Adriatic Adventure: Dubrovnik, Croatia

Looks like time has run away from me again!  I apologize for not updating more frequently--my fiance and I are in the early stages of planning our wedding, which means lots of emails and coordination with potential venues, caterers, and photographers.  But the good news is we've locked in our venue, which will be a beautiful local Virginia winery.  Now, we've just gotta secure a caterer (BBQ, yay!) and photographer.

On the traveling side of things, continuing on from our wonderful time in Korčula, we ferried over to Dubrovnik.  Nowadays Dubrovnik is famous for being the set of Kings Landing in HBO's Game of Thrones series, written by George RR Martin.  As such, there are tons of GoT tours, etc. if that's what you're into!  Otherwise, you can continue being an old school tourist, which is what I am. ;)

This was the rooftop view from our hotel.  It wasn't our favorite accommodations (prices creep up as you travel down the coast), but the view was great and our hostess was quite pleasant.  Pros and cons, right?  We had a small kitchenette, though, which was nice since we opted to make a couple of our meals in house. 

One of the big things to do in Dubrovnik is to walk the city walls, a 1.25-mile stroll on top of the city.

Pro Tip 1: Get there as early as you can to avoid the crowds.  No one likes getting up early, but if you can get there when they open at 8:00 AM, then you have more time to take photos and walk at your own pace without being swept up by large groups of tourists.  

Pro Tip 2: Start at entrance A near the Dominican Monastery Museum and the 360 Cocktail Bar.  In doing this you A) avoid starting at the main entrance where everyone else starts and B) you'll walk uphill for the first part and the rest is all level/downhill, which makes the walk more leisurely at the end.  And yes, you can buy tickets at this entrance as well.

Pro Tip 3: Wear sunscreen!

That said, the views are spectacular!

Definitely loved the City Walls walk.  It was one of my favorite things in Dubrovnik!  There's also a little souvenir shop about halfway through the walk where you can purchase local art.  We ended up with some art postcards to frame (eventually, ha!) in our house.

Dubrovnik is also a great city to end with in Croatia in terms of cuisine.  Mediterranean fare is great, of course, but by the end of our trip we were craving different food!  We were so happy to see that Dubrovnik had a couple of Irish pubs, Indian food, and even a Korean restaurant.  Let me just say that ramen was delicious!

We also discovered D'vino Wine Bar exploring the city.  The service there was impeccable and they didn't even mind that we peppered them with questions on what wine we should try as tourists.  They were very happy to suggest wines to us.  As I mentioned in previous blog posts, Croatia (and Slovenia) have grape varietals that we'd never heard of back here in the US; so we wanted to try some new wines!  

There are also islands off the coast of Dubrovnik that you can ferry to.  We opted to ferry over to Lokrum Island for a change of scenery.  It's nicknamed the "Island of Love" for its secluded spots, but it also boasts hiking paths, a botanical garden, and rocky beaches.

Little did we know that there were also peacocks on the island!  Loads of them!  If you've never heard a peacock's call before, they sound exactly like the bird named Kevin in the movie Up.  Definitely a place worth visiting if you want to get away from the crowds in Old Town Dubrovnik for a few hours.