Dubrovnik – The North Remembers! | Essential travel guide 🇭🇷

Wandering through one of Europe’s most beautiful cities 😍

Setting the scene in Dubrovnik

Firstly, apologies I haven’t written in a couple of months. I managed to squeeze in a couple of extra unplanned trips & have been working hard on setting up my new Tik Tok which you can access here! Fresh off the back on my trip to Finland (post here), I managed to fulfil a bucket list trip & ended up in King’s landing (Dubrovnik). You really can’t quite comprehend the beauty of this place until you visit. It’s as if it is photo shopped & filtered in real time. This article will cover getting around, where to eat/drink, tours & a customary tale or two.

About Dubrovnik…

Dubrovnik has become insanely popular in recent years due to things like Game of Thrones & other productions. In the early 90’s during the Croatian war of independence, unfortunately many people were killed & there was extensive damage to the city. A major effort was undertaken to restore the city using traditional materials, which retains it’s architectural charm & beauty. In recent years there has been efforts to manage tourism in a more sustainable manner, which is understandable, I went in November. You may consider that ‘off-season’ but even then it was still very busy & I can’t imagine how the city would cope with even more people in the Summer. When you visit here, everything is pristine & the people are so proud, it’s hard to imagine the horrors the Croats have endured over their recent history. If you have had the good fortune of not having to live somewhere in a time of war, consider yourself lucky, I certainly do.

Some photos of the trip… 🤳🏼

Fransiscan Monastery
The Red Keep
Blackwater bay
View from Dubrovnik beach
Road to airport
Road to airport
Lapad beach
Sponza Palace
City tour view
Backstreets
Sponza Palace

Story time 📚

When I sit & write my travel stories, I often find them sounding unbelievable or at the very least, a stretch of the imagination. If I was reading these stories from other people, I would certainly have my suspicions around the likelihood of the perpetual chaos engulfing the trips. What is the best way validate their authenticity? To capture them on film, which I have been doing & you can now follow along on my Tik Tok here! (YouTube channel coming shortly)

Ordinarily, I am extra diligent in not losing my possessions, always taking great care of my bags etc. However, such was the beauty of the drive from the airport to Old Town, I spent the whole journey distracted gazing out of the window. I inadvertently misplaced my Scotland shirt, battery pack, tooth brush & phone charger. How do you even lose a shirt on the bus? This wasn’t the worst issue though, the next morning was a national holiday so most of the stores were closed & my phone battery was running low. I needed to find a phone charger & something to wear for my kilt photos quickly. I walked around for 30 minutes in circles trying to find an open store. Doing what any rational man child would do, I gave up, got a couple of cans of beer & went down to the beach to get some sun. My thinking was that everything would work itself out & if it didn’t, I would still be at the beach with cans in the sun. Every cloud has a silver lining. Putting my trust in the gods worked perfectly, after about an hour & 3 cans of beer down, a street seller rocked up to the beach with all sorts of goodies. He sold me a phone charger & very official looking Croatia shirt.

The Croatia shirt & kilt combo went down an absolute treat. The shirt was about 3 sizes too small & I am not exactly a slim chicken, so I had to make do with the situation as best as I could. Trying to make myself look not fat in the photos was an experience in of itself, some shocking attempts for your viewing entertainment can be found here.

On the same street as my little apartment, there was an awesome bar with the most amazing people (shout out to the Betula crew). When I had googled bars to visit ahead of time, I didn’t see it, but I stumbled upon it by chance. They had some form of karaoke & people singing Croatian songs, it was wonderful & I went back every night. I am surprised the locals didn’t string me up for asking the name of every song that was played 😂. Whilst I was there, a local Croatian guy was fighting in the UFC, so the owner put that on the TV, the Croatian guy was an absolute tank & had knocked the other dude down. I was cheering & getting everyone riled up for the win. Alas, once the replay was shown, there was an accidental eye poke & the fight wasn’t over & subsequently had to continue. The Croatian guy ended up losing unfortunately. I looked like a right melon. If you are looking for a top Croatian tune Rijeka Snova is solid starting point 😊

I had a boat tour of the Elaphiti islands lined up, but it was cancelled by the operator sadly. Subsequently, I decided to run an Instagram poll to see what to do instead, stupidly I put an option to Swim to the Islands, which everyone voted for. It turns out that I do not fulfil the physical requirements to pull off such an achievement, but my friends voted for it, so I had to at least try. The effort is what counts but it was truly shambolic & I won’t be attempting it again.

Useful tourist site information & costs🧑🏼‍🎓

There are so many incredible places to visit here. You can go to multiple Museums, Galleries & the city walls if you buy a Dubrovnik pass. The pass costs 40 euros for 1 day, 50 for 3 days & 60 for 7 days. I wish I had bought the pass, but the Old town was so stunning I spent most of my time wandering around admiring the buildings. If I wasn’t there, I was wandering around the bays & beaches, mesmerised. When I return I will absolutely be buying the pass & visiting everywhere 😊

If you are going for the Game of Thrones filming locations, you can take a guided tour & they will articulate everything much better than I ever can. However, if you want to go at your own pace some of the places you should visit are the Jesuit staircase (shame shame shame), The Fort Lovrijenac (Red keep, you have to pay to get in), the Ploce & Pile gates (no entry cost), used for various scenes. Finally, The Dubrovnik West Harbour (free to enter) is used a lot in various scenes at King’s Landing. Other notable places are Lokrum Island (Qarth, which costs to get on boat) & Minceta Tower (the House of the undying).

Where to eat & drink 🍻🍽️

Betula is the best spot for a drink & taking in the local culture in Dubrovnik. So long as you aren’t running around causing mayhem like some Magaluf poster boy, everyone there is so friendly. There is an Irish bar called the Gaffe which is alright, plenty of TV’s for sports & the live singers are pretty good. Buzz bar was good, the staff are sound & the drinks are reasonably priced.

If you want to get out of Old town which is quite expensive, Lapad has a couple of decent bars & places to eat. Sports pub Mario was really good for football matches & the beers were cheaper than in Old Town. There is a great food place called Vito Napoletana Pizzeria. Ordinarily I wouldn’t go to Croatia & eat Pizza, but they had a “Dubrovnik pizza” which reeled me in. Although the Pizza was fresh & the restaurant lovely, the Pizza was garlic, capers, shrimp & anchovies. I should have actually read what was on the Pizza 😂. It tasted great though, it just meant that if someone was silly enough to snog me, they were getting very very stinky breath. Spoiler alert – Fortunately for any potential smoochers, nobody came near me, as is usually the case!

I always try some local dishes, these were included in my boat tour that was cancelled so left me scrambling to try something Croatian. I will have to prepare a better contingency next time!

Getting about

There are lots of hop on & hop off bus tours you can take from outside the Pile gate. Ask for a map before you get on, some take you up the side of the mountains, which is much cheaper than the cable cars.

From the airport, there is an official shuttle bus that is good value & takes you right to the gates of Old town. Once you come out of the exit the stand is up to your right hand side. There are Ubers available but they aren’t cheap, the airport to Old Town was about 20-25 euros for my return leg.

You can rent bikes if you want to go for a leisurely cycle & there are numerous boat tours to get around the islands & coastal areas.

Where to stay 🏨

I stayed at “Private Accomodation Linda” (that isn’t a typo, that is the correct spelling on Google). As always, I am not on commission or anything like that. However, the host was lovely, entry was easy enough & she checked in during my stay to make sure everything was okay. She also left a couple of pastries out for me, along with tea & coffee (the pastries got dusted off in super quick time, before I had even unpacked 😂). The location is perfect & Linda is always on hand to answer any questions, can’t recommend it highly enough.

What is coming next? 🤔

Next up I will be writing about my day trip into some places in Bosnia, which was plagued by a storm of biblical proportions but was an incredible day none the less!

Hit subscribe to get notified when the next post goes live, thanks for reading through & as always, if you have any questions drop me a comment & I will get back to you as soon as possible ❤️

Finland | 3 days in Helsinki, a beautiful arctic edge getaway 🇫🇮

Helsinki has everything you could need, from wandering on beautiful beaches, to the stunning architecture & getting lost on a historic fortress island

Setting the scene

The conclusion of my EU trip was Finland. Having been in Tallin previously (you can read the post here), I made my way onto the Ferry into Helsinki. Way back in my university days when I had a full head of hair & weighed about 30KGs less, I visited Lahti. There was supposed to be a weekend trip out to Helsinki, but I’d overindulged in the Salmiakki shots & missed the tour bus. Ever since, I have aspired to visit Helsinki & by chance I met 2 awesome Finnish people in Alicante in February. I was able to practice some of my Finnish speaking with them, which subsequently got me excited to visit, so I booked it up & hit the road. This article will cover places to eat & drink, getting around, money & where to visit. Alongside a customary tale or two, including a calamitous attempt at charming over a local in a karaoke bar!

About Helsinki…

Helsinki is an interesting city with a unique history. Originally founded by Sweden’s King Gustav in 1550, it was supposed to serve as competition to the sea trading dominance of Reval (Modern Day Estonia). However, for the first 100-150 years it struggled, so was relocated to it’s current location in 1640. Then from 1748 to around the 1770’s the Soumenlinna fortress was built to defend Helsinki against Russian expansion.

In the early 1800’s in the Finnish war, the Russians took over, with Finland becoming an autonomous region in the empire. Towards the latter decades of the 1800’s Finland went through rapid growth in industrialisation etc. By 1917 Finland became independent from Russia but ended up in a civil war by 1918. During 1939-1944, Finland was attacked by Russia again, but the country wasn’t flattened due to effective air defences. In the 1950’s they hosted the summer Olympics (which is something of an oxymoron considering how cold it can be there). Since then they have been growing rapidly in terms of culture, politics & business. I owe a large part of my childhood to the Fins, they gave us the bulletproof Nokia phones & I spent many a nights playing snake on my 3310. I was still using my Nokia when my friends were onto their first, second & third I-phones 😂.

Some photos of the trip… 🤳🏼

Soumenlinna fortress
Helsinki Port
Russian Cathedral
Sunset at the beach
Esplanadi way
Meal from Zetor
Soumenlinna fortress
The scene of my heartbreak
Ferry into Helsinki
Disastrous meal from food market
Lost in Soumenlinna fortress

Story time 📚

The backdrop to this story, as you can imagine, is a bar with cheap (well cheap for Helsinki) beers. It was an epic little karaoke bar, which only had around 15 people inside. There was a group of ladies, I think 7 or 8 of them taking turns at the singing. I love listening to songs in other languages & having no clue what is going on. One of the ladies absolutely smashed the karaoke, she was really cool, cute & quirky. Whenever you ask a married couple how they met, they often have funny & unusual stories, well why couldn’t it be me & the Finnish pop star to be? Rocking up to a group of girls when you only know about 25 words in the language & you are on your own is nerve racking & you also don’t want to look creepy! I am a big believer in that all it takes is 10 seconds of courage & you miss all of the shots you don’t take. In hindsight, It would have been preferable to have sat this one out 😂

The 10 seconds felt like a lifetime! I just went for it, “Moi, mitta kulu?” (That spelling is definitely incorrect but it means hi how are you). Standard intro really, then I didn’t get given my marching orders so moved onto stage 2 of Scottish charm & said “Mina Olet Kaunis”, to which she replied in English “No you are not”. It was like someone had shot a bolt through my heart, it took me a couple of seconds to realise what she meant. I hadn’t practiced my Finnish in a long time, I always get mixed up with mina olet & sina olet (You are/I am). Kaunis means pretty/beautiful. I had tried to say she was beautiful, but accidentally told her I was beautiful. She didn’t see the funny side of the language error on my part 🤭. It was going so well up until that point. Never in my life have I so desperately wanted the ground to swallow me up whole & fade into a perpetual state of obscurity.

There are free walking based tours, of course you should tip if you can, but they run regularly & are well worth joining. However, make sure you join one in your language. I joined one & the guy started talking Spanish, I tried to keep up. However, whilst Duolingo is a useful tool to learn some basic Spanish, It hasn’t equipped me with the skills to follow a tour. I didn’t want to interrupt the guy while he was speaking, so slyly slipped off at the first chance I got. I then googled it & there was an English one running from the same place a couple of hours later. Subsequently, I returned, low & behold it was the same tour guy! He asked me why I bailed & then we had a good chuckle once I explained to him the error of my ways 😂.

Useful tourist site information & costs🧑🏼‍🎓

Soumenlinna has to be top & centre of your travel itinerary. It is an old sea fortress covering several islands, boasting museums & fortifications you can visit. Aside from this, it has the most stunning scenery & topography for you to walk around. There are a couple of shops, cafes & a small amount of people live there now, so whilst it is remote, please be respectful to the inhabitants when taking photos etc. You get there by boat from the South Harbour, they run very regularly & cost around 3 euros. You can just pay for the ferry at the machine when you get there, don’t let a tour company rip you off. The island itself is free to enter. I would definitely suggest taking a map or a photo of a map, it’s easy to get lost which definitely didn’t happen to me (cough cough).

Other places I would recommend are the Rock Church, Uspenski Cathedral, Helsinki Cathedral, Old market hall & Esplanadi park. You can go swimming at one of the saunas but I didn’t get much free time & they were expensive from what I had seen.

Whilst it isn’t a site you might find on a tourist map, I would strongly recommend Hietaranta Beach to watch the sunset. On my first night I spent a couple of hours there just relaxing & taking in the scenery. It has a very special place in my heart!

Where to eat & drink 🍻🍽️

It’s important to note that food & drinks in Helsinki are expensive compared to some European countries. I thought I would crack the code & get something cheap from the food market in South Harbour. Do not do this, the food was an absolute tragedy & it wasn’t all that much cheaper 😂. If you want to try Finnish dishes I would recommend the Zetor, the food was great but a little pricey. I got a really nice reindeer starter & stew main, with a beer for about 50-60 euros.

For a beer, the best place I found that wasn’t too expensive was Eerikin Kulma in Kamppi district. A local beer was about 5.50 euros, although the locals call it reindeer wee, I quite liked it. They have karaoke in that bar, it is also the scene of my failed love escapade.

A lot of restaurants do lunch buffets at around 15 euros, there are several in Kamppi district. This is a great option if you do not want to break the bank & get a decent meal to set you up for the day. The best one I found while there was Kimchi BBQ Asian Buffet.

Getting about

Helsinki is pretty flat, so easy to walk everywhere. However, they have excellent public transport, the trains, trams & buses go everywhere. They also have Uber & if you want to visit the Suomenlinna fortress you have to take the boat, it operates in pretty much the same way that a bus does, it just goes back & forward on the one route.

Within Helsinki everywhere is in walking distance, the cycle lanes etc are great too, so you could always rent a bike. If arriving by ferry it’s about 30 minute walk to city centre, if arriving by flight you can easily get a train into the centre of Helsinki.

Where to stay 🏨

The hotel I stayed in wasn’t fantastic (which is me being diplomatic) so I am not going to recommend it. However, the area was lovely, easy to get to from the train station or port, with plenty of bars & restaurants. The area is called Kamppi district & there were lots of hotels I spotted that looked good.

What is coming next? 🤔

My next post will be about Croatia, which was one of my favourite solo trips ever. I tried to swim to an island, lost most of my stuff & made a nuisance of myself in a bar by telling everyone a local fighter had won in the UFC match, which he didn’t. It also have me the opportunity to go into Bosnia & visit a couple of places there.

Hit subscribe to get notified when the next post goes live, thanks for reading through & as always, if you have any questions drop me a comment & I will get back to you as soon as possible ❤️

Estonia | My essential guide to the most stunning places you need to see in Tallinn! 🇪🇪

Wandering through a stunning medieval town & drinking far too many beers, the perfect European getaway!

Setting the scene

My mini Euro trip brought me from Riga into Tallin, Estonia. Tallinn old town is absolutely stunning, lots of big movies have been shot there, however I am surprised it isn’t the go to place for period dramas & films of that genre. I spent an entire day just walking around looking at buildings, it is that beautiful! This guide will cover everything from places to visit, getting around, costs & where to eat / drink.

About Tallinn..

As with Latvia, the recent modern history of Estonia has been brutal. In 1870 the Baltic railway officially opened, leading to an economic boom through rapid industrial growth, with tracks into Russian. By the early 1900’s there was a major revolution across the Russian empire against limited political freedom & awful working conditions. Although this was quelled by Russia, it laid the ground work for the freedom movement & eventually in 1918 Estonia became independent, with Tallinn becoming the capital.

In 1940, the USSR occupied Estonia, however this didn’t last long as the Germans took over from 1941-1944 throughout the second world war. By 1944 the Soviet forces re-took Estonia where they would remain for almost 50 years. Interestingly Tallinn hosted some sailing events from the 1980 Moscow summer Olympics. Leading up to 1991 there were many protests against the Soviet occupiers & in 1991 Estonia regained it’s independence. They have been building ever since, the capital is truly stunning. The people are the most welcoming & friendly I have ever had the good fortune to meet. Although, if I do have any beef with Estonia, it’s that Skype was invented there & I still have nightmares of the pinging sound at work every 2 minutes 😂

Some photos of the trip… 🤳🏼

Fortifications
Church tower
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
Outside of maritime museum
My arch nemesis, Mulgipuder
Scottish Bar!
Bastion tunnel passageways
Inside of submarine at Seaplane Harbour
The coolest Polar bear showing off
Round tower in Old Town
Food from Balti Jaam Market
Estonian open air museum
Random church building

Story time 📚

Whilst I was wandering around the old town, mesmerised by the architecture & beauty of it, I stumbled upon a Scottish bar. My initial premonition was that it would be similar to when you see an Irish bar abroad, Irish in name only. I had a jam packed itinerary the next day so wasn’t planning on indulging in any beers, however stumbling upon this hidden gem was surely a sign? It is called Highlander Scottish pub & it is actually really cool, well worth checking out. As is standard practice, I was wearing my kilt, leading to the staff throwing free drinks at me. Subsequently it was not a quiet night, leading me onto a magical mystery tour of an evening.

I ended up meeting a gent from the Estonian Eurovision band, I have since listened to their song & it is very catchy. If you search for 5MIINUST x Puuluup on YouTube, you will find it. No idea what the song is about , but the guy & his Finnish friends were lovely people. After a few beers I was feeling a boogie down the discos, so went off into another bar & ended up meeting the Estonian rugby team (didn’t even know they had rugby there 😂). It ended up being a 3am karaoke bar job, sightseeing was a struggle in the morning! The Estonian people really made this trip special & I hope to see them again some day soon.

Just outside of the city there is a place called the Estonian open air museum & it is a wonderful hidden gem. I highly recommend a visit there & they have an old cafe inside the grounds. I am incredibly blessed & humble to have seen a few countries around the world & I will always try to find some local food recipes or dishes. One of the rugby lads had advised against this for Estonian food, I wish I had taken his advice. In the cafe they had a dish called Mulgipuder, I am glad I tried it, but it was absolutely savage, on par with Scotland’s level of culinary expertise. The server was a lovely lady & came to ask me what I thought of it, I didn’t have the heart to say, so just told her it was great & I would be having more before leaving Estonia. Sadly however, a full stomach is never guaranteed for a lot of people around the world, so I always finish my food with gratitude. Although, I certainly won’t be in a hurry to get it again, finishing it was a tough effort!

Useful tourist site information & costs🧑🏼‍🎓

The cost of visiting a couple of tourist sites & paying individually adds up really quickly, especially as there are so many places to see. I would highly recommend buying the Tallinn card, you can get it online or buy it from the tourist information centre which is right in the heart of Old town. The Tourist centre is better than online, as they hand out booklets with all of the sites you can visit, but when I checked online it did not have as many places as the booklet. (As of September ’25) It cost 43Euros of for 24 hours, 63Euros for 48 hours & 76Euros for 72 hours. Whilst that may sound expensive, some of the sites are almost 20Euros individually.

You can maximise the value of the card if you plan ahead. A decent strategy if you only want to pay for one day, is to buy it around 12/1pm, spend the whole afternoon / evening going round as many of the sites in Old town as you can & then getting up early the next day to visit a couple of places. Then if you pick one of the big attractions last, as long as you are in before the 24 hours elapses, you still get to stay in. You can do the Seaplane Harbour museum, Open air museum & Zoo this way as they are all within relatively close distance to each other.

I did not visit every place on the card, however places that you definitely should visit are the 3 mentioned above. All included in the card & worth seeing are the KGB holding Cells, Estonian Maritime Museum (Different from Seaplane), Bastion Passages, St Olav’s Church observation platform, Kiek in de kok fortifications & the Estonian History Museum – Great Guild Hall. There are several Holy buildings worth stopping by as they are really beautiful but also have high towers where you get great views of the town. They are Church of the Holy spirit, The Cathedral of Saint Mary the Virgin & the Bell Tower, Niguliste Museum & Viewing Platform

Getting about

If you are staying in Old town, everything is within walking distance. However if you are outside of Old town, the cheapest & easiest way to get around is Uber. The prices were comparable to Egypt, incredibly cheap. A 15/20 minute journey was around £7/£8, so really easy for getting around.

Whilst I came in on bus, the airport isn’t far out from the city either, so getting an Uber wouldn’t be too expensive. There are lots of buses & trains, which look very modern so that is an option too.

Where to stay 🏨

Standard caveats apply here, I am not making any commission or anything like that from this recommendation (however, if in the unlikely event that the manager sees this & wants to offer me a free stay, I am on the next flight there 😂). I stayed in MyApartments Kotka you can find it here. If you read my blog regularly you will see I don’t always recommend places to stay, as I usually opt for cheap hell holes. However, these apartments were beautiful, I think it’s newly built. They have a small kitchen & washing machine too, so if you are stopping for a few days this really helps. It’s on the outskirts of the old town, under 10 minutes Uber into the centre. I paid around £110 for 4 days.

Where to eat & drink 🍻🍽️

For food I would recommend the cafe inside the open air museum, however don’t get Mulgipuder 😂. There is an epic market called Balti Jaam, where they have all sorts of food & drink stalls etc. I got some amazing food there, dumplings & some Borscht soup 😍. Old town has a restaurant called Olde Hansa, it has an old Viking theme feel to it. Whilst it is a little expensive, it is worth the experience & the food is really on point. There are lots of little bars that are worth visiting too. Moutai is a cute Asian place, which is quite cheap compared to other bars. There are a few Irish bars that aren’t actually Irish, but the fun locals hang out there. Whether you are a Depeche Mode fan or not, there is a tribute bar to them, it was voted inside the top 10 weirdest bars in the world on some magazine. They only play Depeche Mode music & they have all kinds of memorabilia there. The drinks aren’t cheap (7-8 euros a beer), but it’s worth stopping by for a couple.

Gruuv bar is really cool, they have decent drinks specials on so it isn’t expensive. There is also karaoke on some nights & people there really go for it! Tallinn is quite popular with international post graduate students & this bar is popular with them, so you can meet people from all over the world there. I met so many cool people that I still keep in touch with now 😊

What is coming next? 🤔

Next up I will be posting about Finland, which was a short hop skip & a jump over the Baltic Sea! I can speak a little Finnish, but nowhere near as much as I thought, leading to a calamitous attempt at charming over a Finnish girl, you won’t want to miss this one. I am currently in 2026 planning mode & I would love to take any trip recommendations, if I can get there by bus, boat, train or plane, I will go🤠

Hit subscribe to get notified when the next post goes live, thanks for reading through & as always, if you have any questions drop me a comment & I will get back to you as soon as possible ❤️