Yesterday morning, we set our alarm early to check the weather and potentially take the single ferry out to Mlijet, a gorgeous national park/island about two hours from the coast. Marisa woke up for just long enough to hear a violent gust of wind, and grunted (I assume) to voice her displeasure with the plan. So back to sleep we went, accepting that our sunshine-filled Dubrovnik escape may have to wait for the few days closer to our departure.
Instead, we decided to climb Srd, the mountain behind Dubrovnik that overlooks Old Town and the sea. I'm a big fan of words without vowels, so I was down with the mission. From the top of Srd, you are able to see the entirety of Old Town Dubrovnik, Lokrum and a panoramic view of the Adriatic Sea. The hike is a series of 12 switchbacks, and at the end of each is a piece of art illustrating one of the 12 Stations of the Cross. My deeply religious background (I don't have one) enabled me to educate Marisa (I didn't) along the way. Unfortunately, Marisa's body began reacting to our bread-only diet, so we were a bit slower up the mountain than we expected.
What an ab-Srd view. I'll see myself out.
That evening, we ate at the restaurant Azur, which occupied the ground floor of our apartment building. On Tripadvisor, Azur is described as "European, Mediterranean, Asian, Asian Fusion, Thai and Thai Fusion." I like most of those things, and I wasn't disappointed. The hardest part was being accompanied by a cat that looked like our dog, Zoe. My dog is so bad and I miss her so much.
This is cat Zoe. I bet she is a bad cat.
We went to bed early in preparation for our drive across the border into Bosnia and Herzegovina. This morning, we picked up a rental car, said three Hail Mary's, and began the ~2 hour drive northeast. We had a beautiful view of the coast for the first half of the journey, and then trusted Google Maps to take us the rest of the way. What we got was remote, rural Bosnia, complete with remnants of the war, extremely narrow roads, and a Croatian radio station hellbent on playing Bon Jovi and Aretha Franklin. It was a refreshing albeit sobering experience to finally get away from the English-dominant confines of Old Town Dubrovnik and drive head on into very recent, very violent history.
On the way to Mostar, we stopped at Počitelj, an Ottoman-era fortress destroyed in the 1990s and rebuilt to form a functioning yet humbling village.
If there's one thing Eastern Europe loves more than meat, it's stairs, and Počitelj was no exception. Still sore from our trek of Srd, we climbed to the two highest points of the village, and took in Bosnia for the first time. It was nice to get some fresh (although humid) air, after escaping one-lane death on the rural Bosnian roads nearly a dozen times. Before we continued on to Mostar, I had to snap a picture of a satellite dish on a small home in Počitelj. I love pictures like these, and have tried to capture them ever since I attempted to take a picture of a monk eating KFC at the Frankfurt airport but left the flash on.
*Lives in a 16th-century Ottoman village; doesn't miss Bears football on Sundays*
Ready for a quick shower and some lunch, we proceeded to the Muslibegovic House, our home for the next few nights. The GPS only betrayed us three times, and we were greeted by the extremely nice receptionist. Somewhat surprisingly, she said she had a lot of visitors from Portland, in addition to NYC, San Francisco, Boston and Los Angeles. She also told us that she occasionally got visitors from Texas, who were really hard to understand. She said that because the first Western movies that came to Bosnia were, in fact, Westerns, speaking to Texans was like watching a John Wayne film. I thought that was funny.
We quickly rinsed off, and made our way into Old Town Mostar (we're team Old Town in case that wasn't apparent -- New Towns are for millenials). Mostar is most famous for Stari Most, the famous bridge that was also destroyed during the war but rebuilt shortly thereafter and renamed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the early 2000s. This bridge was swarming with tourists, but for good reason. It was absolutely gorgeous, and worth a day trip in and of itself.
Dudes ask for money and then dive from this bridge. You can get "lessons" from them for 20 Euro. Marisa won't let me do it.
Tonight, we plan on grabbing dinner on one of the many restaurants overlooking the river. Tomorrow, we'll head to Kravice Falls where it will hopefully be sunny and warm enough to dip in and enjoy some of the natural beauty of the area.