Croatia Day 8

The Republic of What?

The girls decided to join me in my 7:30 AM ventures out to Mostar before all the tour busses arrived from Dubrovnik. Having seen how charming the town was last night, we wanted the opportunity to take pictures and enjoy it while it was still quiet.

We stopped for breakfast at a nice cafe overlooking the Neretva River where we enjoyed some Bosnian coffee, baklava, crepes and omelets all while being entertained by the ducks below.

We had read that you could visit one of the mosques and unlike every other mosque we have been in, you only needed to cover your shoulders and arms, not your hair (though Jenny did), and we were allowed to walk onto the prayer carpets if we took our shoes off (we chose not to). The mosque was small and fairly simple – far different from the opulent one Jenny and I recently visited in Muscat.

The ticket allowed for us to climb up to the top of the minaret – all 80 steps of the claustrophobia-inducing tower but never afraid of a bit of a physical challenge, I was game. What I wasn’t game for was the exposure on the top. As soon as I stepped out of the doorway I uttered, “Oh Jesus.” The Aussies standing there got a slight laugh out of it while my daughter admonished me, “I can’t believe you said that while standing in a mosque.” Well…first of all I was not in the mosque, I was half in half out of the minaret and it’s not like I could control my utter fear at that moment; sometimes things just slip out. I was eight stories up on a two-foot wide perch with nothing but a hip-high wall standing between me and certain death. She’s lucky that was all I said…

Noella had said how much she would have loved to have been able to swim in the waterfalls at Plitvice so I decided we should make a stop at another set of waterfalls, Kravica, that we would be passing, as they’re said to be similar to Plitvice and you could swim there.

After the success of our drive to Mostar, following the less-traveled route, Jenny decided we should continue with the rural sightseeing we had already been enjoying. She wanted to see as much of the country as possible, so she chose a journey that would have us traversing some of the mountains. There is one thing that is clear about Bosnian roads – they are sinuous, holy cow are they sinuous. The mileage was only going to be 85 miles but the time the GPS was saying for covering that was 2:45, so my concern was ending up on a road we weren’t equipped to be on or suddenly turned to dirt, but she assured me it was all good…

About half way into the drive I wizz past a giant sign flying a flag that is not BIH’s (it looks more like Russia’s) that says “Welcome to Republic of (something or another starting with an S).” I turn to Jenny and ask, “The Republic of What? What the hell is that?” She had no idea and after furiously Googling for what it could possibly be, Jenny triumphantly declares, “Oh! It is the Republic of Srpska.” “Great, what is that?” I responded with an air of concern. She then begins reading, “It is a parliamentary-style government formed in 1992 at the outset of the Bosnian War with the stated intent to safeguard the interests of the Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and its formation is considered to be one of the causes of the Bosnian war.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” I said in utter disbelief.

So, I slowed the car to contemplate our options…of which we quickly determined there weren’t many. We noticed plenty of cars coming towards us, so we decided we would just roll with it. The scenery again was incredible with soaring mountains as far as the eye could see. Noella had never seen mountains like this or roads like we had been driving so it was fun to experience it with her.

At one point, I saw a sign for a monastery that was up ahead and as we rounded a bend I could see it rising above a grove of olive trees and a small vineyard. I made a quick turn in and Noella was pleased when she saw they had a bathroom. Jenny and I started walking toward the monastery to see what it was all about when suddenly we hear Noella hollering for both of us to go to her right away. Jenny and I both start cracking up because we know it has got to be something good. When we get over there, Noella starts explaining that she thought she had walked into a shower stall, we both start laughing so hard we thought we would die. It turned out Noella was getting to experience her first squat potty! Oh how we laughed…

Jenny and I decided that we wanted to go and check out the monastery as it was open to the public to visit (as long as they were dressed appropriately – no skin above the knee and no bare shoulders showing). Jenny and I both had on shorts, as well as Jenny’s top did not match the signage displayed for appropriate tops, so we donned the coverups they provided for just such an occasion.

The main church was incredibly ornate. Jenny and I both love the elaborate Orthodox churches with all the color, images and various objects of symbolism, including the bones and skeletal hand that were on display here in glass boxes.

I lit another candle for my dad in a side building (and paid for it at the gift shop once I was back at the car, otherwise it would have been some bad juju).

It wasn’t long before we were leaving the Republic and were literally a few miles to the border. The roads continued to be sinuous but it was now cut into a side of the mountain. I have decided that Bosnian drivers are crazy. At one point, after so many near misses, I finally broke out screaming, “What the f@ck is the matter with you people? Do I have a sticker on my car that says ‘Hit Me’.” Honestly, every other car was way over the line as they flew past me or so close to my arse trying to pass me it’s a miracle they didn’t end up in our trunk. At one point I made some super quick maneuver to a small pull out on the side of the road to let a car pass me who then had an eighteen wheeler pass him at the same time.

We had had good news during our drive so our plan for the evening was to celebrate Jenny having passed her master’s thesis with an exceptional grade! We are so happy for her and so unbelievably proud of her. Congrats to my girl!