Dubrovnik

The last stop of my weeklong Croatia trip was Dubrovnik. If I'd only had a weekend to spend, this is the city I would have most wanted to see, but I ended up with mixed feelings.

It's beautiful, and I love all the narrow alleys and swimming spots around the walls, but it's also one of the most expensive cities I've been to in Europe. I can buy a nice dragon egg online for $30, I'm not paying 80 euro in your Game of Thrones gift shop.

Although I did have to buy a shirt with this decal on it.

Along with that, it is packed full of tourists to a point that reminded me of Rome. I did go in the summer season, but be prepared. It was definitely better in the mornings and evenings when those on day trips had gone.

Although I'm sure I will bemoan the heat continually throughout this post, I feel the need to say it up front too: If you go in summer, it is fucking HOT. I love the heat, but this was a bit much for even me with temperatures reaching highs of 103 most days during my August visit.

Day 1

Explore Dubrovnik

I took the bus in from Mostar and arrived in the afternoon. The main bus terminal is nowhere near Old Town, and I couldn't be bothered waiting around for the shuttle, so I just called an Uber. Vehicles can't get past the city walls, so they'll drop you off out front (the same place as local buses), although my driver gave me directions to my hostel once I passed the gate.

I'd booked Old Town Hostel, and while the location was absolutely fantastic (about three alleys past the gate and on the ground, no need to climb stairs), I did not realize when I booked that there was no air conditioning. Or, I did, and just didn't anticipate how ridiculously hot it would be. The lows at night only dropped to 86 degrees, so it was still sweltering. The dorms each had three giant fans, and thankfully, even though there were five beds, one of them was on the lockers next to my top bunk. I spun that thing around to blast right on me all night and still couldn't even sleep with a sheet on.

Otherwise, the hostel was okay. There were two dorm rooms on each floor and only one bathroom to share between them, but the toilet and showers were separate. The common room on the first floor was small, but I did meet people down there while eating, and the receptionist was often around and really friendly. Above all, it was cheaper than a lot of accommodation in Dubrovnik (yet still more than I paid for a private room in Bosnia).

After dropping my bags, I went to get a feel for the city. This first day wasn't my best. I hadn't expected the crazy amount of tourists around, although it happened to be The Feast of the Assumption and there was a massive crowd both inside and pouring out of one of the cathedrals, so that may have doubled the usual visitors. I was also a little burned out from moving around every 1-2 days for the past week.

Old Town Dubrovnik was definitely smaller than I expected, and I covered most of it on the first evening. I stepped into a few churches (one, St. Blaise, has the still intact body of St. Silvan on display) and out the back walls to the docks.

I also went into the famous Buza Bar on the cliffside, but it was cash only, and I had sadly used up all my euro and was not willing to get more out with only two days left. Instead I just took some photos and watched people jumping off the cliffs.

My favorite thing was easily Dubrovnik's cat population. They were everywhere! Most were not open to friendship, but I managed to get a few pets in.

I had dinner on the patio of Soul Kitchen since they had extensive vegetarian options. I was pretty meh on the tofu burrito I ordered, but I did think my cocktail was excellent.

Day 2

Lokrum Island

I was looking to save money the next morning by not doing a sit-down breakfast, and I had seen a burek shop that I decided to go back to. Bureks are these long pastries with fillings, and I got a potato one, but then did struggle to find a place doing decent takeaway coffee (I ended up with some shitty plain hot coffee from a convenience type shop).

This is the street the burek place was on, but one of my favorite things in Dubrovnik was how they put the shop names on lanterns above the doors.

In case anyone else suffers the same, there's a place hidden down some alleys at the back of the city called Cogito Coffee that was good, and I also noticed the next day that Mostro Gelato did iced coffees.

There's also a scenic guillotine near Cogito!

My goal for the day was to get my photo on the Iron Throne, which I had discovered was on an island just beside Dubrovnik called Lokrum. I am so glad that they put it there, because I ended up having the best day at this nature preserve island.

The ferries run from the docks out the back city gates. No need to buy in advance, just go up to the Lokrum ticket counter and it's a fifteen minute ride. Schedules are online, but the ferry runs about every half hour, at least in high season.

I got there at 10-11 AM and stayed for six whole hours, I enjoyed it so much. There's peacocks all over the island. They'll walk right next to you, and there were tons of babies. Between that and the greenery everywhere and buzz of cicadas in the trees, it was definitely a big change from just across the waterway. So peaceful.

Since the island didn't seem too crowded yet, I decided to get my Iron Throne picture done first. I headed to the monastery, where it was inside, and was happy to find only a few people in line. The girl who took my photos too made sure to get a bunch, and they are pretty badass.

That room also has videos on Game of Thrones filmmaking, a house chart, and information on where to find the shooting locations of a bunch of famous scenes. There's another area of the monastery with a lot of interesting history of Lokrum and the monks who lived there as well.

I decided to hit the other landmark spots around the island before relaxing, so I went for a little hike to the botanic gardens, Dead Sea swimming spot, an old well, and up a long hill to the fort in the center of the island.

Here I made the poor choice to walk to the opposite end of Lokrum instead of backtracking, but I took a wrong turn at a split and just ended up on a neverending path with nothing to see on either side. There was the hill to my left and the ravine to my right leading down to the sea, but it was hot and I just walked for ages without even the payoff of whatever I missed at the tip of the island.

I finally reached civilization again after about a half hour and was more than happy to change into my swimsuit and head to the Dead Sea to relax. There was a bar up at the top, so I got myself an affogato and then a cocktail which I took down to the rocks. A peacock and her baby even came over, right up to me!, to peck at my leftovers.

I got in the water a few times to cool down, but the rocks themselves were pretty uncomfy, so I relocated to a grassy field after about an hour and set up my towel there instead. My last bit of time was just spent reading before I changed clothes again and caught the ferry back to Dubrovnik.

There was a vegan place called Nishta just up the stairs from my hostel that I decided to hit for dinner, and my gazpacho, ginger turmeric lemonade, and vegan cevapcici with sweet potato fries were great.

My Aussie roommate, Chelsea, and I had agreed to go out that night, and we managed to rope the two Portuguese boys in our room into it as well. They wanted to pregame, so we hit a little shop and got some takeaways to drink in the common room before heading out.

Our receptionist had adamently told us that Dubrovnik is NOT a good party city and definitely not for young people. He wasn't exactly wrong. Everything is pricey, to start, and the bars are cramped and tiny. We hit up two Irish pubs across the street from each other, and it was a fight to get to the bar and so crowded in both that we ended up taking our drinks outside to the alley. I did like the second one we went to a little better since they had live music.

Glad to go out for a few beers, but I do think if you're looking for nightlife, this isn't the place.

Day 3

Dubrovnik City Pass

Despite being ready to head home, I wanted to make the most of my last day in Croatia. I had my Nishta leftovers for breakfast (I managed to save half of my dinner for breakfast a few times on this trip, making the most of those high costs), then went to buy a city pass at the info center. The thing to do is walk the city walls, but it's the same price to just get the city pass which includes the walls as well as a bunch of other attractions.

I hadn't been sure 40 euros was worth it, but with everything included, it really was and also filled my entire day with activities.

I started with the walls. Truly, the views can't be beat. They take at least an hour to walk the whole way around, and you get the city from so many gorgeous angles. Two of the other city pass stops, the maritime museum and an art gallery, are also on the way, and there are a couple small bars and bathrooms at intervals in case you need to stop.

I hadn't quite seen "King's Landing" from the ground, but I definitely did from the walls.

To cool down, I stopped at Mostro Gelato afterwards. This place was very trendy, but the gelato (I got blueberry cheesecake and Turkish coffee, but I wish I'd gotten the popcorn flavor I sampled because it was awesome) was good and even came with a little cone on top to hold sauce.

Next I hit Rector's Palace, which is an art gallery. The central stairway area inside is the most beautiful area, but there are lots of nice rooms with paintings.

Rector's Palace is under the archways on the right.

My favorite thing on the pass, however, was the Friars Minor Franciscan Monastery Museum. The courtyard in the center was so gorgeous, I could have sat and just relaxed there for ages. They also had a little museum room with a ton of religious relics - artwork, crucifixes, chalices, an old pharmacy area, and more.

My last stop was the Lovrijenac Fort, whose entrance is outside the Old Town walls.

There's a nice dock where people were swimming at the bottom, then stairs to get into the fort. Its pretty bare, just old cannons inside, but it does have a great view of the Dubrovnik landscape.

I was hot and tired by the time I was done sightseeing, so I just went out once more to dinner at a spot called Azur that was tucked in a quiet alley at the back of town. I had the tempura cauliflower and coconut curry with zucchini balls in it, plus a pornstar martini (had to, please, USA, bring this cocktail to our shores), and it was a nice last meal.

I flew out the next day, and Dubrovnik airport somehow managed to be both tiny and incredibly disorganized at the same time. I was truly looking forward to getting back to my air-conditioned house to play video games for three days straight, but I love a trip that tires me out and am so glad to have finally crossed Croatia off the list.