in Dubrovnik, Croatia!
9 September 2016
…it kind of messes up the whole “Crosson” Europe the “Wright” way thing, but I guess we will manage. 🙂
Unfortunately, this is the only picture we have of the day so far. We’re still waiting on the professional photos. I can say, though, that the day could not have been more perfect.
We stayed in the Hotel Dubrovnik Palace, which is a beautiful hotel about 4km (2.5mi) from the Old Town of Dubrovnik. Friday morning, the day of the wedding, we woke up to a horrific view from our balcony.
We spent the morning on the hotel’s “beach” – I say “beach” becuase, at least in the parts of Dubrovnik we saw, there aren’t true beaches. To swim, you just jump off the cliff or, sometimes, you could walk into the water via stone steps or metal pool-style stairs that have been drilled into the cliff.
Mid-afternoon, I left Shane at the pool and headed to the room for hair and make-up. Once I was ready, the photographer and I left for pictures, and only then was Shane allowed to come back to the room. So, in case you were wondering, NO! He didn’t see my dress before the ceremony. ❤
The rest of the evening was perfect. There was a little bit of rain about 20 min before the ceremony started, but other than that it was a beautiful evening. We were tucked away in an overlook near the hotel, just us and the vows we wrote for one another.
After the ceremony we headed into the Old Town for pictures, which, based on the preview we were sent, will be AWESOMEEEE! We spent the next two hours canoodling through the streets of Old Town, while the crowds literally parted the ways for us (bridal superpowers!). We also got tons of cheers, high fives, and congratulations!
We ended the evening back at the hotel for dinner and drinks, and that was that! Intimate, fun, and relaxing; everything we envisioned.
The rest of our time in Dubrovnik was the Honeymoon!
In case you don’t know, the HBO TV show Game of Thrones has really put Dubrovnik on the map the past few years. It was the main filming location for all the King’s Landing scenes through seasons 2 and 3. We love GoT, so the morning of the honeymoon day 1 was spent in the Old Town doing a GoT walking tour! We used a company called Dubrovnik Walking Tours, and our tour guide worked as part of the ground crew when during filming.
Fun Fact: In season 6, only one scene in the entire season was filmed in Dubrovnik.
Which makes it even more incredible that such a huge tourism industry has been built around the show since there were only 2 seasons when the city was really being utilized for filming. There are other filming locations (as we learned) that are near Dubrovnik, but just not in the Old Town.
Little Finger & Sansa do some sneaky talking here. 
Blackwater Bay, Myrcella’s send off to Dorne, and The Red Keep (the fort). 
The Purple Wedding location. 
The Walk of Shame stairs! 
View of the Fortress of St. Lawrence (The Red Keep) from the walls. 
View of the Old Town from the Fortress of St. Lawrence
We hit all the major spots: Blackwater bay, The Red Keep, the stairs from the walk of shame scene. Best part, our tour was only 8 PEOPLE which may not seem like a big deal, but during tourist/cruise boat season most walking groups you see are 20+. We were more than happy with this company if there’s anyone out there considering a walking tour!
After all that walking… we needed lunch. And a beer. #notsorry
Ok fine, I wanted this picture in beceause I am ROCKIN some day 2 wedding curls! …and I actually look tan. #notsorryagain.
Anyway, next up – wall walking!
I think its safe to say this is what Dubrovnik is known for. As you would imagine for a medivial city, the Old Town of Dubrovnik is surrounded by a large fortress wall (at least that’s what I would call it) and you can walk the entire perimeter of town.
I had three main thoughts while doing this:
- COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!
- “Mom said we will take way too many pictures of the same thing” – 5 min into walking – “Mom was right”. (does that count as two thoughts?)
- This is a long walk.
Here are a handful of the ‘way too many pictures of the same thing’.
Naturally, all this wall walking makes one tired & thirsty. We needed a little pick me up, and we got one in the form of a cliff bar! Just through the city walls through barely marked doors are two bars that sit on the cliff face. The first one we went to, Buza Bar, served beer, wine & pringels. That’s it.
The view of the bars looking down from the wall.
The real entertainment comes from the beautiful view, and the crazy peole jumping off cliffs.
We ended the day taking the cable car up Mount Srdj for a fantastic view of the Old Town!
The next day was diving day. We were lucky, the hotel had a dive center connected and we took advantage!
Our first dive was pretty cool because it was our first boat dive, and cave dive! We took the boat out to the island of Lokrum, which is the closest island to the Old Town. From the back side of the island we dove into a trench, and followed it through a small cave. The cave opened up into a small lake called “The Dead Sea”. We surfaced here, scared the sh*t out of the swimmers in the lake, looked around for a few minutes, then decended and went back the way we came!
We also did our first night dive which was, for me, my favorite dive of the day! We saw octapus, cuttle fish, & an eel!
Not us, but a cool shot of the sea grass.
The morning of our final honeymoon day was spent by the pool, but the second half we ventured above the water to the island of Lokrum. A 15 minute ferry ride later, and we were surrounded by peacocks!
We had two goals coming to Lokrum: visit the Iron Throne and swimming!
The Iron Throne (from Game of Thrones) that was used during the filming in Dubrovnik is kept on Lokrum in a small museum dedicated to the show. Best part…
YOU CAN ACTUALLY SIT IN IT!!!!
awesome.
Next stop, swimming!
Except by swimming I mean Shane convinced me to jump off a 500ft 20ft cliff! Just a little disclaimer – I’m not good at jumping off things. It’s not really my favorite. But when in Croatia, do as the tourists do, and jump off that cliff! We took a video of it, but we’re cheap and don’t pay for the blog subscription that allows video embedding.
Instead, please enjoy the following screenshots from said video which, I think, give the highlights.
“You ready?!” – Shane
Do I look ready?!
Graceful jump…
…and respectable landing.
“Don’t think, just do it!” – Shane, from the safety of the water.
Pure terror face. I like to call this pose ‘air planking’.
The most unattractive face I’ve ever made.
I survived! ok ok so it was fun. Did I want to do it again? NOPE!
We wrapped up Lokrum by checking out The Dead Sea and the cave we dove through, by land.
That about sums up our time in Croatia! We left feeling like we were not quite ready to go, but completely happy with our wedding and other adventures. Croatia is a country we will absolutely need to go back to!
And from there we were off! We headed back to the U.S. to Banner Elk, NC for A Shwitastic Party, which was completely different than Croatia, but equally as fantastic. More on that later though…
Tot ziens!
The Shwits 
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