22 Monday Jun 2015
Posted in Croatia, Dubrovnik, Europe, Game of Thrones, Northern Ireland, Split
Season 5 of Game of Thrones was quite epic. Not only did a whole bunch of characters die (spoilers!), but Mr. Selfish and I were able to see the sights that we stumbled upon during our own GoT tour come alive as Dorne and Braavos.
20 Tuesday Jan 2015
This is post thirteen of fourteen on our trip to Northern Ireland and Croatia, minus our mini Game of Thrones tour. Those posts can be found here.
As Mrs. Selfish mentioned yesterday, Dubrovnik has an unreal, Disney-esq feeling to it – so much so that I half expected them to pipe in music at any moment.
While this is partially due to the influx of shops and tourist traps within the wall, it is mostly due to the fact that the city walls are so well preserved. I mean, look at this thing.
While Dubrovnik has been around since the 7th century, the walls were constructed over the course of five centuries and were largely finished by the 17th century. They turned out to be a beautiful necessity, as Dubrovnik made many enemies on its rise to prominence as a maritime republic. At its peak in the 15th and 16th century it even rivaled the power of Venice.
The walls were used for defensive purposes as recently as the early 1990’s when Dubrovnik was under siege by the Yugoslavian army, but these days they’re more of a tourist attraction than anything else.
At 20 feet thick and 80 feet high in some places, walking the wall is a great way to get a stellar view of Dubrovnik’s old town.
19 Monday Jan 2015
Tags
Croatia, Dubrovnik, Fort Royal Castle, Lokrum Island, Rector's Palace, Rupe Ethnographic Museum, Selfish Year, Selfish Years
This is post twelve of fourteen on our trip to Northern Ireland and Croatia, minus our mini Game of Thrones tour. Those posts can be found here.
Mr. Selfish and I have been to our fair share of medieval cities, but we have never been in awe of how beautiful a city is until Dubrovnik.
I mean, it is ridiculous how amazingly well-maintained Dubrovnik is. It felt practically Disney-esque in its perfection. I half expected to turn a corner and find Mickey Mouse signing autographs. Fortunately, there were no mascots to be found.
18 Sunday Jan 2015
Tags
Croatia, Diocletian's Palace, Park Marjan, Pazarin, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Split, St. Duje's Cathedral
This is post eleven of fourteen on our trip to Northern Ireland and Croatia, minus our mini Game of Thrones tour. Those posts can be found here.
After spending a few nights in Zadar and Plitvice Lakes National Park, Mr. Selfish, Cousin Selfish, and I headed to Split. We arrived during nighttime and had a stressful time dropping off the rental car (parking on a hill in a manual car is never fun). Nevertheless, once we entered the city proper, our worries melted away. The city itself was beautiful.
17 Saturday Jan 2015
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This is post ten of fourteen on our trip to Northern Ireland and Croatia, minus our mini Game of Thrones tour. Those posts can be found here.
From Zadar Mrs. Selfish, Cousin Selfish and I rented a car and drove 3 hours north to the Plitvice Lakes National Park. The park is one of the most famous sites in Croatia, and is a UNESCO world heritage site.
It’s pretty easy to see why.
The Plitivice Lakes National Park is located toward the center of Croatia, near the Western border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. It’s one of Croatia’s larger tourist attractions, so be prepared for crowds.
Mrs. Selfish, Cousin Selfish, and I arrived at the park at 7am – just before sunrise. At that hour the park was practically empty except for a group of Japanese tourists.
We parked our rental car and paid the admission fee of 180 kuna (~$28 USD) per person then rushed ahead to the large falls. At that time in the morning the falls were serene, and for a short time we didn’t see anyone else as we walked around.
16 Friday Jan 2015
This is post nine of fourteen on our trip to Northern Ireland and Croatia, minus our mini Game of Thrones tour. Those posts can be found here.
When Mrs. Selfish and I originally planned our trip to Croatia we had looked into taking a ferry from Split to Dubrovnik in order to visit some of Croatia’s lovely island cities. This quickly nixed that plan, since we were already visiting 8 cities during this trip, which was already more fast travel than I would have liked.
The Adriatic Sea is known for its beautiful islands and azure waters, however, so we started looking into daytrips when we stumbled upon the Kornati National Park.
15 Thursday Jan 2015
This is post eight of fourteen on our trip to Northern Ireland and Croatia, minus our mini Game of Thrones tour. Those posts can be found here.
After spending many cold days in Northern Ireland, Mr. Selfish and I met up with Cousin Selfish in Croatia where it was consistently sunny and hot. After wearing so many layers of clothes, it felt a little odd breaking out the shorts and tank tops, but they were definitely needed in the blazing heat of Croatia.
Our first stop in Croatia was Zadar, which is the fifth largest city in Croatia. The city is right on the Adriatic Sea coastline.
07 Wednesday Jan 2015
Tags
Bokar Tower, Cersei's Walk of Shame, Church of St. Nicholas, Croatia Game of Thrones Tour, Game of Thrones Tour, GoT Tour, House of the Undying, King's Landing, Lokrum Island, Lovrijenac Fortress, Minceta Tower, Qarth, Red Keep, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Walk of Shame
This is the final post of seven posts on the Selfish’s customized Game of Thrones tour. Check out the other posts here:
Mr. Selfish and I saved Dubrovnik for our last stop in our Game of Thrones tour. Dubrovnik is the current filming location for King’s Landing and formerly provided the sets for Qarth and the House of the Undying. We knew that it would be the pinnacle of our GoT tour, and we weren’t disappointed.
Even though Malta was the filming location for King’s Landing in season 1 of GoT, Dubrovnik has been King’s Landing since seasons 2 forward.
Although there’s a lot of CG going on in the two above stills, you can still see Dubrovnik all over it. It’s such a beautiful walled city.
06 Tuesday Jan 2015
Tags
Croatia Game of Thrones Tour, Game of Thrones, Game of Thrones Croatia, GoT Tour, Khaleesi, Klis, Klis Fortress, Meereen, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Split
This is the sixth of seven posts on the Selfish’s customized Game of Thrones tour. Check out the other posts here:
From Split, Mrs. Selfish, Cousin Selfish and I started the 5-hour long drive to Dubrovnik. Our first stop? Klis fortress, the Game of Thrones exterior shot location for the city of Meereen.
Yeeeaahhh… Klis Fortress doesn’t really look like that.
The actual fortress is pretty damned impressive. Perched high atop a rock bluff, Klis fortress has been a defensive stronghold in the area for over two thousand years.
05 Monday Jan 2015
Tags
Braavos, Croatia, Croatia Game of Thrones Tour, Diocletian's Palace, Dorne, Game of Thrones Tour, GoT Tour, Hotel Zagreb, Kastel Gomilica, Meereen, Muzej Grada Splita, Selfish Year, Selfish Years
This is the fifth of seven posts on the Selfish’s customized Game of Thrones tour. Check out the other posts here:
After eight days in Ireland and N. Ireland, Mr. Selfish and I finally made it to Croatia. We met up with Cousin Selfish, who is coincidentally also a Game of Thrones nerd, in Zadar, Croatia.
We stayed a couple of nights in Zadar and visited Plitvice Lakes National Park before heading to Split, Croatia. There wasn’t too much GoT action until we left for Split though, but that’s when things got real.
On our way to Split, we stopped by Kastel Gomilica since I had read online that they were preparing a filming location for Braavos there. We parked the car near the beach and started walking. We didn’t know where the set was but we could see a picturesque building from afar so we started walking in that direction.
Update: After having watched Season 5 Episode 2, this is indeed where Arya Stark lands in Braavos.
01 Thursday Jan 2015
Posted in Croatia, Europe, Game of Thrones, Ireland, Northern Ireland
Tags
Croatia Game of Thrones, Game of Thrones Tour, GoT Tour, Ireland Game of Thrones, Selfish Year, Selfish Years
This is the first of seven posts on the Selfish’s customized Game of Thrones tour. Check out the other posts here:
As we were still recovering from the triple jet lag we suffered as a result of our trip to Greece and Taiwan, Mr. Selfish asked me where I wanted to go next. After a brief moment of consideration, I said that we should do a Game of Thrones tour. I had recently become obsessed with the television series and had started reading the books. So just like that, it was settled.
The next step was to figure out where Game of Thrones was filmed. Some quick Googling revealed that GoT has been primarily filmed in Northern Ireland, Malta, Croatia, Morocco, and Iceland.
The only place that we had previously visited was Morocco, so I decided to skip that location. It seems like you need to visit Iceland during the winter to get the GoT experience, and we were planning our trip in August, so Iceland was out too. That left N. Ireland, Malta, and Croatia.
Mr. Selfish looked at our points and decided that the best routing for us would be to N. Ireland and Croatia.
02 Saturday Aug 2014
Quiz time! I bet you knew that Mr. Selfish was a big nerd, but did you know that MRS. Selfish was a big nerd too?
Yes, she’s taken her fair share of stupid pictures – I should say the lion’s share, actually, but does that really make her nerdy?
In a crazy twist, Mrs. Selfish is actually a HUGE fan of Game of Thrones. As in, she not only watches the show, but she reads the books too!
