Last Day on Lokrum Island

Welcome to my final day in Dubrovnik.

My aunt left to fly back to Germany early in the morning, leaving me to wander around Dubrovnik during my last day as a solo travel.

While it was fun to have adventures together, I’m a big proponent of solo travel, and highly recommend that you try it out if you’re even mildly considering it.

One thing I’ve begun doing while traveling is hiring a photographer for a few hours to snap a few pictures of me. It ensures that I have some solid photos to represent memories of exploring these new places and spaces, and so often photographers can be reasonably found on AirBNB experiences, which is exactly what I did in Dubrovnik.

I woke up early and met my photographer, Nino – you can find his page on AirBNB here if you’re interested in traveling to Dubrovnik and hiring a photographer.

He was super nice, and has been a photographer for many years, since he was a kid.

The other component about hiring a photographer in a city you’ve yet to visit is that they so often know cool places you would have never thought to explore, so you end up seeing new parts of the city.

And sometimes there are really cute cats in those new parts of the city that you get to pet, which is an extra bonus.

One of the places Nino brought me was a cool spot that had Old Town entirely in the background. These were some of my favorite shots of the day.

He pointed out a building near where we were shooting that was an old fortress and eventually used as a hospital, which has now been converted into a night club.

I wished I’d spoken to him earlier, so I would have had time to check it out during my previous nights in the city!

My hope is to return to Dubrovnik again and check it out.

It was great to hear Nino’s perspective and recommendations for the city as a local. He also brought me to a super cool bridge in an area of Old Town that I hadn’t walked through before.

It offered a cool view of the port I’d previously sailed into during our first day in the city.

The bridge itself had beautiful rozetas carved into it – these four-leaf clover designs can be found all over the city, as well as in their jewelry.

We ended our photoshoot conveniently near the Franciscan Monastery I’d tried to visit during our previous days in Dubrovnik.

Which was excellent for me, because I was dedicated to getting that face cream made from ingredients in their garden.

It was finally time.

Since it was my last day, I wasn’t messing around, and I was at their front doors as soon as the pharmacy opened.

I was surprised by how cheap the face creams were – they come from a recipe that’s been made by hand since 1317 using ingredients from the monastery’s gardens, and nearly the same methodology as the very original cream. I had read online that the face cream was very expensive, and while I wanted to buy one for my mom and for myself, I wasn’t sure if I was going to based on what the cost turned out to be.

They ended up being very reasonable – I’ve lost my receipt, but I want to say they were around 15 euros each, which I thought was extremely reasonable.

They had several scents aside from the original rose, so I ended up purchasing three – almond is my favorite scent, and lavender is all over Dubrovnik, so I decided to get all three. I wasn’t sure which scent my mom would prefer, so I decided that if I got all three, she could pick her favorite scent, which ended up being the rose.

The creams come in adorable boxes, and the containers themselves are small glass jars. The cream is very thick, so you really only need a little at a time. I’m not sure how they use this in their warmer climate, but my skin has been loving it during the dry Minnesota winter weather. I’ve been using it for a year during the evenings and feel like I’ve barely made a dent in my jar, so I would say the price is more than reasonable for the amount of product, and for the work and ingredients that go into it. 10/10 recommend.

By this point, I was starving, so I decided to grab a snack that I’d been meaning to try – burek, a rolled pastry. I’d heard recommendations for Holy Burek, so I decided to pay them a visit.

Not only did they have the burek, but they had orange juice that they literally made fresh in front of me. As in they picked up a few oranges and juiced them while I watched. It was delicious.

The burek was delicious – nice and crispy, but softer on the inside. I ordered the onion and cheese flavor, so it was stuffed in the center with extra deliciousness.

Yum.

Having successfully secured my Franciscan Monk face cream and my burek, I headed back to my hotel for a quick wardrobe change, as I could feel the sun hitting my bare shoulders and knew I needed to get them covered before I burned them even more.

When I returned to Old Town, there were some activities happening on the Stradun.

This adorable group was singing and dancing, and they ended up inviting a few folks from the crowd to join them, which was really fun.

I headed back toward an area Nino had brought me to earlier that morning, as I realized there were a few corners of the city I’d yet to explore.

I loved the series of arches here.

I’d seen this church from the City Walls during our first day in Dubrovnik, and thought it was the cutest thing. There was something about the orange and red stained glass that I really loved.

I had one last Game of Thrones tour to go on, and while I waited for that to begin, I decided to pop into an ice cream shop I’d seen recommended online.

I would never want to scare the ice cream.

They had really delicious flavors, and I ended up getting a cherry goat cheese, and a peanut butter and jelly. Both were excellent.

Imagine my surprise when I hit the Stradun again, and discovered that a cruise ship had docked for the day. It was extremely crowded.

I really enjoyed both Game of Thrones tours I took – from the ship tour on our first day, to the final tour I took this day, which included a visit to Lokrum Island.

If you’re a Game of Thrones fan, I would recommend both. There’s a bit of overlap on some of the sites you’ll see, but both have excellent features. The first tour included sailing on Daenerys’s ship, which truly can’t be beaten. It’s worth it alone for that.

This second tour had some better information and was more thorough, and also takes you to Lokrum Island, where the actual Iron Throne is. Additionally, the tour guide was one of the extras on set, and he gave a lot more detail about what it was like filming in the city.

Here Sansa and Little Finger met to discuss her escape of the city.

It’s also where Cersei awaits the return of Myrcella.

He also brought us into Fort Lovrijenac, which was cool to see the fort from a new perspective, as I wasn’t aware just how many scenes were filmed there.

Inside, Cersei says her iconic line, “Power is power.”

There’s also a scene where Sansa runs down the hallway in King’s Landing that was filmed here.

We went to the top of the fort, where Dubrovnik was looking extra beautiful.

Sorry – King’s Landing was looking extra beautiful.

He pointed out where scenes were filmed on the City Walls, including Daenerys at the House of the Undying.

And Jon Snow walking down steps in King’s Landing.

As well as Tyrion Lannister plotting.

He pointed out that Fort Lovrijenac was also used to film Joffrey’s name day tournament.

You could also see the gardens they filmed Joffrey’s death scene from the top of the fort.

It was packed with so many more scenes than I knew about!

Our guide also brought along our very own dragon, which we were able to take dramatic photos with.

I was clearly very excited to partake in this activity.

Just call me Mother of Dragons.

Plotting.

We made our way back to Old Town, which is where I noticed for the first time that there is an adorable dog statue at the top of Onofrio’s Fountain.

What a good boy!

Our tour guide took us to the shame stairs, which are actually the Jesuit Stairs in Dubrovnik.

He also pointed out that the bars immediately at the bottom of these stairs have drinks like the Shamejito.

I’m not going to lie, I kind of wanted one.

Our last stop was on the Stradun, where he pointed out a few scenes, including where the dragons begin destroying King’s Landing.

So cool.

Next up was our boat ride to Lokrum Island, AKA Qarth.

The island itself was beautiful.

And also full of peacocks?

I was not expecting that at all.

There were lots of ruins on the island, which seemed to be the home of the peacocks.

Lokrum Island is apparently under a curse from monks who were forced to leave the island – anyone who sleeps on the island will also be cursed and potentially die.

Which made me wonder about the firefighters who have to spend the night here every now and then.