SUMMARY A full, busy day in Dubrovnik. We walked nearly every street, found the Stairs of Shame from Game of Thrones, took the cable car to the top of the mountain overlooking the city. In the afternoon we took a boat-ride around the city walls, over to Lokrum Island and back along the coast. Refreshing adult beverages at the highly recommended Buža Bar followed by some down time in our room. Cocktails at a Sushi and Wine Bar then good pizza and Caesar salad for dinner. - Karen
DETAIL We wake, have coffee, and decide to put off walking the wall surrounding the city until tomorrow. Today we’ll buy the tickets for that, though. We shower and walk around the town. It’s already fairly busy. We stroll though an outdoor market. There’s lots of fresh fruit. We find and walk the stairs from the Game of Thrones “Walk of Shame”. It’s really just some fancy stairs (and all the rest was created with CGI).
We have good coffee and a great breakfast in the shade. The temperature is cool, but it’s quite warm in the bright sun with the light reflecting off all the white stone walls around us and white stone underfoot. We walk to the harbor and then up to ride the cable car to the ‘mountain’ overlooking the city. The view down (and really in all directions) is great. Lots to see.
We ride the cable car back down and walk to buy figs at the outdoor market. We’re thinking to have wine and cheese and figs in the room with Ron and Nancy when they arrive tomorrow. There’s plenty of figs for us to have some today, too. In the room we wash our hands and eat two figs. They are ripe and delicious. You see them growing everywhere, so it’s funny to actually pay for them.
Heading back out we take a boat ride to see the city from the water. It’s a small “glass bottom” boat with nine or ten of us on board. We’re mostly looking at the city and scenery around, but occasionally we look through the boat’s glass bottom and say “Yep, that’s the sea floor”. It’s not far down and there’s not much to see. The water’s fairly clear but our captain says away from these cities with their busy harbors it’s much clearer. We see fancy boats and very fancy hotels and villas on the coast. It’s fun and relaxing. We can’t wait to get in the water. Captain tells us the water temperature (~79 degrees). It sounds great.
Back on dry land we find the Buža Bar. We’d see it from the boat and been told by friends we have to go there. It’s hugging the outside of the city walls and there’s a very cute, small, doorway through the city wall to access the bar. The joint is jumping. You can get drinks and peanuts or Pringles. We do get a beer and a wine and try to get peanuts. They’re out. We get Pringles.
Down below people have gone through the bar to climb down to swim in the Adriatic. There’s a high rock you can jump off up and there’s quite the commotion when someone afraid of jumping is up there trying to get their courage up. There’s a collective encouragement and then disappointment when the person chickens out (or cheer when they do jump).
We change for dinner and go out for more drinks (sheesh, are you sensing a pattern?). The people watching is great. It’s Saturday and there’s a wedding and people absolutely decked out for the event (or maybe just to be decked out). We watch and while doing that we discover a tall clock tower (medieval?) that’s both analog (hands) and digital. The digital part is the hour and the minutes (to the nearest five minutes). When we first discover this the time is IV 50. That is, 4:50. In five minutes it’s IV 55, and later V 00. It’s hilarious.
We go to Mamma Margarita for dinner, a hole in the wall recommended on Trip Advisor. It’s good. We have a Caesar salad and pizza. The Caesar salad, as normal (not), includes sautéed chicken and bacon. It’s really good but the menu said nothing of that.
Scott goes to the time for a Spanish guitar performance in a nearby church tonight. We’d seen the publicity before. Karen stays behind to guard the table and hears a commotion. She runs over and sees the bride and groom from before in a procession. A very long raucous procession. Such fun.
It turns out the Spanish Guitar performance in this church is every Tuesday and Saturday, but not this Saturday. Boo. We ask about how it is that the streets are so clean! We’re told that every evening for a couple hours between like 2 AM and 4 AM there is a team of people out cleaning every street. We believe it. Very well polished and sparkly clean. Nice. It’s also slippery when wet!.
Off to bed, no more drinks needed!
Photos
Morning time. View from our room. Messy but plenty big, comfortable and in the old town.
In the morning sun the buildings are almost too bight too look at
What to do? Duck into the shade for some breakfast
Dubrovnik's been famous and popular forever. After Game of Thrones, where the city play the role of King's Landing, it's swamped with people (and offers for GoT tours)
A tour highlight is always the top stairs for the "Walk of Shame". Most of it was CGI'ed but the top was real (shown here)
At the bottom of the cable car, awaiting our turn
All of the old city from the top of the cable car. The wall around the city, all of it, is walkable (tomorrow)
Today? Boat ride, on the clear, blue water. Much to see. Nature preserve (visitable) behind us.
You can also see the outside of the city wall, from the water. King so-and-so appears ? 15 times
Kayakers also like to make the transit on the water
There's a lot of swimming and jumping from rocks. A favorite place to do that is from Buža Bar
Access to Buža Bar is through a small door in the wall of the city, kind of hidden.
The view from the bar is good. But it's a tad crowded and the music's loud, but for the right crowd it's paradise.
In the evening sun I saw this worker working on the shutters. It seemed artsy.
The canyon-like alleyways that make up the city are cool dark shade and in the distance you can see the blue of the sky and the white of the buildings in the sun. So pretty.
The cats of (what we're calling) Our Lady of the Feral Cat
The medeival digital clock switching from V:55 to VI:00
So popular as evidenced by so much populace.
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