Lori and Troy do Europe 2025

Today is going to be 70 degrees and sunny. Breakfast was amazing with so many choices and not enough room in my Buddha belly. I’m going to try my best though. It should be a nice day to tour old town and the castle. We have a tour setup for noon which will talk about the history.

Fortunately Leo at the front desk told us where to park in Dubrovnik or we would have probably gotten a ticket. He directed us right to the parking garage that was about a 10 min walk to our tour. There is a red light that is at the end of the street next to the parking ramp that only allows for taxis and buses. He told us that if we go past the light we will get a ticket through the rental car company. His girlfriend works at the airport and told him that a person rented a car from her and when they returned it there was $3500 euro in fines because they kept driving past that light. Hopefully none of that happens to us. It was all steps down hill from the parking garage which means all steps back uphill.

We made it in time for the tour which lasted about 1.5hrs. She was an excellent guide and was able to clear up a few things for us. The main question that I had is why does Bosnia have a little piece of the coast? She explained that after the war in 1991, Croatia split from Serbia. Bosnia is a country between the coastal land of Croatia and the inland land of Serbia. Croatia worked a deal with Bosnia to become an ally so they gave Bosnia some coastal land for a Bosnian port. I think that Croatia may also be paying Bosnia to be a buffer between Croatia and Serbia. The tour guide had an accent so it was a little hard to understand but that was the jist of it. She also told us that Dubrovnik is near a fault line and in 1667 it was 80% destroyed. They were able to rebuild most of it but there are still areas that are in ruins. They also suffered damage in WWII as they were on the side of the Germans. Then in the war in the early 1990’s they were attacked by Yugoslavia who was trying to destroy their tourism and keep them from becoming their own country. Tourism is Croatia’s main source of income. There were still shrapnel damage on some of the buildings.

When they were filming Game of Thrones (GOT) they basically closed down the castle and Dubrovnik for filming. The mayor at the time knew that the lack of income would eventually payoff and he was right. This is a tourism area for GOT visitors. Another interesting fact was how they acquired areas inside the castle for filming. Apparently someone from the movie went to every shop, cafe and apartment in the area of the filming and asked each owner what their best earning day was. One guy said $5000 euro. The movie offered him $15,000 euro per day to stay closed during the shoot. This was for 5 days. This included all of the rental apartments as well.

After the tour we had lunch at a restaurant on the outside of the castle walls. Lori had Tuna steak which she liked and I had grilled squid which was delicious. We walked around and did some shopping. We found a bar called the Buza Bar which means Hole in the Wall Bar. It is literally that. The doorway was short and narrow and then there is a narrow stairway down to a cafe right on the cliff. There were people swimming and jumping off the rocks around the bar. The wine was cheap and terrible but the view was spectacular.

After a terrible glass (in a paper cup) of wine we did some more shopping. During the tour the guide told us about a few things that we could do in the castle. One was walking the top of the castle wall. You can pay $40 at the entrance to the wall or by a day pass for the same price at the tourism office inside the main gate that covers all the museums, the wall and busing. I opted for the one day pass and headed for the self inflicted stress test. We were told that it is a 1.5hr walk. Lori opted to visit a coffee shop while I took the wall challenge. First you have to climb a bunch of steps just to get on top of the wall. It was almost 4pm when I bought my ticket and the lady told me that it closed at 5pm. I told Lori that I will see her in an hour and started the trek.

The wall views were amazing and I recognized some areas from GOT. My pace was quick because I wanted to see the whole thing. The walkways were narrow so it was difficult to pass the slower tourists. I passed a few people that were elderly and in poor physical condition. I hoped that this was the last thing on their bucket list because some of them may not make it. They should have known by the view at the bottom of the stairs that this might be their last scenic view. I saw many people leaning over trying to expand their chests to suck in more air. Plus it was hot up there in the sun and I didn’t want to do CPR. I kept my eyes forward and looked as unapproachable as I could. Rude, I know but I was on a mission and medical calls were not on the list. It would have been a hard trip for Lori as the first set of stairs were only part of the problem. The top is not flat like you might expect. There are many elevation changes and more stairs. There are also a couple of cafes up there with really nice views. Lori was bummed about missing the cafes on the wall but the hike would not have been worth it in the end.

I finished the wall hike in about 40 minutes and that was with taking pictures and dodging portly cripples. I located Lori with my app and we decided to head back to the car. We were not very excited about the climb back up the thousands of stairs to our car. Lori suggested that we take a bus to the top. Ok, but which one? I had a free bus ticket that came with my castle wall pass so we just needed a ticket for her. The bus stop was right at the exit of the castle so it was nice and convenient. We contemplated an Uber instead but could not get the app to cooperate. We got in line for the bus and watched as the people in front of us just let everybody cut in line. The bus was filling up quickly so I asked them if this was the line? They said no they were waiting for the next bus. What?! Get out of the way I yelled in my head! We got on the bus and asked the bus driver, which I think lives in that driver seat judging by his size, if this is the right bus for us. He said no, you want the #6 bus. We exited and got behind the people who we were initially standing behind. We saw the #6 bus pull up on the opposite side of the street and drop people off. Of course half of the people on our side of the street went over and tried to board but were not allowed. Yup, they funneled back to our side and stood in front of everyone that had been waiting! I felt like it was my duty to lean into the crowd and force them into the street as the buses pulled up. But I regretfully resisted. Another bus pulled up in front of us with the #6 pulling up behind it. Completely throwing off the organization. Now it was a sprint to the #6 bus. We forced our way in as they packed us in like sardines. We hoped that the bus ride would take us high enough up the hill where we could walk to our car and possibly downhill. The bus started its route, breached the top of the hill and continued down the other side. I watched on Apple Maps as we got farther and farther from our car. We finally reached a bus stop which was now 1 mile from our car. The first bus driver obviously saw an opportunity to redirect a tourist and took it. I hope he gets stuck in that drivers seat! We exited past the other sardines and made an attempt to translate the bus route on the sign at the bus stop. We quickly gave in and called an Uber. $11 euro was all it costed. I would have paid double! We told the driver what happened and he said “no, you needed the #8 bus”. I gritted my teeth and admitted defeat. He also told us that Uber is not allowed to enter the area where we were trying to use the app. He took us right to where our car was parked. Parking cost is $49 euro for 6 hours.

The sun was setting while we drove back to the hotel. The skies have been a bright red at sunset for several days now and it is really beautiful with the islands out there. We had dinner at one of the resort restaurants. I had a burger and fries and Lori had Beef Carpaccio. Hers was good and mine filled the void. We scheduled some massages for tomorrow and plan on just hanging at the resort for the day. I might finally get that swim in.