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Tag: gamla stan

An old friend in Kings Landing

Dubrovnik or Kings Landing, depending on if you’re a Game of Thrones-fan or not, was our next destination. We ended up here because one of our old friends has relocated to this place and we decided to pass by and surprise her with a visit. There are direct flights from Istanbul to Dubrovnik, so this time we had an enjoyable flight with only a few hours in the air and no transit. It was Pontus birthday as well, so the flight attendants came and wished him a happy birthday and gave him a small present.
Within half an hour after we stepped on a bus towards Dubrovnik, the Old port of Dubrovnik showed up outside our windows and it was as to see Kings Landing, the only thing we missed was the giant fleets battling in wildfire. We were going to spend a few days here and we really liked what we saw.


Dubrovnik eller Kings Landing, beroende på om du är ett Game of Thrones-fan eller inte, var vår nästa destination. Vi hamnade här för att en av våra gamla vänner har flyttat till denna plats och vi bestämde oss för att komma och överraska henne med ett besök. Det finns direktflyg från Istanbul till Dubrovnik, så den här gången hade vi ett trevligare flyg med bara några timmar i luften och utan byte. Det var Pontus födelsedag också, så flygvärdinnorna kom och önskade honom grattis på födelsedagen och gav honom en liten present.
Inom en halvtimme efter att vi gick på en buss mot Dubrovnik, så uppenbarade sig den gamla hamnen i Dubrovnik utanför vårt bussfönster och det var verkligen som att se Kings Landing. Det enda vi saknade var jätteflottorna som kämpade i “wild fire”. Vi skulle tillbringa några dagar här och vi gillade verkligen vad vi såg.

Next stop for us was Dubrovnik, Croatia!

And we were here for this girl, Linda!

Blurry picture with Linda and her co-workers Amanda and Caroline. Linda has started to work here this season with Solresor. Linda is a fantastic history geek, so that is handy when she’s taking her customers out exploring the historic parts of Dubrovnik (in Swedish).

Linda brought us to Old town and told us about Croatian and Dubrovnik history. This is the Stradun, the main street of Old town Dubrovnik. We also filmed a few parts of our tour with Linda, which you can see below.

The shame-shame steps from where Cersei starts her naked walk through the mob (Game of Throne-reference again). It is much smaller in reality.

The old Port of Dubrovnik and the harbor of Kings Landing (Game of thrones-reference).

The big Onfrio’s fountain, near the Pile gate, is one of two fountains in old town. The fountains were built in 1438 to give people access to the 20 km long water supply system from the mountains. The big Onfrio’s fountain is the only fountain still in use today.

The clock tower in the end of the main gate was built in 1444 and shows both the time and the phases of the moon.

Orlando’s Column near the Clock tower has a sculpture of the famous medieval knight Orlando, or Roland which was his real name. There are famous songs written about knight Roland and the chivalry associated with knights are believed to come from knight Roland.

For a long time the old town used Roland’s underarm as a unit of measurement, 1 L equaled to approximately 51 cm. Merchants that came to Dubrovnik had to convert their goods to the unit before they could enter the market in Dubrovnik. People who bought for example a piece of fabric could go to the column and see that they weren’t fooled. They have carved out 1 L at the bottom of the column so people didn’t have to reach up to use knight Roland’s under arm.

The small alleys are packed with tables. The red flags, which are hanging at the entrance of the alleys, tell you what you can find further in the alley.

The war time photo museum is very interesting to visit, but can be hard on you if your’e sensitive to see the ugly parts of humanity. It was a war photographer that documented the Yugoslav wars, who opened this museum after the war. The main exhibition is photos from the wars on Balkan between 1991 and 1999, but they also have temporary exhibitions on display and a room full with selected pictures from earlier temporary exhibitions.

We headed up to Fort Lovrijenac after our tour in the old town. This place is called Dubrovnik’s Gibraltar and the Fort is built early in the 11th century to keep the Venetians away from Ragusa (the old name of the city). You get an awesome view over old town from the fort!

It was so much fun meeting Linda again and to see where she spends her days now.

A short pit stop in Phuket town

Our visit to Phuket town was short and it was just before we had to leave Thailand, because of visa rules. We had managed to book accommodation in the Old Town of Phuket town without us knowing  about it. We’re in the process to prepare for major changes for us and such information just passed us without notice when we booked our accommodation. However, it was lovely to suddenly find ourselves in a street market in  the old town of Phuket when we stepped out of our hostel in search of a place to eat.

Visa, which we are not a big fan of, was just one of the reasons that we said good bye to Thailand. Another reason was also that we’ve long been looking forward to returning to Bali. Bali is one of the few places in the world where we feel at home and, like our last time in Bali, we are here to meet interesting people, check out the Bitcoin-stage in Ubud and welcome part of our family to the island to show them one of our favorite places on the planet .


Det blev en kort visit i Phuket town innan vi var tvungen att lämna Thailand pga av visumregler och utan att vi visste om det så hade vi lyckats boka boende mitt i gamla stan i Phuket town. Vi håller ju på att förbereda oss för stora förändringar och sådan information hade lyckats gå förbi oss när vi bokade boendet i Phuket. Desto trevligare var det att plötsligt befinna sig på en marknad i gamla stan när vi klev utanför dörren i jakt på att hitta något ställe att äta på.
Visum, vilket vi inte är ett stort fan av, var dock bara en av anledningarna till att vi lämnade Thailand. En annan anledning var också för att vi länge sett framemot att återvända till Bali. Bali är en av få platser i världen där vi känner oss hemma och liksom vår senaste gång på Bali är vi här för att träffa intressanta människor, kolla in Bitcoin-scenen i Ubud och välkomna familjemedlemmar till ön för att visa dem ett av våra favoritställen på denna planet.

The walking street market in Phuket town

You’ll find both artists and…

…musicians here to entertain the crowd

However, we were outside looking for food and we found our dinner that night on a stick.

Pontus with our favorite beer in Thailand – Leo is a bit darker and has more flavour compared to Singha and Chang, which is two other Thai beer brands available here.

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