Chapter 2 - Dubrovnik, Croatia

Day 1, R&R

While London was all about the Beatles, Ted Lasso, Agatha Christie and Harry Potter, Dubrovnik is all about King's Landing. Game of Thrones was filmed in Dubrovnik and so--a GOT tour is in the works Tuesday!
But first, as in most locations, we work in a little R&R. We are staying in the old town which is one of the best preserved walled cities we’ve ever seen! Oh my! Our hotel is down there!

Lord Byron called it the Jewel of the Adriatic and just look at this! This was taken of the walled Old Town from a ferry.

Everywhere you wish to go in old town is either up or down. Except for the street that our hotel is on, which is restaurant row. This little kitty came and joined us for dinner.

Fun fact. Croatian kitties love croissants!

Dubrovnik, Day 2

We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful start to day 2 in Dubrovnik at the Arsenal restaurant located on the old port.
The Republic of Dubrovnik was one of the top three shipping forces in the 16th century. In fact, they are certain currently celebrating – or should I say lamenting — the dissolution of the republic 200 years ago. And the Rep was the first state to recognize the United States of America (in 1776).
Not only was the view of the old port amazing, but the omelette and eggs Benedict were too.

The Wall

The walls of Dubrovnik date back to the 10th century and stretch about 1.2 miles, encircling the entire Old Town. There are at least a zillion steps to the top after which you have to give your heart time to rest. This morning it was quite windy, but the views are gorgeous. That’s Fort Lovrijenac in the background in the first picture, (the Red Keep to some of you) and the main street (Stradun) of Old Town in the second.

The Red History Museum

When we saw that there was a museum of Communist history in Dubrovnik, we just had to go, as this would be a totally different perspective.

This gave us a glimpse into the history of Communist Yugoslavia after World War II under Tito who believed that “Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the products of society; all it does is deprive him of the power to subjugate the labor of others by means of such appropriation.”
Unfortunately what followed was a history of the appropriation of personal freedoms and property. The only accomplishments seemed to be greater literacy and rights for women.

The museum did give us a little more insight into the wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Kosovo that led to the dissolution of Yugoslavia though.

Most of the exhibits were typical domestic settings. Communist living rooms looked like typical LRs of the 50s, no?

Question:

Dubrovnik is home to the world's third oldest pharmacy that is still in operation. How is it that I can buy two packages of Zovirax cream here for five dollars (8 euros) yet it costs $100– by prescription only— at home!!! (No photos allowed inside.)

Evening in Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik is a seaside city and there are a lot of great seafood restaurants and dishes. Some, like tuna, we recognized. Others we did not.

We have taken to having dinner at midday as most of Europe does and then getting a lighter meal in the evening.

One night we walked past a restaurant with “aged dough pizza“ which will definitely mean something to some readers, (You know who you are). It was wonderful! Almost as good as the one we make at home.

There is also live music all over the city. We found a concert by a trio from the Dubrovnik chamber Orchestra, playing in the smallest Catholic Church we’ve ever been in. Three pews on the left and four on the right.

We knew it was going to be awesome when the pianist began the concert with Clair de Lune. They did more Bach, Handel, Pachelbel, and a little Gershwin and Bizet.

Again, they would not let us take pictures once the performers came out, but this little church was worth a snapshot.

Dubrovnik at night.

Dubrovnik, Day 3

Game of Thrones Tour

The big day finally arrived.
There are a lot of Game of Thrones fans here, but all our tour guide could say was “you should be here in the summer!“

The first stop was the Red Keep which involved going up about a million steps! Many scenes were filmed here such as Joffery’s name day and sword fights etc. The keep is impressive but HBO built it up much more using cgi.

Our tour guide was amazing as she knew everything. Her boyfriend was hired by HBO and worked on the show for 8 years so she had a lot of little known information.

She had a picture book which showed the GOT scene while we were at the actual place it was filmed.

Going down the red keep was a little easier.
Going back to Kings Landing (Old Town) we passed the pier where a lot of departures took place such as Sansa leaving with Little Finger and Arya leaving at the end.

In the old town we visited the place where Cersei did the walk of shame. Interesting note: What you see is a body double. She walked next to her for the entire walk. In post production, they removed her head and “photoshopped” Cersei’s head to the body.
(There was also a tiny restaurant halfway up featuring Wok of Shame)

HBO spent a fortune on each episodes as this was a city with people , apartments. Shops, cafes etc. They would pay the entire block of whatever it required to shutdown for the day and make it look totally medieval.

Lastly, we took the short ferry ride to the island of Lokrum which was Quarth in the series. Pretty place with gardens and lots of peacocks.
This is also where Khallisi rescues her baby dragons.

Finally, the conclusion was I was able sit in the actual iron throne which HBO gave to Dubrovnik.

A Second Concert

In Dubrovnik, you have a chance to hear live music every night, be it classical, local folk, jazz or pop. We found a string Quartet in an even smaller Catholic church. This time they allowed us to take pictures.

The people in Dubrovnik, are amazingly generous. We stopped at a restaurant on the main square and asked if we could just have a drink, not dinner. We wanted to people-watch for a bit after a lot of walking (and stair climbing). We were given a table by a very friendly and talkative waiter.

We ended up ordering dessert to split, plus two drinks. Afterwards, as we paid, the waiter brought us two typical Croatian drinks: wormwood and cherry brandy. Now the cherry brandy part sounds very Polish as do some of the words here, so the Slavic language relationship must be very close. But two free drinks that probably cost more than what we were spending!?

Wait! It gets better! At dinner at a different restaurant we had a cheese grater on our table that we asked whether it was available for purchase. Alas, no. Later, when the waiter brought us our change, he brought us a little bag with a grater inside! And it was filled with grana Padano cheese! Again, a very generous city.

On our final day we went on a tour which included the area outside the old town.