An Unexpected Encounter With Croatian Artist 18 Years Later
Days 134-136, 2025 European Odyssey
Sunday to Tuesday, Nov. 9-11, 2025; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Saranda, Albania; and Argostóli, Greece.
When our small tour group turned a corner in the walled city of Dubrovnik, the scene sparked a memory of my visit here 18 years ago. An artist sat painting watercolors in front of a small display of his work. It would be 10 more years before I would pick up a paint brush for the first time since kindergarten. But his work drew my interest and I bought a small painted scene of Dubrovnik’s harbor. I even asked my sister to take my photograph with the artist.
On Sunday I mentioned this memory to our guide, who said some things never change here and it’s probably the same artist. And it was! He reluctantly agreed to another photograph, and now I can’t wait to get back to my storage unit to make sure I kept the painting. (And amazingly, my Tumi purse is still in great shape after almost two decades of travel.)
HBO’s Game of Thrones series is one thing that has changed Dubrovnik since my 2007 visit. Dubrovnik played the role of King’s Landing, the capital of the Seven Kingdoms, since season 2.
I alone on our independent tour today – billed as a Game of Thrones tour – hadn’t seen the whole series. (I saw bits and bobs here and there but not enough to count.) My nephew Colton jumped on the opportunity, and I was game to go along.
During our half-day tour, we visited several set locations, including the harbor and the Jesuit Stairs famed for the “walk of shame” episode at the end of season 5.
Our guide held up photos from the series in each spot, but everyone else immediately recognized the settings, even though some were enhanced with computer-generated images for the series.
She explained how they covered modern features to maintain the other-worldly environment and talked about the experiences of residents during the filming – both as extras and as spectators.
We started high above the city as our small bus took us to the cable car overlook to see the walled city and harbor.
Our tour ended in the old town, leaving us time to explore on our own. One of the most popular activities is walking the top of the city’s walls – something I did with my sisters and mother in 2007. Looking at the steep stairs to the top, I’m glad I did it then, as I’m not sure I could do that now.
As it was Sunday, many of the shops were closed. Instead of buying the port’s round trip shuttle tickets at $18 each, we took the €2 city bus the two miles or so back to the port.
Rain filled the forecast for Saranda, Albania, on Monday, but as usual was intermittent and not as bad as I anticipated. Several of us debated whether simply sitting on a ship in a harbor would count when it comes to adding Albania to our countries-visited lists.
I’m not a stickler about accruing countries, but I decided to take the tender ashore. There wasn’t a lot to see, but the rain mostly held off as we walked along the waterfront. It was too damp to sketch (I did that later on the ship), but by the time we were about to leave, the sun came out.
Early Tuesday morning we moved our clocks ahead an hour for the stop in Argostóli on the Greek island of Kefalonia (or Cephalonia). The time change was only for a day, as this was our last port in the eastern Mediterranean time zone this fall.
My goal was to sketch the Church of Agios (Saint) Spiridon — this one in Greece, not Croatia, newer and elegant while simple, with a beautiful blue bell tower. The local men sipping coffee and smoking at the table I wanted looked settled in, but suddenly left, so I snagged a seat in the perfect spot.
I sketched as Colton walked across the nearby stone pedestrian bridge across the bay. At 2,263 feet, it’s the longest stone bridge crossing the sea in the world.
Loved these watercolor sketches. They get better and better! Thanks for sharing.
Loved your Dubrovnik flashback. Great memories, one of the fun things about travel.
Back in 2008, I was on a Crystal cruise that put in at Sarande, Albania. We may have been first to call there. It really wasn’t ready for tourists then but obviously has become a regular port of call now.
When we were posted in Montenegro the US government did not have diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia (as it then was). So, the USAID office was in Dubrovnik and Suzi and I got called in for consultations. Such a hardship :-). We were there in 1972 after Suzi’s mom died. It was a good place to heal. On our first trip there for USAID right after the war we stayed in a hotel where the top floor was gutted and there was a lot of blue plastic to keep out the rain. Many memories. One of our assignments was ferrying a diplomatic ford Explorer from Dubrovnik to Pristina, Kosova, through Montenegro. As contractors we could do it while direct employees were forbidden into Yugoslavia. But that story is a novella in itself.
The best thing about Saranda is going to Butrint. Greek ruins south of town. There are wonderful mosaics. If you do Med cruises in the future check it out. Suzi and I were posted in Albania in 1993. We were posted there again from 1995 to 1997 and got to travel the country as it was emerging from an insane dictatorship. We plan to go back summer 2026. Our cruise will end in Athens and we will go back to revisit our old stomping grounds afterward.
Where’s the photo of Colton crossing the bridge??
Very descriptive as per usual Jo. Thank you.
Your pictures of Dubrovnik bring back memories, we visit Albania next year.
Coincidentally, I bought a pencil sketch from the same artist in Dubrovnik and have a picture of him displaying that piece. These are my favorite souvenirs to buy and I can hardly wait to get home to have them framed and displayed.
Love your artist description in Dubrovnik. I too bought a small watercolor and took a picture of him not looking too pleased. That was in 2013.