Exploring Croatia ... Dubrovnik, Scampi buzara and Kamenice

This is the first of a series of posts on Croatia, starting with Dubrovnik - the scenery, the cities, and of course, the incredible food.

We arrived in Dubrovnik at 7am on the overnight ferry from Bari. If you are planning the same, there is a bus that runs from the port straight to the edge of the old town's city walls. We decided to walk, which was probably the wrong choice given the heat and the weight of our backpacks.

Dubrovnik itself is a cruise tripper's magnet. Between 9am and 4.30pm each day, the city is crawling with trails of tour guides, holding umbrellas and followed by a legion of sticker-toting day trippers.

That said, it's a beautiful and compact old city and one we explored every inch of on foot and by kayak (to get the best views of the city walls).

A glass of wine in the sunshine on the edge of the city walls

One of the things I found the hardest about Dubrovnik was finding truly local, good quality cuisine. Many of the restaurants in the old town offer hiked up 'tourist menus'. However, we found a real gem... Kamenice on one of the old squares (Gunduliceva Poljana).

This informal restaurant has a number of tables outside (none inside) and they are always packed with tourists and locals alike. They are renowned for their calamari, their black risotto with cuttlefish, their mussels and their 'scampi buzara' - a local speciality of langoustines with white wine, tomatoes, garlic and onions.

This is probably one of the best places you can eat in Dubrovnik - if you can get a table. Piles of steaming shellfish, fantastic atmosphere on one of the city's oldest squares, and an unexpectedly small bill at the end of your evening.

Patrolling for dropped shellfish at Kamenice

Next stop, Korcula.