Dubrovnik, Day 3. And now we come to the raison d’être for this holiday: the Game of Thrones walking tour.
Yes, friends, this is the equivalent of a Harry Potter fan going to the theme parks in Japan or the US, or signing up for the studio tour in Great Britain (and trust me, I’ll get around to those, too).
I was very nearly late for it, though, on account of getting so caught up in Brandon Sanderson’s Words of Radiance, which I had been looking all over for and only managed to find in Dubrovnik!
By 10 am I was at the fountain in Pile Square as instructed, together with a bunch of fellow fans that covered the age/gender/race spectrum nicely. A few minutes later, our guide Jelena, effervescent in a floor-length red dress, arrived and began to take attendance while a colleague handed out audio units.
Hello, Thronies! she said cheerfully.Turns out she was an extra in Seasons 3 and 5. How awesome is that? It meant we were in for some fascinating inside stories.
Here we go.
This, she said as we labored up the cliffside stone steps of the Lovrijenac Fortress (in less tongue-twisting English, St. Lawrence) is the Red Keep.
And over there is where they sent Myrcella off to Dorne. Lena was playing around with Peter before the take, she pointed to a very familiar pebbled shore with a very familiar short flight of steps.
And that’s where Littlefinger, Sansa, Shae and Ros had that scene! screamed my inner geek.
Lovrijenac took five centuries to build, Jelena tells us, and that the city-facing walls were designed to be thin so that if the men holding the fort suddenly mutinied, the city could overcome them. She also shared a remarkable bit of subterfuge: the city had managed to construct the seaward-facing walls within a few months to deter a Venetian fleet, which promptly turned around and left.
Inside the fortress, she asks, Who is your favorite character?
Tyrion. Khaleesi. Varys. Arya.
Jon, I say with a little pout, and the girl next to me nods in commiseration. After all, this was the week after that heart-rending season finale, and I haven’t forgiven the show just yet.
Jelena shows us where they filmed scenes such as Sansa’s near-disaster during the riot and the Hound’s subsequent rescue, and that delicious bit of vengeance aka Tyrion slapping Joffrey, all the while talking about life as an extra: auditioning for what the showrunners called a “Turkish soap opera”, early-morning call times, wearing uncomfortably realistic peasant clothing and going bare-faced.
Lena is lovely. That woman is gorgeous without makeup. And Joffrey was just the nicest, always going up to the extras and making us laugh.
We go out onto the windy battlements. Does anybody know what this body of water was called in the show? Jelena asks next.
Blackwater Bay, I pipe up like a real nerd.
We stand there and imagine that massive, wildfire-lit naval battle from Season 2. In the hush, it’s not too difficult to fill in the flutter of royal banners and the swish of oars.
And as it turns out, we can also catch a glimpse of the park, within the fort’s walls, where they rolled out that gigantic lion’s head and filmed the Purple Wedding. I feel a little frisson of righteous satisfaction remembering Joffrey.
We return to the city via the Pile Gate (pile means chicken, just so everyone knows), which was where they filmed the Flea Bottom riot.
It was very hot, and the extras had been up early, and people were hungry. So in the scene you have all these angry townspeople fighting each other, and let me tell you, that was real! My friend actually came away with scrapes on her arms.
In the square, Jelena shares some more history about Big Onofrio and his eponymous fountain (that’s another thing I love about Dubrovnik, the water pouring from all the fountains is wonderfully fresh) and his legacy of aqueducts that enabled the residents of Dubrovnik to endure the bombing in the 90s.
St. Xavier was the only church to survive that horror unscathed. Next-door St. Francis was not so lucky, but one of Europe’s oldest working apothecaries within remains in business to this day.
We pop by the Rector’s Palace for a glimpse of the Spice King’s residence in Qarth, and then Jelena takes us up into the narrow streets. It’s raining steadily now, but nobody seems to mind.
This is where Cersei visits the High Sparrow. She gestures to a serene courtyard.
And in this alley they did some shots of the soldiers walking. I knew one of the extras. Their armor was very hot, very heavy, around 20 kg, and he was quite skinny. When he leaned against this wall, he couldn’t get himself to stand upright again.
Then we come to those infamous steps where Cersei began her walk of shame, and at this point two ladies in the group who hadn’t seen the finale yet took off their headphones and sauntered away to the nearby Jesuit church so they wouldn’t have to hear Jelena talking about that scene. Very determined to avoid spoilers! I don’t know how they’ve managed it this far.
These steps are actually called the Jesuit Staircase, and post-production filled in the Great Sept of Baelor at the top.
It took several days to shoot, Jelena said, and they closed this entire area. The restaurant staff were happy since they got paid and didn’t have to come to work. Lena had a body double but she wasn’t from around here.
It was quite a thrill to retrace the queen regent’s bloodied footsteps, as least as far down that street.
And then it is time to climb the walls.
Looping around the ancient city like a massive shield, the walls have withstood the vicissitudes of time, warfare and the unceasing Adriatic.
We come to the Minceta Tower, which to my mind is the House of the Undying. No stolen dragons or cryptic warlocks around today, unfortunately.
Our tour ends here, and after thanking our wonderful guide effusively, we go on to wander the walls at leisure. The city has managed foot traffic well, with strategically located handrails and well-positioned entry/exit points keeping the tourists flowing counterclockwise.
Overlooking Blackwater Bay I feel the need to capture my face for posterity- but oh, what to do, I must whip out my selfie stick and embarrass myself, much to the amusement of a group of seniors trying to take their own photo.
This is why we need a selfie stick, one of the gents chortles in my direction.
Hey, I’m alone so I don’t have anyone to do it for me, I say with a laugh.
That’s right, dear, says one of the ladies.
Gotta own this selfie-stick business. But it’s easier said than done, even when everyone is marvelously polite and waits their turn and tries not to get in the way of anyone’s latest profile photo.
I make a complete round of the walls and it takes me well over an hour.
The skies were threatening to open up again after a brief respite, but I didn’t feel like running back to Gruz yet, so I went inside for a quiet moment at St. Francis, then on to St. Xavier. (Visita iglesia part 2.)
Soon after, the rain began to pour in earnest so I caught the next bus and watched in amazement as the streets flooded. Dubrovnik in a thunderstorm is still flawless, and people, even when soaking wet, are still awfully civil.
You know what surprised me the most? It was clean floodwater, not the kind we have back home that you wouldn’t risk your life wading in for fear of catching leptospirosis. #thirdworldproblems
Managed to make my way up rain-slicked steps to the flat without falling on my bum, then the sun came out and shone mightily, but I was tired after all the excitement and fell asleep like a cat on the patch of sun in my bed with the doors open to the breeze.
And then because Dubrovnik is just so damn beautiful all the time, I woke up to this:
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