The hardest travel entry is always the last. It’s the hardest because I am now comfortably sitting at home. No more Da’s, and Na’s, Kvala (Thanks), etc. So now, the vacation is just a memory more then anything. Ironically, I was so looking forward to coming home, yet home isn’t so different then Croatia. I still don’t speak the language, still need to convert currency, etc. At least I don’t have to pack up my life into a small pack every night and then travel to a new room.

Last time I wrote, we had just finished our time on the island of Vis and were now headed inland.

Mostar, Bosnia

Wahoo, new country. So we’re now in a beautiful valley inside of Bosnia in a city called Mostar. One very noticable part of Mostar is the divide. One side of the river are the Muslims, the other side…Christians. The other very noticable part of Mostar is the damage from the war. Modern buildings sitting next to blown out husks. Very new looking buildings in a medieval design, etc.

There isn’t much to do in the city, except for walk around. It was pretty hard to see the real effects of war on the city. Beggers on the streets missing arms or legs. Cemetary’s full of people that died in between 1991 and 1994. Destroyed buildings everywhere you look. That being said, the city had a life to it. The old town had cobble stone sidewalks, great architecture, friendly people, etc.

A centerpiece of the city is a main bridge that connects the east side with the west side. The bridge was 400+ years old, destroyed in 1993 (?) and rebuilt to resemble the original bridge. Apparently there is a club of divers that will jump off the bridge if you pay them 25 Euro (around $40+). You’ll have to see the pictures (below) to get an idea of how high the bridge is, but needless to say….you wouldn’t jump off of it. Apparently a lot of people pay as we saw 2 divers within about 30 minutes of each other. Part of me wanted to pay, just to be able to say that I paid a man to jump off a bridge.

Mljet, Croatia

Mljet is an island off the coast of Dubovnik. It’s a small 35km long island. Half of the island is a national park, and it is all highly. We got their and rented a car to take us around the island. Let me tell you, this car was the smallest POS that I’ve been in. The car was standard, so Scott had to drive, and I don’t think he was enjoying the experience too much.

Our first few spots that we stopped were these sleepy little coastal villages. Not much to do besides swim, hop in a boat, and talk with your neighbors. We then stopped in the national park where we swam in the salt water lakes and visted an old island Monastary.

Probably the highlight of the island and also of the trip was our hike down to Odysseus’s cave. Why they call the island that, I don’t know. The story goes that Odysseus stayed on this island for 7 years. We hiked down to this very rocky part of the coast. Forget the hills and rocky beaches. THis place just had large rocks jutting out of the water. The cave went in from the ocean about 25meters and then opened up to the sky. The easiest way to get into the cave was to swim. The easiest way to get into the water was to jump off the rocks. You could jump from various heights, from 2-3 feet to probably around 25feet. The area was beautiful. The water was clear and a shade of blue that is just…pure.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

The best part of Dubrovnik is the old city. The worst part is also the old city. Dubrovnik is a stop on all of the Meditterean cruises, and so it is very touristy. I can understand why people want to go there as the old city is amazing. It’s a walled city with Guard towers, parapats, and drawbridge. The streets are too narrow for cars. The whole city just feels old. You could almost picture what it would be like to live there hundreds of years ago.

Again, the main thing we did in the city was walk around and people watch. We did stopped in a few churches and a museum or two.

Zagreb, Croatia

Are lsat day found us back at the capital of Croatia, getting ready to fly home. Spent most of the day just walking around the city, looking at Churches, and all of the old architecture. Apparently, finding a place to eat on a Sunday is a difficult thing to do…at least in the area where we were. It’s a nice city to spend a half day in.

I wish I could say the flight back was uneventful. We left for the airport at 3:30pm. Scott’s flight was at 6pm, mine was at 7pm. The airport is pretty small, and Scott and I hung out until he boarded his late flight. My flight was on time to Budapest. I then had a 3 hour layover that consisted of watching the Olympics. The three hour layover became about a 4:45 minute layover. The strange thing about the 3 hour flight to Israel is they turned off all of the lights for take off. (it’s around 2 in the morning).  So I start to dose. Then they turn all of the lights back on and serve dinner and drinks. Dinner at 2:30am? All I wanted to do was sleep. Everytime I started to dose, the woman would come by and ask me something. Maybe got about 30 minutes of total sleep that night because of that. Eventually got to the airport and by the time I got back home it was 6:45am. So about 14 hours total. Oye. I’m still recovering.

That’s all for now. Here are the pictures: