The Balkans: Croatia, Dubrovnik

The next morning (Monday 11^th of June) I woke up at 6 am and left 6.15 to walk towards the bus station and buy a ticket to 7 am bus to Dubrovnik. The ticket cost me 128 kn and the bus left 20 minutes late at 7.20. At the border crossing one woman and a boy were thrown out from the bus since they didn’t have visas. We stopped in Neum for 20 minutes for toilet and snack break. The bus arrived on time to Dubrovnik and from the main bus station it was around 2.5-3 km to the Old town, so I took a local bus towards the Old town for 12 kn (bought from the kiosk). I got off one stop before the main gate of Old Town, at the University stop and my hostel was literally on the other side of the street.

The room was a 4-bed room (no bunkbeds) and the owner was a bit untidy looking man that explained stuff to me in a fast forward mode. I left out for a walk, it took me around 5 minutes to reach the main gate and oh it was packed with tourists. I walked through the city walls to the old port and went to find this coffee / bar called Buza that I had seen pictures of. It was basically build outside of those walls in the ocean side.. There were some young British lads jumps of from rocks to the ocean which was a nice entertainment for the people there. The view from the place was pretty nice! 

After I was starving so I went to eat at this place within the walls. I had a little bit of a headache, but I still wanted to start climbing to the hill where you could get also with this Cable car thing. THAT WAS A CRAZY DECICION! I started making my way up and there were so many stairs.. I thought I was already heading there nicely until I noticed that the path leading there hadn’t even started yet.. It took me maybe 20 minutes (with picture taking breaks) to reach to the starting point of the path. And then the hell started. No steps but this path heading up little by little. I started recording videos but towards the end my humour stopped, and I was struggling in the heat. My water run out and I was exhausted, and it never seemed to end. I did make it tho! All in all the whole climb took me maybe just bit over an hour. I was red as a tomato when I entered the restaurant up top. People calling me madam there and I looked like shit in that fancy place.. The view was pretty ok 😉 I drank a 5-6€ small Coke there and decided that my legs were way too shaky to walk back down. I took the cable car back down and it cost me somewhere between 84-86 kn one way.

The place where the cable car landed was still some walk away from the main gate. I was so so sweaty I decided that what ever it takes (except for climbing) I wanna find a beach to go for a swim. I walked towards my hostel and from the Sesame restaurant I took a left and just walked towards to ocean in between the narrow streets. I ended up in a cemetery. Eventually I found the rocky place were there were mostly locals and good places to dip in! Perfect! It was so refreshing!! After I tried to dry a little and enjoy the view and the crystal clear water I walked a bit back towards the old town and found a place to eat since I was starving! Shower and then headed back to wander in the old town. Quickly I realized I was hungry once again and went to eat again :D While waiting for my food I bought a ticket to Kotor, Montenegro paying 112 kn. 

The website I had used to whole trip was called getbybus.com the only minus was that if you bought it online you needed to print the ticket somewhere.. I went to bed rather early around eleven o’clock and didn’t even wake up when my roommates from Chile came in.

On 12^th of June I woke up feeling rather fresh and good. Packed my stuff and left my bag back under this on table and gave my key back. I wandered towards the Old town and I place I had asked to print my ticket. It cost me 10 kn to print two sheets of paper. Then it was omelet time and then to the same “beach” place. I couldn’t decide whether or not to stay another night in Dubrovnik so I had solved it by leaving in the afternoon so I had the whole morning time to chill by the water. Finally, after all them cloudy days (still warm tho!) they had promised a clear blue sky and sun! Well. Cloudy it was of course but I still went to swim and enjoyed just chilling and laying. After my patience ran out of staying still I once more decided to go to the Old town and I had spotted a restaurant with gluten free options, so I headed there for a Spagetti. (I tried to eat accordingly while travelling but I wasn’t that strict if I wanted to drink one beer for example since my stomach didn’t come that sick after).

Then around two o’clock I walked back to the hostel, rang the bell, took my bag and walked 15 seconds to the nearest bus stop. It took maybe 10-15 minutes to reach the main bus station and I was there 14.35 (early as always..). So I went for ice coffee in this coffee place (their ice coffees always comes with one scoop of ice cream and cream). I headed to bus station at 15.05 and for once the bus came early. I was the first one to put my stuff and first one to choose the seat. I wanted it of course from the right side of the bus with a sea view all the way. Here you always need to pay extra if you put your bag “under the bus”. Same way as the air companies nowadays charge you extra. I only had 7kn or a big 100kn note, so the guy took my 7 kn instead of 10kn..

The bus left on time and the drive went smoothly but oh god them border checking’s. Yes, checking’s. If you zoom the map you can see that there are two borders in between there is someone’s land there. At the first border we were 60 minutes and the next one maybe 20-30 minutes. One by one they took all the people out from the bus and walk to the passport control then walk over the border to wait for the bus to pick us up. Ridiculous and so slow! I did get a stamp to my passport tho! 😊The bus took this ferry boat thing to cross over and eventyally we arrived in Kotor (via Tivat first.) an hour late at 19.00.

The Balkans - Bosnia&Hertzegovina part 2

The next morning, I woke up at nine o’clock and I had slept so well! Got ready and left downstairs with no plans what to do. I had thought maybe to go see the waterfalls or go to Sarajevo. At the reception the same nice woman was there, and she told me about this trip to the waterfalls and other places too. It cost me 30€ and left in 40 minutes after I booked it. :D So it started at 10 am to 18.00. I ran to the old town to quickly catch something to eat and then back to the reception to wait for my ride to arrive.

It was a normal car with a couple from Australia and a Polish girl and the driver who was our tour guide. First stop was at this hill overlooking down at the Mostar. They had also a zip line thing there that was brand new. It was quite rough to hear this guys stories about Bosnia, Mostar and the war -93. Since that the city has been divided totally in half. (I arrived to the East terminal for example.) The small city has two football clubs, two universities etc. It’s divided into Bosnian-Croats, Bosnians and Bosnian-Serbs if I understood correctly. He told us stories a little over an hour so  I can’t remember everything. They have different school for kids that are from different “groups”.. It used to be so that all the religions etc. were just divided and it was common that different religions could also marry. Like our tour guide’s dad was Muslim and mom catholic. Nowadays in there it’s a big no no. Our tour guide told us different stories about the war and how his dad had been saved from the sniper’s bullet. The sniper was up on the hill and his dad had gone to the river to get water and had taken his shoes off. The bullet made a scratch to his head.. So being 1cm higher (with shoes on) he would have died.. Our tour guide told us that he was 5 year’s old at the time and can’t remember everything but he can still “hear” the bombs and bullet sounds etc..

-         45 % unemployment rate

-         Average salary 350€/ month

-         "Tito had had the biggest funeral ever held. 700 000 people attending including presidents from different countries etc. He had died before the war and some have said that with him there never would have been a war since he was so good with people."

The next stop was the top secret during 20 years of Yugoslavian time. It was next to the airport and had been build if the airport would have been attacked so the military planes could have been moved to this secret location. It was invisible from the air and from the ground. It was this massive tunnel build underground that had sleeping areas, showers, storage rooms etc. We only had one flash light and it was sooooo creepy!!!

Our next stop was this village which had one of the oldest houses still standing in Bosnia. This one house was built 1520 and it was open to visit except for one room which had the coffins of the couple who had lived there. It would have cost 2,5€ to get in. There was this 7 km river starting from there and the water came from inside the mountain. There has been divers going inside the mountain trying to figure out the source of the water but it remains a mystery and hasn’t been figured out. The water coming right out from the mountain is drinkable and the story tells that people who drink the water will return to Bosnia.. I wandered around the small village and went to sit down at this restaurant to catch a bite. Then we continued our way to Pocitelj Castle.

Hiking up towards the old castle it was so hot! When I started descending from there I stopped to buy pomegranate juice from this lady and she asked me a favor. She wanted me to sit there for a while when she ran home to get some more juice. She had earrings, wallets and bracelet there on this small table that she was trying to sell. So there I sat and tried to sell stuff when people passed me there. She was gone maybe for 10 minutes and as a thank you she let me choose one item from here table. I chose this black bracelet thing. She also said that she had worked there for three years and I was the first Finnish person she saw. After this it was time to continue our drive towards the Kravice waterfalls.

It cost us 8 mk to get in and we spent there two hours. The sun went behind the clouds (of course) and the water was freezing. I tried to go to swim but I couldn’t.. Quite impressive looking waterfalls they were. Sat there at the restaurant eating small meat platter (wasn’t too small..) and drinking beer. The drive back to Mostar took around 45 minutes. Great day and well worth the money!!

When I arrived to the hostel I asked about buses to Dubrovnik and Sarajevo. To Sarajevo they recommended a train leaving around 6.30 and taking 2,5 hours. It would have been to totally opposite direction, so I decided to skip that an continue straight to Dubrovnik. Since I didn’t have any pics of the bridge in day light and left to wander to Old Town to get one (or couple..). I felt so tired and exhausted that after an hour or so I walked back to the hostel to chill. I deleted some photos, called mom and read about Dubrovnik.

The Balkans - Bosnia&Hertzegovina

The bus ride from Makarska to Mostar went smoothly except for this couple and their kid who put up a show all the time while parents were arguing about their future..

Soon after grossing the boarder I realized that Bosnia didn’t belong to EU since my internet stopped working :D I talked with this guy from the US on the bus and he was heading straight to Sarajevo. Crossing the border this woman game inside the bus, checked our passports and then we continued. Then we stopped, and our passports were collected and then after a while they were brought back to us while we just sat on the bus. Easy.

The bus did arrive on time to the East bus terminal in Mostar. From there I just walked straight along this street for about 15 minutes and then stairs up and found my hostel: Design hostel StarMo which was brand new! They had just opened in the middle of April and WOU! Definitely design hostel it was. They had thought everything through and I have never been in a hostel like that. I can definitely recommend it. This nice woman met me in the reception and I paid 7€ / night. On the first night I was the only one in 12 bed room and second night there were two guys there.

After I quick shower and 10 minutes I was out and went to find that famous bridge. Literally stairs down from this small hill and I arrived into Old Town and found the bridge in 5 minutes.  Not too many tourists there at all! I wandered around the streets with my flipflops and tried not to fall down on them slippery rocks. Found some live music and went to eat there close by. Bosnia had their own currency but they did accept Croatian money or Euros so I managed the two days without changing any money at all. It was proper maths when paying mixed with this money:

2 mk = 1 €

1 mk x 4 = 4 kn

After eating I went to sit down in this placed called Oscar with the loudest music in Old Town. Ordered Somersby (4 mk) and the next one was brought to me for free by the owner of the place. Offered me more but only drank two there and left to sleep. Felt a bit underdressed there without make up, wet hair and alone since all the other women there were properly dressed up. :D Lots of Shisha in the bar / club! Also, the souvenir shops reminded me of some Muslim countries with the stuff they sold! Like in Egypt for example.

Really really liked the Old Town! 

The Balkans - Croatia

Finally, the holiday came! I actually hadn’t been waiting for too long since I only booked my flights like three weeks before I left.. But the last two weeks went so slow. This summer it was time for a trip to the Balkans for 4,5 weeks! Woop woop!

I left on 8^th of June at 5.35 to Split, Croatia. My dad picked me up around 4 am to give me a ride to the airport. First, I flew to Riga for 40 minutes, waited there for an hour and then flew to Split. At the airport I found a shuttle bus to the center and it cost 30 kn. It took around 45-60 minutes.

I was starving so I went straight to some place to get something to eat. Then I headed to my hostel called Al’s Place right at the center. They only had two rooms, one for 7 people and the other for 6. After changing my shorts on I headed to wander around the streets and to walk to the view point place with my flipflops on. It was around 30 degrees but cloudy and the whole day it looked like it was gonna rain soon. After my wanders I sat down for an ice coffee down at the main boulevard by the water called Riva.

I wasn’t too eager or excited about the place so I was wondering for a long time what to do. It didn’t help that the shit cloudy / stormy weather was going to continue. Next, I left to wander towards the Bavice beach where the waves were quite big. It was nice and I can imagine it being packed with people on a good day. I went to eat some thai food there and stared at the couple of people who were playing some water games.

On my way to nap I walked passed the bus station and decided to by a one-way ticket to Makarska the next day at 10.45 am setting me back only 52 kn. At first, I thought only to make a day trip there but then my next stop would have been Mostar in Bosnia and the same bus would have gone pass Makasrska anyway… So I ended up making a decision to leave one day early even tho I hade booked the hostel for two nights.

I slept around an hour even tho people were talking in the hostel room. After I showered I headed to wander the packed streets. I didn’t like that it was SO packed. Way too many people in my taste especially when you alone.  I went to eat at this sports bar place to watch some friendly games in football. Then I went to my hostel street for one glass of wine only to notice that it was the only proper party street in Split. OF course.

At night I woke up to MASSIVE thunder storm and raining and people on the streets shouting Wohoo every time the thunder hit. I was sure that the roof was gonna collapse. I woke up many times that night and way before my alarm wanted me to. I was first one up in the room and tried to be really really quiet. I was outside in the tiny lobby a bit past nine to wait for someone but no one showed up. (The reception was supposed to open at 9 am). So I left a note and left my key there.

I went to eat breakfast and then hang around by the harbor and waited for my bus to leave. It cost me 5 kn to put my luggage in the down space of the bus. It was packed the whole way and took probably closer to 90 minutes than an hour. At Makarska bus station I immediately went to queue to ask for a bus ticket to Mostar at 17.15 which I had checked online. I managed to buy one at the price of 117 kn. They also had baggage storage available for 5kn the first hour and then 1,5 kn for the next hours.

Left my stuff there and head to wander towards the town. 

Sun was shining after it had been raining there in the morning since the streets were still wet. I wandered around to the other end of the town and then sat down for an ice coffee. The same kind of ice coffee cost me 47 kn in Split and this one was 20.. :D I sunbathe there for a while until I went to wander again since I wanted to climb to this little hill. I ended up taking another turn and found myself at the beach and went to walk around the whole little forest that there was and accidentally came to my view point place. I walked back to the quieter part of the beach and went for a swim! Loved it. As I was waiting for my bikini to dry I was watching water polo game in the ocean. The had proper beer drafts on the rocks and people there watching, enjoying the sun and drinking beer.

Since I had only eaten in the morning around 9.30 so by the time it was 15.15 I was starving. I ate at this place by the beach and then just left for the bus station after that. The bus was late for 20 minutes and left 18.35, I was supposed to arrive in Mostar, Bosnia at 20.20. At first the bus was really packed but not long since people got of the bus little by little and I got my own seats. 

To be continued...