Bosnia to Dubrovnic

Republic Srpska building

Orthodox Cathedral B.L.

On Friday we left Ljubliana and had a day of broken but effective travel. Via Zagreb and the border at Bosanska Gradista we entered Bosnia and made our first stop at Banja Luka. The centre of BL is much improved in the last 15 years. When I first went there it was just to the British HQ located at the old metal factory. I have seen the centre since on several occasions, the last with Father in May 2007 when we had coffee opposite the park at a cafe with Ranka and two of her university friends. Ann and I stopped here and went to try to find the old city centre but frankly there is not much to see other than the beautiful orthodox church and the Republic Srpska building with its two statues of peasant workers from the pre WWII period. The man is carrying a chain flail and the woman a scythe. Apart from the costume which could be from almost anywhere in Dalmatia, it rather reflects the present day existence of those who live in country areas still. 

From Banja Luka we went to Mrkonjic Grad and had a coffee in the square before doing the last hour and a half stretch over the mountains to the Glamoc valley, which, for those of you who don't know is a pretty flat mountain plateau about 20 miles long and 10 wide 1000metres above sea level. It used to be a prehistoric seabed and has very fertile sandy soil in which they used to grow masses of Glamoc potatoes, a specific and very popular variety which served most of the old Yugoslavia with spuds. They also grew barley for beer (“Pivo”) and plums for brandy which they distil themselves (Slivovica or “Slivo” which is like a slightly fruit tasting rocket fuel) 

Ann and M shelling peas + Ranka 

Jefto (grandad) and Ranka

Parked up in Sumnjajce village

Spit roasted sheep

Ann and Ranka

It was the first time Ann had been with me to meet the people I have known for the last 12 years here. Quite a strain but she carried it off well and they all loved her. I think she got a bit sick of all the, now rather tiresome, doc legends, but I suppose that having been visiting for so long and making such firm friendships despite the circumstances of our meeting, I have become somewhat of an enigma in the valley, especially since there are so few visitors from outside, and almost no tourists at all here ever, unless they have got lost! Too much of the four days really was spent just chilling and chatting. Plenty of Slivo and smokes and eating very well with fresh bread, fresh from the garden peas and beans and onions and tomatoes, with smoked pig ( Proscuito), chicken and on one occasion the celebratory spit roasted sheep. The family are just so welcoming and of course it is a delight to have R who translates for us and is now in her penultimate year at Banja Luka University studying law. 

Arzija, Ann and Baba in Dulicani

Macabre  or what!

On Sunday we went to visit A, in Dulicani, a village nearby. A was the laundry lady for the soldiers I was with in Glamoc and we have been friends since. Sadly her dad had died since I last visited, but then so many of the old folk I first knew here have now died and there are only a handful of them left. After we left A, we went to the orthodox monastery as I wanted to get the resident priest to show Ann the crypt where there are hundreds of bones all stored in cardboard boxes....remnants from a mass grave that was dug up of victims of about 2000 people massacred by the Ustazi, the WWII Croation SS.  

The catacombs Jajce

The powder tower Jajce castle
Note students variably working !

Ann and I went to Jajce on Monday, a UNESCO Heritage site, to see the old city and went to the castle where we met a very pleasant lady Professor from Belgrade who was there with summer students doing some archaeological digging. There is an old powder store there over which a mosque was built though never used. The view is excellent of the surrounding town and the ruined monastery. There are also some ancient Christian catacombs there dug into the rock which contain a very ancient secret church. This was used by a wealthy land owner also, later, to use as a mausoleum though he has long since disappeared and the tombs are empty. A foot under would be enough for my ashes, but 60 feet is going a bit much, especially in a damp cold old rock I think!  Better to push up a few daisies or a tree!  Finally we went to see the great waterfall where the Vrbas river falls 150feet from the town into the gorge below. 

OK so mostly us and
not much waterfall!

Can't see the bottom without
leaning over too far!

Auto Praona at work

On Ranka's finger

On Ann's camera

The road back  from the lodge

On Tuesday 20^th, Z had arranged to borrow their neighbour's old Lada Riva to take us up a mountain trail about 6km to a newly restored hunters' lodge in the mountains. This was destroyed by the Croatian Army in the wars but has now been re-built. This was a trip and a half! At the end of the dirt road where they live, Z stopped and took out a wheel brace. He got out and tightened the wheel nuts on each front wheel as the wheels were rather loose! They only had 2 of the 4 nuts anyway!. We then turned off on a track which was part cart and part tank tracks. After about 2 miles he slowed up and slopped. The radiator was boiling. On opening the bonnet, the fan was not working and the water had all boiled away. He phoned the neighbour who said he would come in his second Lada ( the best one). It was hot but the country side was lovely and we were surrounded by wonderful mountain flowers and myriads of butterflies which we took much pleasure in watching and photographing. After about 40 minutes, N turned up in his best Lada complete with wires for connecting the fan directly to the battery, and more water to fill us up, so we duly re-started. It has to be said, this road would have been a bit of a challenge or many 4x4s, but the little Lada plodded on over rocks, potholes, mud and grassy heathland until we finally came to the lodge, miles from anywhere under the shadow of a small forested hill on the side of the mountain. The lodge was very basic, but there were two people already there, a local Glamoc girl who had moved to Australia 19 years ago and her local boyfriend. who she was visiting. ( Perfect love nest!) They made us very welcome and shared their drinks with us. We saw again the magnificent and abundant wildflowers and a large variety of butterflies and tried to picture some. As we were about to leave it clouded over very fast and then started a big thunderstorm with spectacular lightening and we just made it back to the Lada as it started. Next problem is that only one windscreen wiper worked on intermittent(very!) and we soon found also that it had no lights! Non the less, back across this rough terrain, with water evrywhere and the screen misting while I wiped it with a cloth, we made it back after a super and very amusing trip.

Mostar bridge

Mostar souks

On the Wednesday, the family and I were sorry to say goodbye, but we left with the usual requests to come again next year, and headed to Livno to see N. After coffee with her there we departed for Mostar.  Mostar, another heritage site has a beautiful old centre which dates from Ottoman empire times.  It is one of the Muslim cities in Bosnia Hercegovina. I had seen it with Father but wanted to take Ann to see the magnificent bridge which was destroyed in the war and has been rebuilt in its original form. We wandered about in the late afternoon and had enough time to see all the small area including a super old Ottoman Turkish house where there were two wild tortoises having it away in the courtyard.

He obviously fancies big ladies!

We had a super seafood dish in a local reataurant in the old town and went backto stay in the Hotel Mostar where it was extremely hot and humid. The following day I discovered the air conditioning worked by what I thought was the TV remote control
.

Beach at Zaostrog

Stefan, Vanja, Al and Sanja and
Uma and Neo and Ann

On her back again!

Zaostrog cove

Because we had seen all that there is really to see in Mostar the day we arrived, we left and headed directly to the coast to Zaostrog where Al and Sanja have their apartment with her parents. They had invited us to stay for a few days. Zaostrog is in Croatia on the Adriatic coast. A very full little place with a stoney beach that is absolutely packed but it has a lovely atmosphere and beautiful sea with bars and cafes on the shore. Sanja's dad is a professor of sport and was determined to get Ann swimming, which was actually successful and although previously she had only swam a width he gave her two successive days personal tuition and had her floating on her back, getting her head and face underwater and swimming 50 metres plus out of her depth which was amazing and I was very proud that she made such an effort at it even though frightened at first. We had a super two days at Zoastrog and got quite burned as well as feeling very chilled out. The family were extraordinarily welcoming and it was a bit of a wrench to get back to reality and move on to Dubrovnic. 

Placa Stradun, Dubrovnic main street

Side street

City guards

We left for there on Sunday morning about noon and it was only 70 miles down the lovely Adriatic coast road. It was a nightmare trying to find a hotel though. We eventually managed though it was far from what I had hoped for for the last few days together. 
Anyway, in the event it sufficed as 

St Blaise's church

Franciscan cloisters

we were out all the time and only returned for sleep and breakfast. Dubrovnic was all it is cracked up to be. Quite seriously it is one of the most amazing and magical cities I have ever visited and I am sure that it is close with Venice and Amsterdam as one of my absolute favourites. The pavements are marble. The walls limestone and granite. 

Interior Franciscan church

Onofrio's fountain

It is certainly the most stunning fortress ever, and despite the huge impact that the 1991 Balkan war had on it when Serbia and Montenegro heavily attacked it by air and sea and much of it was seriously damaged, the restoration is virtually complete and fortunately this wonderful place is virtually fully restored.. All I will say here is that Dubrovnic should rank near the top on one of the cities to visit before you die! Otherwise I could write a whole page or two on the things we saw there.

Racic Mausoleum

From Dubrovnic, we headed south to stay at a small township on the coast called Cavtat. (pronounced Savtat). We took an apartment there for three nights which was excellent except that we had only cold water ( because we did not realise until the day Ann left that one of the seeming light switches turned on the water heater!.....lesson here...whenever in a new place play with all the switches and control units even if you think you don't need them!)) Cavtat is on a small peninsula and has a wonderful mausoleum on the hill cemetery built by a man named M---------- for the Racic family, a local very wealthy family. The daughter Marija fell in love with this man, even though both of them were married. He was an architect and she asked him to show his love by designing a tomb for her!  Sadly she and her brother  aged 35 and 27 respectively, and father all died with the Spanish flu in 1919 and their mother died the year after, so with the equivalent of 200,000 pounds then the mausoleum was designed and built and is the most gorgeous art deco building with superb 1920's statuary inside. 

Add caption

The old harbour at Cavtatstill receives many of the people who they would have liked to aquaint with...the huge private yachts are just the thing of oil barons, mafia bosses and porn stars. They came from various places including Gibraltar, the Caribbean, Jamaica and the Florida coast. One US one even had it's own garage in the stern with a massive US registered Mercedes alongside the speedboat tender.

Portraits of the Artist and
his wife.

Highlight of Cavtat however was much more rewarding. We found the home of a native artist named Bucovac....Just magnificent. The gallery of his work was wonderful and we both loved it. His history and rise to fame

Jessica his daughter

was a story in itself, but although he had studied in San Francisco, Paris and Venice, and was a professsor of fine art in Zagreb, when the Communists took over they suppresssed him and his works and it is only recently that this amazing man and his work has started to re-surface.  




(Elaine.....check it out on the web....you'll love him!)

Castle at Hercog Novi

Hercog Novi old town

On Wednesday, the day before Ann left, we had decided to visit Hercog Novi, in Montenegro, some 20 miles down the coast. The Customs post was tediously officious with long queues but we eventually arrived in some cloud which soon turned to rain. I had a slow puncture in the front tyre so had to find a repairer. He actually made a spanner for the large hex key that tightens the front wheel....extraordinary. They found a small leak on the rim. While it was being repaied we wandered down into the local town area. Then the heavens opened. We spent some time sheltering under trees until they started to leak too much and finally went to shelter in the dining tent of what seemed to be a summer school camp in the grounds of an old delapidated hotel. I don't know what they thought of these two elderly foreigners wading in but quite frankly it was too damn wet to be concerned about it. Eventually we returned to collect the bike, all sorted out for 30 euros including the making of the tools! And then we went to find the old town of Hercog Novi. Quite nice but a real anti climax after Dubrovnic as anywhere would have been. It is all on a very step hillside with steps all over and actually it was quite a strain on both our knees which we really didn't need. The castle was quite interesting and the town quite pleasant but after the rain, the long wait for the puncture repair and the journey it was all a bit of a wash out and hence we returned to Cavtat where Ann and I spent our last night together before she flew home in the morning. I returned to the apartment for that day and night and caught up a bit with photo  labelling and starting the blog, although I was not looking forward to the long haul ahead now on my own again. I nearly turned round to come back but.... I haven't, so next time Albania and Macedonia.......

On my own again. At the Bay of Kotor
Check next blog....Doc

Best wishes, Doc.








P.S.  Sorry, I am having difficulty laying this out...the pics seem to turn up all over the place so although it's all there it's a bit higgledy-piggledy.