August 2017: Sarejevo and Serbia

August 2017 Sarajevo

Unfortunately now being in Eastern Europe, we had no internet connection as this area of the world is not part of the free data in Europe deal for SIM cards. Due to this, we didn't realise our host for the night had tried to contact us to let us know her place had been flooded! Luckily upon arrival she was able to arrange for us to stay at her friend's accomodation instead, which was even closer to the old town - lucky us!


























Much of the old town had of course been destroyed during the Bosnian war in the 1990s, when it had lain under siege for four years and came under heavy fire including artillery shells - thousands of civilians were killed. It's one thing to hear that, but another to know there were sniper alleys, where civilians were in extreme danger of being picked off by enemy snipers, and to see buildings still in destroyed states, and bullet holes in buildings.
 In saying this, the Turkish quarter is still intact. The city was far more chic and bustling than I expected, and was really fun to wander.

























We dined on delicious Turkish food for dinner at the originally named 'Falafel Restaurant', eating far too much hummus (but it was so delicious). I also tried fattet hummus (involving fried pita bread and hummus) for the first time and was very happy.
For the ridiculous amount of food we consumed it came to something ridiculous like 6 euro each, so I certainly wasn't complaining!

19th August
The next morning we headed for Serbia, but not before cheekily picking up a stuffed falafel pita from the restaurant we had dinned in the night before! We had planned to stop in a traditional Serbian village we had read about, but the roads were so bad it took us far longer to drive anywhere than we expected, so we had to give up on this plan and drive the whole day to eventually make it to our accommodation.
I was looking forward to this immensely, and not simply because we had been driving all day. I had found log cabins in the mountains on booking.com, and was excited to see if they were as amazing as they sounded (spoiler, they were!)

Biser Lopatnice was every bit as peaceful and lovely as I had imagined. We settled ourselves out the front in the evening air, enjoying the checkered table clothes and wifi connection.

Surrounded by trees, with hammocks, an artificial lake and birdsong, we couldn't be happier to stretch our legs and relax. Our host had left us the usual offering in these parts, Rakia, a hit and miss spirit (mostly miss, to be honest) - sometimes a sweet fruit brandy, sometimes a throat-burning paint-stripper. (One guess as to which this type was!)
Our host didn't really speak any English but kindly offered to make us dinner, to which we happily agreed. Always fun to try the local food! Think meat, meat, stew, and some more meat (in that order). Pea and bacon soup, pork skewers, spicy sausage, cold lamb stew with bread, and a little macaron for dessert with cream inside. Rather intense, but enjoyable!
Feeling slightly like we had been pumped full of concrete, we declined her kind offer to make us a cheese and meat breakfast and staggered back to our cabin, happy in the thought that dinner had not only cost us only 5 euro each, but we had sampled the local cuisine! (something one would only want to do occasionally, I think).

20th August

We were starting to speed up now, wanting to make our way to Greece before we ran out of time, so we sped through the Serbian countryside, not really stopping (speed being the keyword, as we accidentally went slightly over the speed limit and were instantly pulled over by the Serbian police, who then had to use another car load of people they had pulled over to translate for us. It was sort of funny in a frustrating way).
Driving more carefully from then on, we stopped at a small bakery in a random village for lunch, enjoying the local hospitality as the owners kindly tried to explain to us what desserts were what - their English was certainly better than our Serbian!
We walked away with Burek (of course) as well as a jam pastry and a chocolate pastry. One thing I loved about the Serbian countryside was that it is the only place in the world I have ever seen the old fashioned haystacks, the pointy ones with the ladder on the side, like from the impressionist paintings.

Upon arriving in Nis, we realized it was a Sunday, and thus everything was closed. This was pretty disappointing as we had planned to visit the Crveni Krst Concentration Camp as well as the cheerily named 'skull tower', built by the Ottomans in the early 1800s. Alas, we would be seeing neither. Then, it turned out we hadn't been given the right accomodation, and had 3 hotel rooms instead of an apartment. Unable to change it for anything else, and having already bought dinner ingredients, we sneaked the camping stove into one of the rooms and crouched over it wondering if the air conditioning unit would suck gas fumes in and blow up. Shockingly, the answer to this is no.

21st August
We made one last ditch attempt to visit the Skull tower on Monday, but most sites are closed on Mondays and this one was no different - attempting a drive by to see it from the outside didn't work either.
Giving up we began to head out of town, stopping suddenly when we spied a steam train rusting on some tracks and had to have a closer look! Funny how sometimes it is the moment you stop looking that you find something. 

Brač and beyond: August 2017

12-15 August 2017

Brač (pronounced Bratch) was a lovely island, not too overrun by tourists and overwhelmingly picturesque. We spent four nights on the island, staying in Pučišća, a pretty little harbour town built right on the water, as many Croatian towns are. We had a view of the bell tower from our terrace, and I loved watching the bells move as they tolled - no pre-recordings here, unlike some places which have now placed loudspeaker next to the bells and simply play recordings instead! We soon discovered that they rang a ridiculous amount, it started off amusing, but quickly became annoying (though it was rather fantastic when they tolled out the Game of Thrones theme song) 

The island was very dry and arid, which made the pale blue water all the more stunning. It was a lot less green than my memories of Kortula or Hvar, and peppered with olive groves (apparently brought in by the Venetians).

























As always in Croatia, there was a little pebble beach a five minute walk from our accomodation, so we relaxed, swam, and didn't do all that much for four days! It was glorious. On one of the nights we went to a restaurant in a castle in the village of Dol, which had incredible atmosphere and views at sunset.



















We also checked out a few other villages including one which was full of ruined houses and very pretty to wander. We also checked out the island's biggest town, Supetar (which I always misread as superstar) which was also very pretty, but as usual we prefered our smaller, less touristy towns. 

 Our time in Brač was over all too soon, and on the 16th August, we headed back to Split. Staying the night within the city, with the plan for a very early start the next day, to check out the city before the tourist hordes. We had executed this cunning plan before, and thus were repeating it so my brother could also enjoy the city at sunrise, as he hadn't been with us the last time we visited.

























A 6AM start on holiday is never fun, but was absolutely worth it for how quiet and lovely the city is at dawn. We stopped for delicious coffee too, so no complaints from me. I even took a photo of it because I was so impressed! (It's not easy to get a good cappuccino around here).

Seeing the city at dawn is always breathtaking, no matter how many times I do it. Wandering the streets with not a single tourist in sight, only early morning deliveries for local cafes, and a quietness to the streets - magical.

























We had decided not to go to Dubrovnik as it was too expensive (and we preferred Split anyway). Heading off to cheaper, less touristy places, we drove into Bosnia and Herzegovina instead, sadly having to avoid Albania due to the rules around our rental car.

 17th August
Our first stop was a border village just into Bosnia, called Počitelj  (No, I'm not sure how to pronounce this, but in my head it has become pot-jelly, which is indescribably wrong.) It was interesting coming from one country to the next, and seeing the instantaneous change with mosques suddenly popping up everywhere.

This village - described fittingly as an open air museum by Wiki - lay spread down a hillside, overlooking the Neretva river, requiring a steep climb up narrow winding streets to take in both the views and the beautifully old buildings that surrounded us. I also learned later that this beautiful medieval village was put onto the Worlds monument watch, which comprises of the 100 most endangered cultural heritage sites. 


At some point in admiring the village, myself and Christophe went left, whilst  Yannick and Necia went right. Some time later we realized we had no idea where they went. Woops. Fresh fruit and all sorts of bags and scarfs and things were laid out in an array to tempt tourists (we only succumbed to the raspberries!) after eventually finding our travel companions again, we headed off.


Our next stop was Blagaj (said baggage in a french accent perhaps? I wish I could speak Eastern European languages, because they sound bad-ass!) I found this place through internet researching, and it looked too beautiful to pass up. The Blagaj Tekija was the main tourist point here, a beautiful Dervish monastery (don't worry, I wondered what this was too!) From my vague understanding, dervishes are part of a Muslim religious order (sort of like hermits?) who believe that experiences and virtues will bring them closer to god, rather than organised religious works. This monastery was built sometime in the 1500's. It was so beautiful with the water and the rocks, but they had built a restaurant on top of the path so you couldn't get there! Luckily a nice lady showed us a hidden gravel path that took us around the back to a beautiful view - I pity the tourists paying silly prices simply for the view! The whole place was extremely atmospheric due to an approaching storm; huge cracks of thunder and flashes of lightening had us in awe, and then rushing for the car before the storm hit!

Next we drove to Mostar and stopped for the night. We were tired by then and decided to check it out in the morning. Our apartment was nice and spacious, so we cooked dinner and headed off to sleep.

18th August

We popped into Mostar to check it out - it's beautiful in its own right and does deserve time. There were lots of beggars and we had visited before, so it was a brief trip, but worth it. Wandering the main city, enjoying a view of the bridge and the locals baiting tourists to pay them to dive into the river far below from the famous bridge. We bought Burak/Borek (depending on the country) pastry coils from a local bakery and some fruit, and had a picnic by the river. No trip to Eastern Europe can be complete without the ubiquitous Burek, developed in the medieval ages by a baker in Niš (somewhere we would soon visit, though not for Burek!) Oily pastry sheets filled with either spinach and feta, cheese, or mince and onion, you really can't have them too often, but they are delicious and must be had upon visiting the area! I remember driving through rural Greece somewhere on the mainland, nothing but empty highways and half built concrete buildings around, starving hungry, and coming across a bakery on the side of the road which only sold Burek - how glad I was for spinach and feta then! Filling and somewhat moreish, you don't think you can eat much but you soon find you've finished one!

Plitvic National Park - Croatia

9th-12 August 2017

We headed for the national park of Plitvic, one of the big tourist attractions in Croatia (think tourist posters with lots of waterfalls) there are a number of these parks, however Plitvic is one of the largest and oldest, therefore it felt worth spending our money on. It wasn't cheap, at 23 euros for the day, and I did consider not going at all to save money, but it was absolutely worth it! We ate our picnic before going into the park, as we had to walk a long way from our parking to get into the park itself. The lakes and waterfalls were gorgeous, I learned that the water was such an amazing shade of blue due to the minerals in the water; however my favourite new piece of knowledge for the day however was the word for waterfall in Croatian: Splat.


The water was such an incredible blue colour it didn't look real, like someone had accidentally tipped a vat of blue food dye in the mix.


The park is made up of sixteen lakes, divided by waterfalls and rivers, creating a watery wonderland that looked like it belonged in a fantasy novel. Eventually, legs exhausted, we left, checking into a lovely accomodation and then doing very little, tired out from the day exploring. We asked our host upon arrival if there was a BBQ by any chance, and were quite flummoxed when she told us unfortunately not, but the next moment whipped out an electric one for us to use instead, if we liked!

 Another waterfall photo, because isn't it pretty? The next day we drove to Krka, and checked into another lovely accomodation. It was owned by a kind and extremely friendly Croatian women who chatted away to us in Croatian, neither of us understanding the other, but it all seemed to work out anyway.
 The others went to check out the other famous national park of Krka, but I decided not to go as my legs were weary and my money belt was feeling a tad too light. I had a lovely relaxing day, aside from another wasp problem that I nervously kept an eye on. The others reassured me Plitvic was nicer anyway (and whether this was simply kindness on their part or not, I was happily placated!)

Feeling rather waterfalled out, we headed off to the island of Brac! Before leaving, our lovely host who spoke no English communicated to us that her mother in fact lived on Brac and could offer us accomodation, but unfortunately we had already booked a place - still, I love that the offer was there! Traffic to Split was terrible, luckily we didn't miss a pre-booked ferry or anything! We ate lunch in the car and then finally made it onto the island. 

Croatia: Cres and Losinj

3rd-8th August 2017

After an early start to get the car to the garage and see a man about a tire, we were finally able to head off, car fixed (the photo of said happy car below was taken at a different point of time, when we cheekily parked next to someone else touristing along in a car from the same company as ours!)

Out of the islands I have visited in Croatia so far, Hvar and Kortula remain my favourite, however Cres is also a lovely island, and was in fact our next destination. Every Croatian island has its own feel to it, though there is something uniquily Croatian that I can't pinpoint, but one feels upon entering the harbour of any island here, the aquamarine water, the sun beating down on your head, the little boats bobbing in the water, the architecture, houses spilling down to the ocean.

Pronounced Tres (as far as I could make out), this is the largest of Croatia's islands and was once part of the Venetian Empire (those Venetian's really got around). Nowadays, the tourists seem to mainly be German and Italian, and the main money-making avenue is of course tourism. Wikipedia tells me that the Russians have been buying up land here too and alarming locals.

 The island is also full of olive groves and sage however, which is also part of the islander's livelihoods (and make for beautiful landscape and scents!)                                      

To visit Cres, we hopped on a ferry going via Krk - another island which is also beautiful I'm sure, however is known for hoards of tourists, therefore we skipped it. 

 Cres town is one of the main places to visit on the island, however we started our first night in Ustrine, and it was a brilliant decision! Sticking to our trusty booking.com (which in these parts of the world gives you lovely houses belonging to locals, rather than impersonal hotels) we have always been able to find the most interesting places. 

We ran into a spot of bother first facing the common Croatian problem that villages either have no street signs at all, or all the streets in the village have the same name (which surely renders naming the street useless). Our second issue upon finding the place, was that as we had booked the accomodation very last minute, our host had no idea we were coming, and spoke only Croatian and German. Luckily her friendly English and Croatian speaking neighbour helped us out, and we were soon settled. Although the apartment didn't have Wifi or air conditioning. it was absolutely worth it for a night considering the views! My deep and abiding love of air conditioning will soon make itself known on these travels.

The first thing one must always do when on a Croatian island is go to the beach (preferably for a swim) which we happily obliged. The great thing about Ustrine is the beach entrance is gated off across the road, and therefore can only be accessed by residents (which we were for the night!) We smugly made our way down the private road to our beach - nothing can beat a Croatian beach (except perhaps a Greek one!) We then traipsed back to our wonderful apartment, admired the views, and watched the sunset from the balcony, whilst enjoying bruschetta three ways - traditional, with thyme and white wine mushrooms, and peppadews (a sweet but spicy South African pepper) with hummus - washed down with our holiday drink of choice; Rosé.

The next morning our adventures on Cres really began (but first, a swim and laze at the local beach before we checked out of our apartment!)

We headed for Valun, a fishing village which was super picturesque, with little boats bobbing in the harbour. We had to park outside the town and walk in, but this just added to its charm. 

A walk around the rocks led to a secluded pebbly bay which we had all to ourselves! We lay in the sun, reading, sweating and swimming, and generally having a lovely relaxed time.

 Our next destination was Cres town, where we had a nice modern apartment waiting for us (and air conditioning thank goodness, as I was turning into a puddle). Cres town was busy, but very pleasant for a wander. 

The next morning we bought aqua shoes to combat the many sea urchins, and a snorkel for maximum water enjoyment. If I kept every snorkle I bought each time I went on holiday I could start a collection - but alas, I never do. We had planned to go to the village of Beli, known for an endangered vulture species, but it was a fair way and I was more tempted by beaches than birds, so we headed back to Valun for a picnic day at the beach!

This was unfortunately cruelly thwarted by a swarm of wasps, so instead of eating, I read my book and relaxed (read: hid from the wasps) in the ocean.
Our next stop was Lubenice, a semi abandoned fortified town with incredible cliff views. It was so hot however we didn't linger long, just enough time to take in the views, be amused by the only museum - on sheep breeding of all things - and then move on to Losinj, the island connected to Cres by a single bridge.

Vali Losinj was one of our most memorable stays - our accomodation was incredible for one thing, with air conditioning, a full house with a big kitchen, and an amazing courtyard! We were so close to the harbour we could hear a live band playing from our courtyard - it doesn't get much better than that!

 It felt similar to Cres town, but it was smaller and quieter, and the better for it. Unusually for us, instead of rocking up to a restaurant for dinner, we had in fact booked a place in advance at a fancier than usual place, but boy was it worth it. 

 Bora Bar, a truffle restaurant run by a Tuscan chef - need I say more? Well, I will anyway. We started with truffle butter and bread, washed down a delicious Rosé (of course). I had an incredible zucchini carpaccio with pecorino cheese, slivered almonds and a balsamic reduction. I was also able to try some of the other dishes and the truffle pasta was just excellent. Surprisingly, the truffle and honey panna cotta was also delicious. It turns out I really do love truffles!

We loved our accomodation so much we asked if we could stay another night, but it was unfortunately booked up, so we found one with the tourism office. It was nowhere near as nice, but that's what you get for last minute planning!
We decided to go with a Lonely Planet recommendation for a secluded beach about a thirty minute walk away. Usually Lonely Planet has some pretty good ideas, but this one was disappointing, as it was an extremely steep scramble down, and turned out to be rather murky water full of boats.There was a cool abandoned house there though, with no road at all - and a big house too, not just a shepherd's hut. I wondered how they would have gone there and back (by boat?) and who lived there, and how long ago?
After a breather we decided to head back, but forty minutes of step uphill walking in over 40 degree heat was pretty hellish and left me feeling incredibly sick. The others were great though, even when I felt like puking. Thanks family, you da best. 

Our second beach attempt for the day went much better, as it was a little local inlet only five minutes from our accomodation - we sat in the shade of the pine trees and used our oh so snazzy aqua shoes to walk down the cliff side to swim.
That night we made bruschetta again and played rummy and drank rose. If it weren't for owning aqua shoes, I would almost feel posh.

After all our beach exploring the day before we had a very relaxed day. It felt like the heat wave had finally broken, as the temperatures were in the low thirties which made an extremely pleasant change from the 40s!
 As we had our accomodation for two days, we made pancakes for breakfast! In the afternoon we ventured into Mali Losinj, which was another pretty town, but bigger and much more touristy. I preferred Vali. Looking back on those long hot days, I remember the slow lunches sipping rose and playing rummy outside, the pastel buildings and the merciless, scorching sun.
 Early mornings and evenings were my favorite, when the light was softer, and the day cooler, this was the best time for exploring, and we did just that, going for a last walk into town by twilight. 

Before we knew it, we were off for the ferry, headed back for the mainland. We stayed the night in Senj, but the only thing I can remember about that place was the supermarket having only one type of rose, and it was a strange orange colour - it tasted more like white port, but we drank it anyway of course. Onwards!