Day 12: I Drive to Bosnia Like a Beast

On our first full day in Croatia, we woke up to this beautiful view from our balcony!

But we weren't going to stay in Croatia long--it was time for a road trip to Mostar, in Bosnia & Herzegovina. It's famous for its old bridge (called the Stari Most), which stood for 427 years and was a famed symbol of Islamic architecture before it was bombed by the Croats. It has since been rebuilt, and you can find videos of the bombing on Youtube if you're interested. But first, the drive! Mostar is about two-and-a-half hours from Dubrovnik by car, and I can report first-hand that Bosnian drivers are almost as scary as Romanian ones--they drive in the middle of the road, go either 30 kph or 140 kph, and generally act like they have 17 extra lives to live. 

Taylor wasn't feeling well, but I didn't want to give up my day trip, so I made my international driving debut while he slept in the passenger seat. I don't know if you can tell in the video, but it was also snowing! I am clearly the world's most intrepid and fearless traveler. At first I was nervous, but after I got used to the car it wasn't too bad and I just pulled over periodically to let more confident drivers pass me. 

Some of the more interesting sites I saw along the way included a dog on the roof of a bombed-out house, a shepherd stopping traffic to herd his sheep across the road, some cows tied up in the parking lot of a roadside restaurant, and this tangle of goats. Overall, though, it wasn't a bad drive, and it was also easy to find parking in the city itself (probably because it's freezing in Bosnia and there were almost no other tourists). 

Below is the Stari Most--in the summer, the water is a vibrant blue-green and locals collect money to dive from the middle into the water. 

There's also a beautiful mosque in the city, and if you're so inclined you can climb to the top of the minaret to see the view. 

The water is beautiful even in January, so I'm sure it's breathtaking in summer. 

The yellow building below is the Gimnazija Mostar, a school built in 1893. Its original student body was made up of Orthodox Christians, Catholics, Muslims, and Jews, which was discouraged by the government at the time, and interestingly enough it continued to break barriers after the war, being one of the first schools to desegregate Bosnians and Croats. (Full disclosure, I learned that online.) Just from talking to waiters and bartenders and people we meet in shops, you can tell the nationality and ethic divisions are still very strong in both Bosnia and Croatia, though the older generation seems to feel that more fiercely than the younger people we've met. 

In contrast to that beautiful building (which was damaged but restored during the war), as you stroll along you can still see the ruins of buildings destroyed by bombs. It's startling to see them standing empty next to new or renovated buildings, but even in many of the buildings still standing you can see bullet holes. 

Another highlight of Mostar beside the Stari Most is the marketplace, where you can find beautiful plates and mugs of hammered copper, silk scarves sourced from Mostar, and silver jewelry. It's hard to see below, but the man in the window is actually hammering a design into a mug. Taylor bargained for some hand-painted copper plates, and I'm very excited to hang them in our house. 

Also, every dog I saw in Bosnia (and there are a lot of strays) was the most massive fluffy beast I've ever seen. Even the puppies are giant balls of fluff! 

Below is one of the shops we stopped at in the market, with a very helpful shop cat. I wanted that beautiful tea set, but I have absolutely no room left in my luggage and I may end up wearing several jackets home just to have space for everything else, so I passed on it with sorrow. 

More beasts from the streets of Mostar...

The mosque and a cemetery 

The wooden sculptures in the cage are in front of the Museum of War and Genocide Museums, which we didn't have time to go inside. I know it would be a sobering experience, but I don't know much about the conflict, so if we ever go back to Mostar I'd like to take the time to visit and educate myself. 

I wasn't ready to leave Mostar--there was so much left to do--but since it was getting dark we had to go back to Dubrovnik. Along the way, there are a number of tiny churches with equally tiny graveyards, so we pulled over to get a picture. It was freezing and dreary, but peaceful. I never thought I'd visit Bosnia--until recently I had no idea if it was safe or what its culture or people are like--and it was a lesson to me in how little I know about the world.

Cows in the road! 

Most of the drive back was through mountains that were so gray and rocky and bleak...like maybe the Goblin King has a winter palace up there. Or Satan.

Once we were back in Dubrovnik I was starving and more than a little annoyed I hadn't gotten to try Bosnian food, so we found a Bosnian restaurant (not related, but pictured below is a little figurine of the Night King from Game of Thrones...it's a rare shop you can pass in Dubrovnik that doesn't have Game of Thrones souvenirs). 

The restaurant was called Taj Mahal, which has nothing to do with Bosnia and is a little confusing, but the food was amazing. The waiter was super friendly (as was everyone we met in Croatia and Bosnia) and he made us several recommendations off of the menu. We started with a veal and turkey soup with okra and peppers, and then a tomato soup with pasta. The veal soup was the BEST. In fact, I made Taylor trade me it for my tomato soup. 

Then I had a "gipsy skewer," which was seasoned veal, turkey, and steak with potatoes and spicy sauce. I don't like veal, but the steak and turkey were great. And the mushrooms I ordered with it were even better--they were marinated in something so they were magically juicy, and topped with olive-oil soaked tomatoes, fresh arugula, and a spicy cream cheese called kajmak. 

I finished the meal with a baked apple stuffed with cream cheese (not spicy), walnuts, and chocolates. 

To close out the night, we sat the hotel bar to try Croatian wine, but I also had a strawberry juice, which is absolutely my favorite thing to drink in eastern Europe. It tastes like jam and sunshine and why don't we have this in America?? 

I also had a Croatian dessert called Rozata, which is a caramel custard that's most similar to a flan--the caramel sauce on it was so flavorful that it was hard not to tip the bowl up and drink it. But Europeans already think Americans are uncivilized as heck, so I refrained. 

Finally, to end this post with a bit of randomness, there's a cartoon in Eastern Europe that seems to perpetually be on about a loaf of bread named Bernd dos Brat. I have no idea what he's saying, but he's depressed and grumpy and cracks me up. The description from Wikipedia says it most amusingly: "Bernd is a depressed, grumpy, curmudgeonly, constantly bad-tempered, surly, fatalistic, melancholic loaf of pullman bread speaking in a deep, gloomy baritone....According to himself, he belongs to the species 'Homo Brotus Depressivus.' His favourite activities include staring at his south wall at home, learning the pattern of his woodchip wallpaper by heart, reading his favourite magazine The Desert and You, and enlarging his collection of the most boring railway tracks on video. Bernd sympathizes firstly with himself. His favorite expression is Mist!, used in much the same way as the English 'crap.' His other favorite sentences are: 'I would like to be left alone,' 'I would like to leave this show,' and 'My life is hell.'"