Monique makes our favorite American breakfast - eggs, salty bacon and toast. After breakfast Dave goes down to his favorite cafe in the square for coffee and works on the blog text from the previous day while Monique works on the blog, pays bills, balances the accounts and completes some design work as well. He returns to the apartment close to noon. Monique is stir crazy and wants to get out of the apartment. She takes a quick shower and we are free around 1pm.
We exit our apartment hungry and see people eating at the place right outside our door - their plates of food look really good. We turn around and get a table. The place is called Arka Jelovnik "Pecenjarnica Arka" and it is known for Dalmation inspired fish and meat. We order a Greek salad to share and a sampler meat dish. It is fun to sit outside and watch the people go by. There is every size, shape and nationality. The salad and bread comes and the salad quickly disappears. The meat plate comes next and has quite a variety. Some of the pieces are unknown. One piece has a vertebrae with meat around it. Our guess is the back meat of some animal. It tastes good so we decide not to ask. That food disappears too.
Monique wants to find out about a Game of Thrones Tour that is offered. A lot of the filming for the series was done right here in Old Town. We go out the "Pile" gate to find an area where most of the tours start. We learned from the couple we met in Milos about a guy that dresses up like a character in the series and was even an extra in the filming. He is really into the series and also weaves Dubrovnik history into his tour. The first place we stop is the guy we are looking for. There is a tour starting in 15 minutes. The weather is perfect so we decide to do it right then. We pay our 180 Kuna each and are handed a flip book with scenes from the movie and a earpiece so that we can hear what he is saying as we walk.
The Dubrovnik wall and small harbor - with CGI additions is King's Landing in the series. The Fort of St. Lawrence right outside the wall was used for many scenes. It overlooks a cove with a cement pier that becomes Blackwater Bay. From the fort we can see Gradac Park where the Royal wedding scene was filmed. The guide takes us to where the catering for the many extras took place. He says "it is a fact that if the catering is good the movie or show will be successful.” The food was good so it was destined for success. We learned that the walk of shame was filmed on the stairs right out the door of where we are staying. Monique recognized it was in the show before we went on the tour. We are told there was a woman that stood in for the actress to do the scene. She walked naked with people yelling at her - shame, shame, shame, for three days of shooting. Apparently it was very traumatic and emotionally difficult for her and she was only paid 2000 pounds. They also had trouble getting Croatian people to do the nude scenes. They even tried to get nude models from an art school but that didn't work either. They ended up bringing people in from the UK. When they were filming, they paid businesses a lot of money to keep their doors and shutters closed. You realize the reason a movie or show costs so much to make.
We learned about tensions between Dubrovnik and Venice in olden times. Dubrovnik was a stopping place for sailing boats on their way to Venice. There were pirates between here and there so ships wanted to sell some of their goods here before risking the rest of the voyage. Dubrovnik could pick the best of the goods which angered the merchants in Venice. Dubrovnik even figured out a way to sell insurance on the traveling goods and made a lot of money from that. They have had war and lost their independence then fought back again in 1991. Now it is tourism that fuels their economy.
We finished the tour and on our way back stop at Karaka Irish Pub for a beer. We sit inside for a few minutes but a lot of people are smoking cigarettes in the bar so we moved to an outside table. We enjoy the night and people watch as they walk by in the very narrow street. The walled city has a certain magical feeling to it. Everything is well worn and it is easy to slip back in time. Back to the apartment to continue to work on the blog. We are determined to catch up.
The meaty portion of our lunch. The restaurant Arka Jelovnik, is right out our door - how convenient!
Our Game of Thrones guide - a Jamie Lanister look alike. One nice thing he had for us were flip booklets which showed stills from scenes in the show. This really helped everyone recognize the filming locations.
This is where Cersei’s men were looking for and murdering any of King Robert’s bastards.
You can see Little Finger walking here. This is also the place where Cersei puts Little Finger in his place. At her command, Cerise’s guards seize Lord Baelish to kill him and at the last second she commands them to stop - where she quickly explains the “power is power”.
The beginning of Cerise’s walk of shame. These are the stairs right outside of our apartment.
This is the meeting between Shae, Sansa, and Petyr Baelish at the docks.
This is is the scene where Myrcella leaves on a boat for Dorne.
Another walk of shame scene.
I would be a good ruler if I sat on the Iron Throne.
The main street at night when most people are away - a very different scene than during the day.