Most of this post is going to be about Croatia, which was great.  Slovenia, on the other hand…well, this is where the title of the post comes in.

King’s Landing realness!

The Game of Thrones theme continues in Dubrovnik, Croatia.  This walled city is used to film the exterior shots of King’s Landing.  Kevin managed to find a G.O.T. tour, so we spent the morning walking around the city, viewing the sites where specific scenes were shot for the series.  Our tour guide was great and had a vast knowledge of the specifics of the show; he also happened to be an extra in an episode of Season 4.  He managed to make it on camera for about a second, and had to be on set for 14-hours for the scene to be shot.  He was paid a whopping 45 Euros for his effort.

Dubrovnik is absolutely magnificent.  Again, this is one of those sites where I wish we had more time to spend exploring.  The part of the city that’s located inside of the walls is a pure delight.  The limestone, red-roofed buildings stand closely together, separated by narrow alleys that are cram-packed with charming stores, restaurants, and, of course, Game of Thrones gift stores.  The streets are also made out of limestone, the surface of which has been polished to a high sheen from all of the foot traffic over the past several hundred years.  It’s a stunning effect.  The water surrounding the town is a beautiful green-blue color and is crystal-clear; I wanted so badly to ditch the tour and take a dip.  Since I wasn’t wearing a swimsuit, and wasn’t familiar with the local nudity laws, I managed to resist the temptation.

Social butterfly.

Kevin and I couldn’t be more different when it comes to social interaction on the ship.  Kevin talks to absolutely everyone, and I mean everyone!  He’s become somewhat of a celebrity on the ship, which was painfully (at least to me) demonstrated as we were having lunch after our G.O.T. tour.

We found a restaurant on the main street of old town, picking an outside table that had us seated facing out, allowing us to easily watch the crowds go by.  Every couple of minutes, someone from the ship walked by, saw Kevin, and had to come up for a quick chat.  We must’ve talked to twenty people and waved and shouted greetings to another dozen or so.  The people seated next to us were looking over, seemingly curious as to who in the heck we were to get so much attention.  Thankfully, Kevin did most of the talking; I just sat there, smiled, and continued to stuff my face and drink my beer.

I’m not socially handicapped or anything; I consider myself an introvert who has moments of extroverted behavior.  I have to talk to people all day at work, so having time to be able to enjoy some quiet time and take in all of my surroundings without interruption is a luxury, in my opinion. It’s not really important to me to talk to some lady from Florida who wants to tell you about the 37 other cruises she’s taken, or to some guy from Minnesota who thinks that these darn European countries would be better off if they were more like America.  <Ugggg>. I hate it, but Kevin eats it up.  And because Kevin is immediately likable, and so warm and welcoming, people have been latching onto him.  I’ve developed the skill of magically disappearing, allowing Kevin to engage in these interactions, while allowing me to do what I want.  I’ve been greeted a couple of times with, “Oh, so you’re the ghost.  We were starting to think you didn’t exist.”, by people who’ve been talking to Kevin since the beginning of the cruise that I had yet to meet.  I’m ok with that.

This better be good salt.

During my third cooking class, Chef Kelly was telling us about her favorite salt to use, which happened to be sold in Slovenia, which was our next destination.  She explained that the algae that grows in the water from which the salt is harvested imbues the salt with a unique taste that she hasn’t found anywhere else. She also told us that this salt isn’t exported, so she stocks up anytime she’s in the area.

Shortly after getting off of the ship, I found a cute little salt store (yes, that’s a thing) selling the product Chef Kelly was talking about.  I bought several containers, and continued on exploring the downtown core…we were back on the ship within 30 minutes.  There just wasn’t anything to the city of Koper.  Even though there were two large cruise ships in the harbor, downtown only had a scattering of people wandering around.  I wasn’t sure if people were on other excursions that took them away from the city, or if, like us, found that there was nothing worth seeing and returned to the ship. I felt like it was a wasted day, and tried not do think about the money I paid for it. This salt better be frickin’ delicious.