Dubrovnik

Paul and I were both really looking forward to visiting Dubrovnik, a city famous for being the most well-preserved walled city in the world as well as the infamous King’s Landing from Game of Thrones. The weather, however, was not very kind to us during our time there.

It rained most of our first evening, and we ate dinner wrapped up in blankets and jockeying for position next to outdoor heaters. (Are there no indoor restaurants in Dubrovnik?)

The next morning was marginally better weather-wise so we reluctantly paid the high ticket price and braved the hike around the town walls. Thankfully, we timed this adventure well and managed to stay relatively dry as we took in the amazing views, imagined ourselves defending the city, and read up on the GOT scenes shot at various locales around the city.

The afternoon was not so kind. We huddled under a doorway to eat our lunch and dragged our bags to the port to board our boat for a five-night cruise of the Croatian islands. On arrival to the port, we learned that the weather also prevented our boat from mooring in Dubrovnik. Instead, we were picked up by a bus to travel an hour north to board our boat anchored in a more protected port.

We met the crew, unloaded our bags in our small cabins below deck, joined the rest of the passengers for dinner, and settled in for soggy night onboard the Pape Prvi.

The next morning, the weather improved somewhat so the crew made the decision to head to Dubrovnik for those passengers who had not yet had the opportunity to visit the city.

For us, it felt a bit like Ground Hog’s Day, and because Dubrovnik was such an incredibly expensive city, we weren’t really sure what we’d do with our day. In the end, Grumpy decided to join the other passengers for a guided tour of the city. We decided to just explore and see where the day took us.

First up, we checked out the little town beach to skip stones and re-enact a few GOT scenes filmed on the jetty and stairway leading up from the beach. The weather was fining up so we decided to order a drink and soak up a bit of sun at the seaside. Incredibly, not three minutes later a production crew for a British show called The Travel Man set up directly in front of us and proceeded to shoot several scenes. We weren’t familiar with the show, but we did recognise the host, Richard Ayoade, and his guest for the episode, Stephen Merchant. It was pretty cool.

Later on, we wandered to the old port and checked out the boats and tried to climb and karate kick the walls. We may have also had an ice cream before making our way back to our boat for five incredible days of sailing.

Here’s Paul’s Dubrovnik video.