Pellegrino Mostar

... in Montenegro. In Croatia the coast starts off flat with some hills but the landscape is mostly desert like and not much to look it. The water though is another story. It looks like the Tidy Bowl Man dumped one of those blue tablets right in and let it mellow a while. Do people even use those things anymore? The clear water was even more incredible if the sun hit it at the right angle.

Three hours later we rolled into Split which is Croatia's ...

... has recovered enough in the country side that if you saw a building that was bombed, it is possible to mistake it for just a really old crumpling building.

Entering the city we went searching for our motel, and promptly got lost. :S Luckily, a very nice gentleman offered to show us where our hotel was if we were willing to follow his bicycle. We did, and within 10 mins we were there! Kriva Cuprija was a beautiful ...

... little rough at 630 AM!!! thank god for air conditioning buses!!! we got to Mostar and went ona 1.5 hour tour the girl was AMAZING the problem was it was just far too hot I was sweating and getting so dizzy I thought I was going to pass out! We went all over to the amazing bridge and to a turkish house walked into a mosque it was so cool the streets were not coble stone but these weird polished rocks that wwwo9uld ...

... Dhruv left his heart (and headphones) in Sarajevo." but refrained. I'm still cool.

When I got in to Sarajevo, my hostel owner picked me up from the bus station, and the ride back was filled with every conceivable unexpectedness I was expecting. Mostar is a small town, if I thought Sarajevo was small, this was a village effectively, maybe 1/5th or even 1/10th the size of Sarajevo. This place was at war too around the same time, but nothing remotely related to the ...

... crossing the famous old bridge several times, visited the mosques, the churches and the old houses. At the end of all that I had a very enjoyable dinner and conversation with a young Canadian couple, both of them are from Sarajevo, left the city during the war.

On the next day, I wanted to take bus to a small town called Blagaj but for some reason the bus did not stop for me. However, this turned out to be a luck in disguise because the hostel owner's ...

... across the street from the entrance to old Turkish Town. How about that! As I waited for the light to change so I could cross the street safely (yes kids, that's right no crossing without a green light!), I noticed the building across the street was riddled with bullet holes. The marks of the war are still ever present in this town. I noticed another building off to the left, half repaired, the other half still scared by war. I ...

... bridge blown apart . Last time that Bill was there the bridge had only scaffolding on it so it was nice for him to see it complete. It has been rebuilt exactly as first built down to the materials and techniques used. The whole Old Town is magical and we enjoyed. Other parts of the town were also being rebuilt but a lot of buildings had been left empty. There were plenty of bullet holes and signs of ...

... was decided that it should be built the same way as the former bridge. Which meant using the same kind of stone, the same tecniques and the same tools. The bridge is today a kind of symbol of unity. The old bridge is also known for the men who dive of it into the river underneath. It is more of a tourist attraction now, but years ago it was kind of a test of manhood. It is very much warhistory on my journeys. Next time I think I will go somewhere where there has been no war. Where is that? Anyone?

... a touristic palace. The prices are quit high (some even higher than in Holland) and souvenir shops are all over the place. The center is losing it's genuine feeling a bit because of this. When we got on the bridge (Stari Most) we met the guys from the Mostar diving club. They were standing on the bridge all the time pretending to jump off. But, don't get your hopes up too high. The only purpose is to get as much money from tourists as possible. I asked ...

... almost 15 years later. Late in the evening we arrived at Plitvice Lakes National Park, found a room at a guest house and had yet another pizza dinner at the restaurant across the street. In the next entry we'll share beautiful waterfall pictures from this amazing park. Stay tuned for more happy travels! Chris and Melanie Note: Most of the historical information in this post was taken from Rick Steves' "Croatia and Slovenia 2007"