Hotel Hum Ljubuski

Sail Croatia - day #3!


Mjlet Island was our second port of call on the sail croatia cruise. (the first being at Makarska on the main land.) We docked in the port town of Polace and there was very little there to see - however most of the island is national park and we hired bikes and cycled up hill (Ok, only one person cycled the rest ...

... that resulted from the collapse of Yugoslavia.
Serbian forces shelled the city from the hills killing thousands and forcing even more from their homes. Croats and Muslims combined to expel the Serbs, before the Croats turned to try and seize all power for themselves. Mostar is now divided along the river between Bosnian-Muslims and Croats. A real complicated situation. Even to this day Muslim student do not study at the same time as Croatians.
On November the ...

... playground separated our apartment from the river.  We settled into our new home for the next three days by promptly making friends with the local kids, who introduced themselves as Rooneys, Rolnaldinos, Messis, but as soon as they found out Jie was Chinese, their names changed to Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. 


Mostar still bears the obvious scars of the war. The town is littered with sealed off ...

... but from what I have heard they normally collect around 60 Euro before they jump but it really is a long way down and can be pretty dangerous. After strolling around Mostar I headed back to the hostel to greet our guide who is the brother of the hostel owner Majadas and who is totally crazy with a big personality and very funny. From the start he was shouting all the time and banging a drum and honking his horn and telling jokes to get everyone in the mood it was pretty funny ...

... reason is undoubtedly that these are small regions. Bosnia is small and Herzegovia is even smaller. Our train trip between the two major cities was only two hours and we were not moving very quickly. Which was all the better as this train ride was truly spectacular. For some reason we associated Bosnia with war and destruction much more than with beautiful green mountains interspersed with stark white crags and tiny red roofed villages. The train wove its ...

... the warm sun- so good. We then went down to the river to wet our feet, the water was so cold! From here we took our last photos of Mostar. Then went for our last wander through the old town. AJ, Rebekah, Shona and I arranged to meet Clare and Celeste at the train station later on. We went back to hostel for a bit of a relax, while eating fresh figs from the tree shading us. The owners were so ...

I woke up at 350 am as Franca had a 5 am bus ride to catch. I walked with her to the bus station but her bus never showed up. At 540, she decided to take a cab to the airport instead. It was exactly 4 minutes after she left that her bus arrived. I thought it was funny. I think the cab driver knew this as his price dropped from 250 to 200 to 150 kunas within 30 seconds. He hurried her away to the cab as soon as she agreed. My bus to Mostar only left at 8 am so I ...

... karayttamaan itsensa erittain hyvin... Mostarissa asemalla oli vastassa autokyyti varaamastani hostellista, ja muutenkin kyseessa on ylivoimaisesti mukavin hostelli missa on tullut yo vietettya. Hostellin nimi on Majda's Rooms ja sita pitaa Majda-niminen (yllatys yllatys) bosnialaisnainen aitinsa ja veljensa Batan kanssa. Valittomasti ovesta astuttua tarjottiin kahvia ja muutenkin vaki on erittain ystavallista. Pari suomalaistakin loytyi. Olin ...

... is a small town that was completely destroyed during the Yugoslav war. It's main attraction is the Stari Most Bridge which was decimated in 1993, but rebuilt in 1997. In the summer, locals cajole money from the tourists in exchange for jumping off the bridge, but at this time of year it's too cold and there aren't enough tourists. The bridge was very picturesque ...

... I did otherwise this baggage fiasco would have been that more troublesome. After the rounds of phone calls, we didn't let the baggage situation hinder us 'too' much. So, we moved on and told Manchester baggage service we were headed to Sarajevo and to get my bag routed there. They said "ok, will do" as the luggage was stuck in Munich. They would have to re-route the luggage to Vienna to get it to Sarajevo which would ...