The next day we crossed the border into Croatia. It was a bit of a nerve wrecking crossing as for the first time we were asked if we had anything to declare. Stating only fruit and vegetables we realised afterwards that we actually were over our alcohol limit threefold. Woops! We made it through and drove to Dubrovnik, stopping several places to admire the view of the harbour and Old Town. We camped at the most costly place to date-32 euro/night and spent the afternoon at the beach consuming some of our wine to ensure we would be under the limit in time for our next border crossing into Bosnia. That night we heard a friend would be in town tomorrow so we decided to stay one more night, but at a less expensive sight.
The next day we drove 10km out of Dubrovnik to a great campsite, costing 12 Euros. We explored Old Town once more, enjoying gelato and then wine at Buza Bar, a bar on the outside of the rocky wall and watched the sunset before heading home. We heard from our friend the next day he had arrived so it was a shame to have missed meeting up once more.
The next day we had an early start so we could get to Mostar in Bosnia. Getting to Mostar was strange ordeal. As you head north about 50 km out of Dubrovnik you reach the border of Bosnia. The strange thing is you have about 10km of Bosnia’s coastline before going into Croatia again, then another 40 km later you are heading inland toward Mostar and crossing into Bosnia again. The first part is just a quick look at our passports and waves us through. The border crossing towards Mostar is where they checked our paperwork and stamped our passports. If this isn’t confusing enough just before we reach the border for the first time the Sat Nav (aka the Garmin) decides to turn us off just before the border to James’s disliking and heading for another crossing inland that we are told was only for locals to use, therefore we had to turn back and use the costal route as James originally thought. As we headed back to the costal border crossing we discussed the fact they may have seen us turn off the first time as though we were trying to avoid border control (aka smuggling drugs). Luckily this wasn’t the case but we were held up by a gnarly car crash on the other side of the border.
Back on track, we were heading to Mostar, and we were excited about seeing the Stari Most (old bridge). First we decide to find our camp ground which was a little bit of task as the GPS doesn’t cover Bosnia, so as soon as we turn off the road to Mostar the GPS is heading to the middle of nowhere which is a bit daunting. We found our campground Mali Wimbledon which didn’t prove to be to much problem. We quickly had some lunch and changed some Euros for Bosnian marks so we could get on the bus to Mostar. We stayed on the bus for about 2km too far which worked out quite nicely as we got to walk through the war damaged streets toward the old town. The abandoned buildings were like nothing we’ve seen before, they really do like they have just been blown up with bullet holes and big gouge marks in there sides with signs on the side warning that they are unsafe to enter. We strolled the Old Town to Stari Most, a 25m bridge that crosses a river that separated the Croatian’s and Bosnian’s during the war. Unfortunately the bridge was destroyed in the war so what we were seeing was the rebuilt replica. Albeit it was impressive and we even managed to witness a local tradition of bridge jumping, with 2 men making the 25m leap. We then organised a guided tour through the Old Town, which was frustrating as we did not get many of our questions answered as the guide did not speak good English. We then went for dinner and had the “National Plate” which included meat rissoles, Bosnian cakes, stuffed peppers, stuffed onions, rice, boiled potatoes and a beef stew and 1L wine. It was huge, although I managed to squeeze in dessert of a stewed whole apple filled with sugary syrup and chopped walnuts. It was then a difficult challenge to find the bus stop home, where we waited for 30 minutes before it came along.
The next day we got up and walked into Blacaj to the Tkija, a Dervish Monastery from the 15th Century. On the way there we took photos of a castle on the hilltop, only abandoned in 1828 and also visited a really cool old village. The Dervish Monastery was also impressive, perched under the cliff face, beside a river which seemed to appear from a cave under the cliff side. It was very picturesque and James braved the water by dipping his feet in, which he reckoned was ice cold. We made our way back to the van, ate some lunch and then drove onto Sarajevo. Upon arrival to Sarajevo, of course our GPS does not know where to go, so we drove nervously around trying to find our campground. After eyeballing google maps we managed to find the campground relatively easily and settled in (the only ones in the huge campground). First impressions were how cold the place was. There seemed to be a haze over the town and the temperature had dropped about 10-15 degrees compared to Mostar 130km away. Our first taste of winter! We settled in for the night, confirming our place on tomorrow’s walking tour.
The commute into town went relatively smoothly, starting with a walk and then a tram into town. Considering we hadn’t been able to obtain a map, we had to cut out a map of the city out of our AA Road Map book! The weather was a balmy 7 degrees and there was a huge fog over the city, which made it difficult to get our bearings. When we got on the tram we could not get over how prehistoric and ugly it was. We later learnt that Sarajevo’s tram system was the oldest in Europe with Austria using Sarajevo to be a test city for electric trams. Where to get off the tram turned out to be a challenge, as we discovered none of the stops were named. Thankfully a ticket inspector, who called us Australian, told us to get off at stop 5. We did and soon worked out we got off a stop too early. We eventually found our meeting point for the walking tour and stopped for a quick bite beforehand at a local café. We scored a bargin there, as we both had a hot drink, a burek (meat pie) and a doughnut for only £2.60. The tour group ended up being 8 of us, and our tour guide Nino was fantastic. To give you some background on him, he was 27 years old, so he was around 7 years old when the war broke out. His mother is Bosnian and his father Serbian who actually fought for the Bosnian Army. Nino provided a very detailed and balanced history of the Ottoman Empire, the first and second Yugoslavia and Bosnia Herzegovina as it is today. This also included details of how Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, Tito and the political history of Bosnia Herzegovina. Nino told us that currently unemployment in Bosnia Heregovina was at 43%, a huge increase from the previous 4% when Tito ruled. What was most interesting was his personal experience of the Balkan war. He spoke of living in a basement for three years, sometimes going 3 or 4 days without food. He mentioned his mother used to go for daily walks (to take her mind off things) and how she chose the narrowest streets to avoid snipers and how he received one hour of schooling a day by a teacher who used to visit. He also showed us a Red Cross Telegram that was used to communicate, after the Serbian Army bombed the post office. Many buildings around town remained badly damaged (we saw a castle with a huge hole in the roof) and various reminders of the war, including many cemeteries with death dates between 1992-1995 and Sarajevo roses (areas of shell damage on the streets, filled in with a red cement to symbolise the deaths of at least three people in that very spot). However there were some lighter sides to the tour, with Nino showing us a Yugo car, a mass produced cheap car in the 1980’s with some funny jokes to go with it; how do you double the price of a Yugo? Fill it up with petrol! Why does a Yugo have a heated rear window? To warm your hands when you are pushing it! Oh, and you will receive a complimentary bus timetable when you purchase a Yugo!
The tour ended in the Old Town, which had a huge Ottoman influence, inclusive of a Turkish Bazaar. After the tour we enjoyed lunch of chicken soup and Bosnian stew before a spot of shopping and a walk up the hillside to see a view of the city. We even stopped for afternoon tea of more stewed whole apple with walnut and sugar syrup (which we first tried in Mostar) and custard square and then dinner of more stew, Bey soup (made of Okra) and Dolme (onion, tomato and peppers stuffed with meat) -all delicious hearty food. It was such a fascinating day, Sarajevo was amazing, a real mixture of Austrian-Hungarian and Ottoman architectural influence. Where else in the world could you see a Mosque, Catholic and Orthodox church and a Jewish Synagogue all in the space of 100m apart. It was well worth the trip (even if it was a high of only 11 degrees!).
We woke to another cold morning, no frost, just! We had to turn on the hairdryer to warm the van before either of us could crawl out of the sleeping bags! Must be time to buy a heater. We eventually packed up and drove through a mountain range, stopping for lunch at the beautiful Unesco nominated town of Jajce, which had an impressive castle and waterfall there. We drove through the Republic of Srpkspa (the Serbian part of Bosnia) hassle free, which is virtually an invisible border, and back into north Croatia, camping at Koruna Campground at Plitvice. It was a huge campground, set amongst some woodland, with great facilities. It was the longest walk we have had yet to a bathroom (a good five minute walk) but it was beautiful.
Despite rain in the night and a very overcast day, we set off to Plitvice National Park. We decided on a 4-6 hour walk and were immediately impressed at the tiered lakes with beautiful waterfalls at each level. The walkway was often directly across the lake, which was cleverly done by using natural wooden fence posts. As a part of the walk we caught a boat and then at the end a train back to the start. It was an impressive walk that not even the patchy rain and high winds could impair. We got back to the parking lot and realised that Dusty’s lights were on-woops. But as the legend Dusty is, even after five hours, he still started beautifully. Whew. We drove onto Croatia’s capital, Zagreb and checked into a camp site attached to Plitvice Motel where we literally parked in the Motel carpark.
It was a disruptive night for two reasons, firstly we had cats sneaking up into the engine to sleep and secondly, it rained and then started snowing. Needless to say it was a slow start, despite Daylight Savings as neither of us wanted to move from our sleeping bag! We did head into Zagreb by lunchtime, looking through the Dolac Market, the Cathedral before sampling some more Burek (meat pies). It was freezing and rainy, very hard to cope with after being in shorts and a t-shirt less than five days ago. But we made an effort and took a bus north of the city to a recommended site, Mirogoj cemetery. Established in 1876, the cemetery spanned for miles and was home to huge family gravestones, home to many famous Croatians, including the first president of the Republic of Croatia. It had a beautiful entranceway too. What was probably most striking were the volumes of locals visiting their family plots to leave candles and flowers, with florists strategically placed along the whole length of the cemetery entrance. We decided to head back to the centre of town for lunch, but it started raining and sleeting so we gave up and headed back to the van, stopping for a hot chocolate in the Motel. As we suspected, Zagreb was very average and we look forward to moving on Slovenia tomorrow, where it will hopefully be 5 degrees rather than zero.
