What a beautiful place! Nestled right along the coastline of the Adriatic Sea, Dubrovnik is uniquely located on a very narrow, yet long stretch of Croatia that borders with Bosnia. They are so close, in fact, that the surrounding mountains are actually in Bosnia. The Old City is quaint and kept in fashion of how it was hundreds of years ago, and today is the setting for where they film The Game of Thrones. I’m honestly not entirely sure what that show is all about, but our local taxi driver was very pleased by this little bit of trivia:)
As we disembarked the ship we were all met by a line of taxis. For 10 Euro they would take you to the Old City, for 50 Euro you would get an hour taxi tour of Dubrovnik… We were on vacation, why not?? Off we went with a very passionate and clearly patriotic older local from point to point around the city getting out to take pictures at the best locations. Being in the taxi while he navigated the narrow roads was somewhat of a roller coaster ride for me, but he was obviously very used to the ways of the road there and navigated beautifully. He took us up to the top point of Dubrovnik so we could get a panoramic view and he pointed out the Bosnia mountains.
The history of Dubrovnik, as explained to us by our taxi driver, was quite a tumultuous one. While they preferred to simply set up a port town where ships could come and go to trade various goods, they were constantly being bombarded by one country or another who were interested in taking them over and involving them in war. Dubrovnik has bounced back and forth between one power and another but are now free to trade and live as they please. Hopefully they continue that trend and are able to stay out of the wars, unlike their neighbors…
After our tour, we were dropped off at the gates to the Old City and bid farewell. We wandered in, stopped for some lunch, sampled some Rosé wine (which Dubrovnik is famous for and apparently is the birthplace of Zinfendel…) then headed down the main street and side streets to shop:) I of course didn’t pick anything up, since I can only carry so much in my travel backpack, but my sister and mom had a blast! My dad thankfully tolerated us going into almost every single store looking for things to buy, and would stop to befriend random street cats every so often just to get a little shopping break, lol!
After walking the Old City streets, it was definitely easy to see why this spot was chosen for The Game of Thrones as it is very medieval! The streets are made of smooth stone, (I’m not 100% sure but they may have been marble) it’s entirely surrounded by original walls and even the old gates that guard the entrances to the city are well intact! I couldn’t help think when seeing the numerous steep stairways leading from the main road of the Old City to the new area of town, just how great a workout it would be to just walk up and down side streets daily there, lol!! Random, I know:)
After our walk through the Old Town we grabbed a taxi back to the ship, shopped for a few more last-minute items then headed back on board. Side Note: I was obviously very trigger happy with my camera on this trip… LOL! 🙂
Ramblintraveler 