there were a lot of steps to get back up, and it was getting hotter by this stage. That done, we tried however we could to stay cool (lying in the bedroom with the AC running), until it was time for some dinner and watching the sunset over the port. We were hoping to walk down to the old town this evening, but it’s started raining…