Not only has the weather turned cold, its also turned wet. so this is a good day for travelling, and travelling we do. its a local bus journey to Bar down the coast that sees us squashed, heated and cooked in a overloaded minibus. Bar doesn't look to impressive however so we go for a quick meal at a nearby cafe. Jan's amazing powers of talking to anyone soon mean she has pictures of everyone, our quick meal turns into a feast as they keep plying us with more food and everyone wishes us bon appetite. alas we cant fully enjoy our meal as we have to rush for our train. we take a doggy bag and then sit in the train for the next 15mins as it gets later and later. the train eventually takes us to Podgorica through lake Skadar - a huge lake/reserve which we had planned to stop off at, but change our minds due to the weather. we aren't overly impressed by Podgorica either so we hop on the next bus for the hour journey to Nikšič. remember the š is a sh and the č is a tz. You try prounouncing it. we don't get to discover if this place really is crap as we realize we cant get to Mostar from here - even though it is closer than Podgorica and even though the Mostar bus from Podgorica passes through Nikšič - hmmm. An hour journey back to Podgorica and we still have an hour to spare. the journey doesn't quite take the time we expect however...
at 2am we arrive in Mostar and are basically dumped at the side of a road, with very rough directions to the bus station. Due to the two of us having a fantastic sense of direction we end up in the middle of no-where - certainly no-where near the bus station. The powers of talking to anyone come into play again as Jan finds what seems to be an all night poker game, and someone who will give us a lift - by 2.45am we are drinking hot tea, eating apple strudel and enjoying the company of the owners of our picked 'hostel'. The hostel is actually someones house, and is a delightfully friendly place - giving us a taste of Bosnian hospitality.
Mostar has a beautiful old town, and the whole place is a mish-mash of religions and cultures. The Turkish influence is very obvious with Mosque towers all over the town - beautifully lit up at night. the battle scars are even more obvious here - so many buildings are bullet riddled or showing the damage from bombs and mortars. There are signs everywhere warning you to beware of the dangerous building - i guess they just haven't got around to fixing or pulling them all down yet. The country like most of the ones around it is still recovering and is no-where as prosperous as it was before the war. It wasnt that long ago that bodies were being pulled from the river. I'm not here long enough to be able to treat such sights as normal - they are a constant reminder, although life must go on.
We also take a day trip to Blagaj to see the cave and water and explore the little town. Its over an hours wait for the bus in the cold and damp, and just as we are giving up and walking away the bus arrives. we have a pleasant few hours, but the weather doesn't help - the highlight is of course coffee and cake :)
We have a day trip the following day to Medugorje - this is a town where all the streets have no names. It's been made 'famous' however by the 6 children who saw a vision of the Virgin Mary on a nearby hillside back in the early 80's. As a result the place is a site for many a pilgrim - as is evident by the multitude of souvenir shops selling postcards to full-size replicas of Mary, Jesus, the apostles and the seven dwarf's. For us it's a good day out and an excellent walk up the hillside.
We say goodbye to our nice hosts and take the early morning scenic train journey to Sarajevo. This turns into one of the best train journeys I've ever had. the scenery is wonderful and we pass many a snow covered village. On to Sarajevo...
