Country #102: Croatia, the search for Khal Drogo

One would think that the "sport" of counting countries would be relatively free of controversy. There are no banned enhancement-performing drugs, no need for instant replays and the balls are very rarely deflated. But this was one trip that lead to a bit of soul searching for me.

Back in 1988, I did a summer study abroad program in what was then Yugoslavia. We spend two weeks in Dubrovnik, one in Belgrade and one in Zagreb. In a probably unrelated move, not too long thereafter, the country came out from behind the iron curtain and eventually split up into seven independent countries. Although I had been in what would become Croatia and Serbia, I have always counted this as one country, placing an asterisk next to my listing of Yugoslavia.

And then Game of Thrones happened. Like everyone else who chooses to live among humankind, I'd heard about the show but it wasn't until this spring that I decided to watch the first episode.  That one episode led to another and soon I was staying up all night binge watching the series.  While in the midst of a battle with the condo association manager, I found myself asking "What would Cersei do?" and wondering if the local shelters had any pet dragons up for adoption.
Part of the show's appeal is the stunning scenery so the second the credits rolled on the last episode, I turned my attention towards locating Westeros on modern maps and figuring out how I could get there.  As it turns out, the series has shot all over Europe, using locations in Malta, Croatia, Spain, Iceland and Northern Ireland- very handy for someone based in Amsterdam for the summer.

The city of Dubrovnik has often doubled for the King's Landing so it was easy to choose this as the starting point for my summer of GoT pilgrimages.  The question was: should Croatia count as a "new" country.  Sure, I had been there 28 years before but things had changed.  It was no longer Communist.  It is now surprisingly expensive (I remember, back in the day, easily eating and drinking like Lannister on a backpacker budget). And most importantly, it is located in the independent nation of Croatia.  I ultimately decided it should count since I'd never counted it and Serbia as two separate countries, so even by keeping both Yugoslavia and Croatia on the list, that still leads to a total of two countries, which is arguably ok.  What happens when I revisit Serbia is still to be determined.

While I may be the only person in the history of time to concern myself with this Croatia vs Yugo nonsense,  I was definitely not the only one lured to this walled city in search of the seven kingdoms. From the moment I checked into my hostel, near the Pile Gate, I was besieged by costumed Daenarys Targareans and Jon Snows.  They were all either selling or leading Game of Thrones-related walking tours.

And the others, the ones who were not selling anything? Cruise ship passengers. Hordes and hordes of them. While this was clearly big business, all the locals bemoaned how hard it was to get around the city when the ships were in town. The basic strategy was to avoid them as much as possible. This entailed getting up early to beat the crowds to the city walls.

At 8am, I was among the first in line for the most scenic two hour walk imaginable.  The perfectly preserved walls look out both to the Adriatic Sea and into the red tiled city within, each step more photogenic than the last.

  The temptation to turn any property within the walled city into an AirBnB must be great but subsidies are given to families who actually remain and preserve the feel of this "living museum".

I'd booked a late afternoon GoT walking tour, because of course I did.  But while walking the walls, I stumbled across the House of Undying.  (Spoiler alert-for the whole post really- if you haven't seen the series, you might want to skip this one)  In the series, this was the tower on the island of Qarth where Daenerys goes round and round trying to find her dragons after the creepy bald guy had swiped them.  Once inside, she is confronted with a number of visions including one of her late husband, the momentarily undead master of hotness, Khal Drogo.

As many times as I circled the thing, I found no Drogo.  Instead, I found the Minceta Tower, which is the highest point of the city wall and provides yet another spectacular view of the the city below.

By the time I finished doing the full walk, the cruise ship invasion had conquered the city and fully taken over every narrow lane within those walls. The next couple of hours were going to suck. Instead of fighting the masses, I boarded a ferry and headed for the nearby island of Lokrum.

This is where you can find lush gardens, wild peacocks and a museum dedicated to all things Game of Thrones, including a piece of furniture that people kept referring to as the authentic Iron Throne.

Inside the museum, there are genealogical charts detailing the relationships between all the characters, 'making of documentaries' about the series and what is very clearly labeled a replica throne. After some questioning, the closest that I received to an answer was that this throne was gifted to the city by HBO and is an exact copy of the original, an authentic replica, if you will.

The island itself was very lovely and I would have stayed longer but I had to get back for the walking tour I had booked online.  The reason I had picked this one from all the others is that they combined a historical tour with a GoT one so it was kind of a two for the price of one (although not a free tour as their site would lead you to believe, the Dubrovnik Tourism agency forbids free tours).

On the historical side, she pointed out St. Blaise, who is simply everywhere.  He is the patron saint of the city due his coming back from the dead in 971 AD and telling the city pastor that the Venetians, who happened to be the city's chief rival for trading dominance at the time, were planning to attack. The pastor alerted the city council.  The walls were manned and the city gates were reinforced.  And then they waited..for nothing. The Venetians passed right on by, allegedly because they were intimidated by the preparations...meaning either St. Blaise was right and should be seen as a rat by the Venetians or they never did have plans to attack and he should really be remembered for leading the soldiers of Ragusa (the earlier name of Dubrovnik) on one elaborate fire drill. Either way, today, if you were to play a "spot the St Blaises" drinking game, you'd pass out before you covered three blocks.

At times, the historical and the GoT tour merged nicely. Near St. Blaise's church was the Rector's Palace, or in GoT parlance, the Spice King's Palace.  This is where Daenarys hits up the Spice King for some ships to use in the battle for her rightful place on the throne.  During their conversation, the Spice King explains that he himself was not born a royal but due to his great wealth, people treat him as one.

The statue that appears in the courtyard (both in the actual Rector's Palace and the scene) is of Miho Pracat, a rich merchant who left his fortune to the city of Dubrovnik.  Before him, only royals were represented in monuments but due to his wealth and generosity,  he became the first regular citizen to be honored in this way.  Moral of the story, regardless of where you are, make enough money and people will kiss your ass.

Or expose it. Our next stop was the infamous stairway leading up to the Sept of Baelor (which itself is in Girona, but creative license and all that).  This is where Cersei was stripped by a bunch of religious fanatics and forced to walk naked through the city as atonement for her sins. When the scene was actually filmed one of the many churches along the path objected to having naked Cersei's body double (the actress Lena Headey wore a nude colored sheath) strolling by so they had to film around the church, passing instead by the Cathedral.

It should come as a surprise to no one that there is a GoT store inside the walls.  They have a fake throne- not an authentic replica like the other one- that you also are free to sit on, assuming you buy something or are part of a tour.

We continued on to the entryway that the recently de-handed Jaime Lanister used upon his return to King's Landing.

...and the site of most satisfying shit slinging in the history of shit slinging.  That would be the scene where king Joffrey was strolling with Sansa when someone in the crowd nailed him with a flying turd.  A riot ensued, which he escaped but only to get bitch slapped by his dwarf uncle.

Leaving the walled city, we found ourselves on Blackwater Bay, site of the battle where Joffrey needed no help in shitting himself.

We were on our way to climb up to Fort Lovrijenac which has been used to represent the Red Keep itself. Now when I say we were climbing up to the fortress, I don't want this to sound like it was some kind of change of pace.  All of Dubrovnik, both within the walled city and without is on hills.  No matter where you are going, even if it is from one street to the next, there are steps involved.  At the end of the day, I checked my phone to see how many miles I had walked.  I had walked 14.4 miles, which may sound like a lot but is really about average when I am sightseeing.  The reason I was grumbling my way up to the Red Keep was that, in that day alone, I climbed 74 flights of stairs.  Seventy- four!!! The tallest building in my home town of Miami is only 64!

Fortunately, the view from the fort was spectacular enough to make me momentarily forget that my calves were on fire.

Our tour concluded nearby in Gradac Park where Joffrey's wedding celebration was filmed.  Today it is more an empty lot, than park, resulting in me not taking any photos of it, but there was no question that the tour had been a success.  I'd been immersed in more Game of Throne-ness than I could have possibly hoped for.

My reward for all that climbing.

For my last day in Dubrovnik, I once again got up early to beat the cruise ship masses, this time in taking the cable car up to the most scenic viewpoint in town.  Normally, the wait can last hours but by getting there before they had boarded their busses, I was able to stroll right on.

I was also able to have Fort Imperial all to myself.  This fort was heavily attacked in the 90's during the Croatian War of Independence and now houses a museum documenting this dark period in their history. 

Back in the walled city, I still had some time to kill before my flight and umbrella-following tour groups to avoid.  The solution lay through a hole in the rock. This is how you get to the two Buza bars which are located on cliffs on the wall's outer edges. Here you can swim, drink or just bake in the sun.  I did two out of the three.

Back at the airport, all that was left to do was to say goodbye to my new buddies, Jon and Danny and to thank them for giving me a reason to revisit this new country.