Still More Croatia: Dubrovnik — The road liss traveled

Time to get back to the tourist hordes! Dubrovnik, the city that has exploded in popularity over the last decade thanks in part to being the filming location of King’s Landing Game of Thrones. It’s hard to believe the first season came out 13 years ago! I was booking kinda last minute and found a not particularly well rated hostel in the middle of old town, but the location was pretty fantastic, so sure. It was completely unmarked, just an old iron door going through a brick wall to get you there. I had to stop at bar to use the wifi to message him because I couldn’t find the door for the life of me, and of course a small beer is like $9 or whatever. It was one of those one person run places, that are quite common in the Balkans, where someone turns their apartment into a hostel, which can have some very hit or miss results, depending on how much work they put into it. The place was run by a man about my age, and he slept in one of the dorm rooms, ha. Kind of a funny guy, he shook head in disgust when I told him I was doing the GoT walking tour haha. I know I know, everything around here is basically a tourist trap or whatever.

couldn’t find my hostel, but I did find this cat

Even though it packed, the old town is really fantastic! You wouldn’t even know a large chunk of it was damaged from the civil war in 1991 and the fight for Croatian Independence. Kind of like Venice, it’s crazy hot and overcrowded from the all the cruise ships during the middle of the day, but very pleasant once the late afternoon sets in, and even better once dusk hits and the lanterns turn on. I took a little walk outside of the old town to get a nice view of the sunset that evening, getting my first glimpse of Blackwater Bay on the way there. 15 minutes later I was on a jaggedy outcropping, and like everywhere in Croatia I kind of wish I had brought my swim trunks, because it was a pretty spot on the rocks where lots of people were enjoying the water and and the changing color of the sky, and looking back was a nice view of the fort.

Fort Bokar, attached to the old town on the left, Fort Lovrijenac on the right

Back at the hostel I met an Indian guy from Delhi to go wander around the town with. Walking around the alleys of Dubrovnik is a lot fun with the dimly lit tunnels, it really gives you that real Medieval feel! It also turns out they were having the last night of their summer music festival, it was a full orchestra performance right in the main plaza, just a few minutes walking from the hostel, so that was cool to see. Even as much as traveling in mid summer season kinda sucks, the benefit is there are lots of festivals and events and live music going on.

The next morning it was off to the Game of Thrones walking tour. I showed up at the meetup spot at 9am, paid my 28E, plus the 35E for the Dubrovnik day pass, which gets you access to a bunch of spots for 24 hours, and we were off with a group of 15 or so. First stop was Blackwater Bay, which is a small scenic cove nestled between the old town and the Lovrijenac Fort. The guide had here flip book to show you specific scenes, like Littlefinger walking out there with Sansa.

Next up was Fort Lovrijenac itself, which was the Red Keep, kinda. They’d shoot the inside of the Red Keep in there, like the tournament for Joffrey in season 2, but for wide angle shots from around the city, the Red Keep just kinda showed up wherever it looked the coolest. And all CGI’ed up of course, so it really doesn’t look that much like the fort.

You’ll just have to imagine Stannis and Davos in the Battle of Blackwater Bay (the actual battle wasn’t filmed here though)

Once we were in the old town, we saw where lots of smaller scenes were shot, and then arrived at the Jesuit steps, the scene of Cersei’s walk of shame. Apparently they wanted Cersei (well her body double) to start walking from inside the church (naked obv) but the church wasn’t having that. But the city did agree to the nudity walking through the town. Another interesting part is they filmed in summer, peak season, so they had to shell out a lot of money to clear out their shooting locations. For this one, they paid restaurants double their highest grossing day, and same with hotels and airbnbs, for them to be all shut down. Yikes! Even in places like Blackwater Bay, where you can rent kayaks, they’d have to pay for a the whole day of kayak rentals to clear them out of there. Lots of stuff like that. Almost every other show or movie that shoots in Dubrovnik does it in winter.

So the tour was pretty interesting! Although I must say, it’s definitely a money maker for whoever runs it. Our group collectively paid over $400 for 1.5 hours to be lead around public places with a flip book. Our guide used the be a translator, now she just does this full time in summer months. The tour also had an addition to be taken by boat to the island where the Iron Throne is located, but I didn’t care that much for a photo op. The tour dumped us off in a GoT gift shop of course!

Now it’s the middle of day, it’s hot as hell, what to do? Swimming obviously! There was a bar a few blocks away that goes through the city outer walls and takes you to a little rocky outcropping, where there’s beautiful spot for a bar, as well as stepped entry into the water to swim. No food, just very pricey drinks, but you’re paying for the scenery and water access. This is what Venice needs, some places to swim!

That evening I walked the city walls, which really is fantastic. They charge something wild, like 30E just to walk on the friggen walls, which is why everyone gets the 24h city pass for 35, which gives you access to the fort and some museums too. And walking the walls around sunset really was fantastic, it’s a must do. Seriously Dubrovnik is stunning, I took a lot of photos from up on the walls! Although for me, 2 nights is definitely enough. Especially as I was moving onto the next super touristy old town, Kotor Montenegro!