From Hell to Heaven....or so it felt

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We are moving on today from B-H to Croatia and in a way we are pleased.Not that we want to rush this adventure on any faster than its going but because two days in this country has been enough for us.
With what will be a relatively long drive ahead we are up early and down to breakfast.No joking about bacon and eggs today just whether there will be omelettes on the menu again.
The same thick set,efficient man was there and again we were the only people in the room for breakfast.
This time though we got in before he made the tea for us and we ordered up two cups of coffee.
Ah ! he said,expresso!!And two tiny cups of hot strong coffee arrived.OK the cups were small but the strength of the cooffee should make up for the size of the cup.
Omelettes were back on again and they weren't half bad.The man brought us over copious amounts of bread but no spread or honey like yesterday.Gretchen got it across to him by picking up a piece of bread and making a spreading motion across it.Oh,yes and he came back with the butter and honey and a big smile!!
As we went to leave he motioned towards us that we had to pay him two marka(about €1) for the coffees.Apparently these were not part of the free breakfast!!
Now we haven't often commented on our hotel rooms and they have all had their good,bad and odd points about them.
Ours at the one year old Royal though is worth making comment on and we have included a couple of pictures.
Like a lot of this country undergoing reconstruction after the war there are also a lot of uncompleted building just sitting there as if people have lost interest in what they were doing with them.
Our room was a very good size for the amount we paid(€30 pn) but it was the wires unconnected sticking out from the wall in the bathroom,the 3 steps on one side of the bedroom that led...nowhere and the pipes on another wall in the bedroom that looked like this room was going to be a bathroom at some stage that gave this place the wierdest feel about it.
We bade farewell to the husband and wife team at reception who we thought were the owners.he said he would look forward to seeing us next year.We just smiled and said who knows and we were on our way!!
There are two main roads that lead from Sarajevo and in its vicinity to the Dalmatian coast.One we certainly wouldn't be taking because it goes through an area which is a self governing enity within B-H and is controlled by Serbians who would still like Bosnia for themselves.It is here too that the uncatured leaders that the EU would like to take to trial are belived to be hidden and looked after by the locals.To us this road would have an element of danger and adventure even we would not be prepared to take.
So it is to be route #E73 down to the coast which will also enable us to take in Mostar,a city badly affected by the war.
Finding our way out of Sarajevo was straight forward and we left behind the city the same we saw it first with a pollution/heat haze making it difficult to see the far end of the narrow valley.
It was long as we headed in a general southerly direction that we entered another valley with towering mountains and maybe our opinion of this country will change if the scenery continues to be this spectacular.Although we had driven through mountains to get to Sarajevo the other day the scenery wasn't as dramatic as what was before us now.
A little further on and we found a supermarket at the roadside and like we have in other countries we wanted to rid ourselves of the last of the B-H marka and especially the coin which has no value when you leave.So like kids in a sweet shop again with a set amount to spend we hit the supermarket.Naturally as adults we spent the last of our marka wisely buying lunch items and water for the rest of todays journey.
The scenery continued to be magnificent as we made our way further south.If you can avoid seeing the rubbish left on the roadside the views of the deep river gorges with clear water and the towering mountains behind are quite spectacular as the road twists and turns it way south.
At the small villages locals had set up small stands on the side of the road and were selling large jars of honey which seems to be a commodity in profusion here.
Generally the traffic we are encountering today is well behaved.Gretchen noticed that the road didn't have cats eyes down the middle like in Western Europe and she reckoned that if there were cats eyes the locals wouldn't take the corner cutting that they do as the bump over their tyres going over the line would alert them to the risky practice.Well that would be nice but we think also that they are a special breed of drivers in this part of the world who just like driving fast and furious on roads not designed for that sort of driving.
We reached Mostar with a couple of hours and drove off the highway and into the city finding a car park easily.It was in the open but there were two or three burly guys who seemed to operating it so we considered that RR and our personal effects should be OK for the hour or so we expected to be looking around the compact city.
We might have changed our mind on how safe RR would be when we found a parking space and was guided in by a gypsy girl who looked about 10 or 12 years of age.She stood in front of RR and signalled to Gretchen when to turn the wheel to edge into the samll space.She then stood by the drivers window uttering something we couldn't understand but was clearly all about paying her money for her efforts.We sat there for a couple of minutes hoping she would go away but when she persisited we got out and gave her 1 marka which seemed to be enough for her troubles.We just hope RR will be sfae and have all 4 wheels when we return !!
Our plan was to find the Stari Most bridge,an icon of the city that was destroyed by the Serbs in a bombing attack on the city but has since been rebuilt to exactly the same design and materials used in the 1400's when it was first built.
Mostar is a very compact city mostly built on the floor of a valley with some homes on the hillsides before the hills turned into mountains and became too steep to do anything with.
Like Sarajevo many of the buildings we pass as we set out to walk to find the bridge are still marked by bullet and shrapnel holes.Here and there are bombed out buildings waiting to be demolished.The city has a bustling look about it and there are more people here who look like tourists than we encountered in Sarajevo.
We crossed the river that runs through the city in a ravine setting and from a map find the bridge we are looking for about a kilometre or so downstream although we cannot see it from where we are.
The cafe scene is alive and well in Mostar and CocaCola look like they have a good investment here with their umbrellas and cafe furniture in almost every cafe we pass.
We walked through a market selling local handicrafts as we head for the bridge.The bridge is an unusual design that shouldn't actually work.However it does and it is where anyone coming to Mostar flocks to.
Here young men will jump from the bridge about 20 or 30 metres into the swift flowing clear blue river if you throw money in for them to collect.There are a couple in swim trunks talking to their mates off the bridge but no one actually prepared to take up the challenge and from all the tourists walking over the bridge there didn't seem to be anyone to challenge the yourn men by tossing in coins(presumably Euros).
The bridge is quite photogenic with a mosque and stark hills in the background and you have to take your opportunity when you can to get in the right spot to take a photo or video.
We walked back to RR past a very large bombed out building to the side of the car park.I asked a young guy operating the car park why the building hasn't been demolished as what is left looks rather dangerous.He said it had once been a 3 story mall with 9 other floors of apartments on top.Only the shopping mall bottom two floors are left and the owner does't live in B-H so there is no one prepared to complete the demolishment.We guess this is why there are so many other building still in this state.
One of the more noticeable things on the road south other than the magnificent scenery were the road signs written in the two languages of this country,the Latin alphabet which is almost like English and Cyrillic used by the Serbian population.What we also noticed were that the Cyrillic had been spray painted out on almost every sign.A sign of defiance by the Croats and Bosnians perhaps??
The hills became lower and the valley widened and we knew we were near the B-H border with Croatia.Here too another thing became noticeable.Almost everywhere a power line crossed the highway there was a Croatian national flag hanging from the middle above the road yet we were still in B-H.
At the border crossings we were simply waved through,no look at the passports nor any stamps to say we had left B-H or entered Croatia.
It was only a short distance on and we had our first sight of the sea for nearly a month and it was a very welcome sight.
The road,now the E65,followed the coast all the way to Dubrovnik,our destination for the next 4 nights.
There is an oddity at Neum where you cross back into B-H for a distance of about 5 or 6 kilometres and then back to Croatia.At each of the border crossings we were waved through although a couple of cars had been hauled out to the side to be searched.
Croatia is building a major bridge that will skirt around B-H's small piece of land on the coast although there was a lot of protest from B-H and environmentalists against the bridge being built.
After about 80km we reach Dubrovnik with the road high above the town giving panoramic views of the very compact town area.A cruise ship is tied up and looks enormous against the backdrop of the town.
Our apartment is at Mlini about 10km on from Dubrovnik and we found it easily as it is located on the main road.There seemed to be some confusion at our arrival and the guy looking after the place had to get his brother over who spoke good English to sort out which room we would get.And it turned out to be one of the best rooms with a small terrace and a glimpse of the Adriatic.We have cooking facilities here so the microwave will get to remain in the car for a while longer.
There is a very nice looking swimming pool and we just plan to blob for a couple of days taking a trip for a few hours into Dubrovnik one day.
After B-H and Sarajevo with its pollution,rubbish on the roadside and the bullet market and bombed out buildings,the Adriatic coast and Dubrovnik looks like a slice of heaven to us.

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Photos

Murray and his cuzzies,Sarajevo
A girl herded a flock of sheep,the first animals we have seen for ages,down behind our hotel room.Murray was pleased to meet them.

Comments

[Rin]

Love the photo of the bridge in Mostar - it's awesome :-) And love the description of the international sign language used at brekkie - gotta love what info you can get across when language is a barrier! My personal favourite is asking for a bill in a restaurant using one hand to "write" with an invisible pen and the other hand acting as an invisible piece of paper. Yay for getting information across to other cultures while looking like a moron! :-)