Dubrovnik, Croatia

by Renee · Published May 28, 2025 · Updated May 28, 2025

Phew we made it. The longest part of our journey was the border crossing from Montenegro to Croatia. The drive was not bad at all. It took a little over two hours. But it was only about 50 or so miles. We only had one issue of missing a turn (almost twice) which added 30 minutes bc of one way streets around the old town. I thought that Paige was going to blow a gasket but to my surprise, he didn’t.

So I thought we walked a lot of steps when we were in Montenegro but today was the icing on the cake. It was not a tour, it was to get to our apartment in the old town. We had to park outside of the city and walk up a giant hill that reminded us of getting off the train in Barcelona. Once we got up, we had to go up more steps than down steps then up steps then down steps. We walk through the wall of the city, which I will talk about later, and finally made it to our street. Then we had to walk up many steps. I will show a photo. This time we were carrying our bags and our backpacks on our back.

We definitely earned the ice cream that we will eat later.

It didn’t take long to fall in love with Dubrovnik. The wall is enormous and hard to even imagine this old town. The. Adriatic Sea is gorgeous. Our apt is gorgeous.

Some history from the Google:

“The city was founded about 614 as Rausa, or Ragusium, by Roman refugees fleeing the Slav and Avar sack of Epidaurus, just to the southeast. A colony of Slavs soon joined the Romans there, and from an early date the city formed a link between two great civilizations. After the fall of Rome, Dubrovnik was ruled by the Byzantine Empire. From the 9th to the 12th century Dubrovnik defended itself against foreign powers, and in the period 1205 to 1358 it acknowledged Venetian suzerainty, though it retained much of its independence. The city-republic was liberal in character, affording asylum to refugees of all nations—one of them, according to legend, was King Richard I (the Lionheart) of England, who landed on the offshore island of Lokrum in 1192 on his return from the Crusades—and abolishing the slave trade in 1418, and by means of treaty and tribute it enlarged its territory along the Dalmatian coast. In 1272 the city received a statute that incorporated Roman and local practices. Situated at the seaward end of overland trade routes to Byzantium and the Danube region, it became a great mercantile power. Ragusan land trade flourished throughout the Balkans.

Recognizing its outstanding medieval architecture and fortifications, UNESCO inscribed the Old City of Dubrovnik as a World Heritage Site in 1979.

The walls were built in the 13th through 17th centuries, Dubrovnik’s walls protected the city from invaders such as the Venetians. The stone was sourced from a limestone quarry, Dubac, near Brgat village on the other side of the hill; the original mortar contained seaweed, eggshells, and sand from the nearby Neretva River.

On daybreak of December 6, 1991, the Yugoslav army launched an all-out attack on Dubrovnik. Heavy artillery, air strikes and naval support. On that day, more than 60% of the buildings in the Old town, were badly damaged. Monuments, palaces, churches…”

After a quick check in to our apartment, we dove right into this place. We started out with a quick lunch, octopus salad, which was delish. Then we decided to forgo the beach since it got a little cloudy. We bought a pass for the wall to walk on it (postponed for a day) and it allowed us to go into two places that were recommended by our host, Darko, Rector’s Palace and the Franciscan monastery. (And many more things, that’s we won’t have time for, including free buses).

I think I walked into at least 5 Catholic Churches and one orthodox. All were beautiful.

We found the most amazing bar on a cliff by the wall where we drank a beer and we were entertained by several brave divers jumping off of the cliffs into the Sea.

We aimlessly walked down the steps of the Game of Thrones set for the “walk of shame” when Cersei Lannister endures her punishment of walking through the crowd naked when she confessed to having committed adultery with her cousin Ser Lancel Lannister.

We actually had dinner in the square later again not knowing we would be back. The waitress told us it took three days to film and the residents on the street were paid €150 per day per person and told not to open their windows. We have a GOT tour booked for later this afternoon.

Dinner was traditional cuddle fish black ink risotto (we had this in Lisbon and I thought the chef created it but it a Croatian dish).

The Croatian food cannot compete with Italian IMO, but the beauty of the country can!

We look forward to today’s adventures.