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| Bay of Kotor |
One of the best things about visiting a new country is leaving it again to visit another country. And one advantage of the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s is there now half a dozen new countries to visit. Sadly, I only had time to visit two of them - Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Montenegro.
First up was Bosnia. Armed with my new EU passport, I got picked up around 8am and the day trip started by driving along the scenic Adriatic coast until we reached the Bosnian border. As anyone who has read this blog (basically my aunt and some rando in Hong Kong) will know, I LOVE crossing international borders. Sadly, this one was a bit of a damp squib - we never even got off the bus or had to bribe anyone.
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The world's 2nd most Boring Border.
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It was more of the same in Bosnia, except now that we had now left the EU, even glancing at my phone risked incurring a massive roaming charge. The first sight of interest was actually a new bridge called Pelješac Bridge back in Croatia. Seemingly, the only reason it was built was so that you didn't have to cross two international borders to reach the south of Croatia (Bosnia has a very short strip of coastline on the Adriatic which the bridge avoids).
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An odd bridge
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Our tour guide's English was excellent, and he kept us informed and entertained with stories about the war in the 1990s (maybe entertained is the wrong word). Sadly, because I'm writing this nearly a month later, I've forgotten most of them. One thing that I did remember was that Bosnia has three main religions / nationalities. Croatians (who are Catholic), Serbs (Russian Orthodox), and Bosnia (Muslim). As you pass through each village, the presence of a cross or minaret tells you the majority make-up of the place. However, they all seem to get along, which is great considering how recently the war occurred.
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The 55th tallest church in the world
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The main destination of the tour was Mostar, which was badly damaged during the war, but has been rebuilt and is very popular with tourists.
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There certainly was no shortage of tourist shops
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A wee bridge
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Mostar is most famous for its 20m tall bridge, that hosts the
Red Bull Diving Championships each year. Sadly, nobody was diving off it when I was there, and I'd forgotten to bring my towel so I couldn't have a go myself.
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The very famous Mostar bridge
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The rest of Mostar was also lovely (as was the weather), and scattered throughout the city and the entire country (and indeed region), you can still see evidence of the war.
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| Some buildings had noticeable bullet/shell damage |
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Whereas other buildings are awaiting someone with deep pockets to rebuild
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On the way back from Mostar, we stopped off at the Kravice waterfalls, where my lack of towel (and suitable footwear) meant I couldn't do anything more than dip my toes in the water.
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More pics available on my Onlyfans page
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Still, it was a great day out, and I met a very pleasant Scottish couple from Edinburgh. In fact, throughout this trip, I've met lots of Scottish people - in contrast to when I travelled round the world and met precisely two.
My second foray took me to the country of Montenegro which, thanks to Croatia's strange geography (basically it's very long and thin in the South), was only a short drive from Dubrovnik.
One quick and very boring border crossing later (so boring I never even bothered taking a picture), and we were in Montenegro. The country I was supposed to fly into in the previous episode (apparently I wasn't missing much in the capital anyway, as all the touristy highlights were to be found in today's destination, Kotor).
More scenic clifftops overlooking the Adriatic were the order of the day, and suddenly we were in the Bay of Kotor, where we stopped off at a wee village called Perast, where we all got off the bus for a wee wander.
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There was also just enough time to speculate on what this might be
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There are a couple of man-made islands in the Bay, so we hopped on a boat to go and look at them.
The first island was St George Monastery above (where we didn't stop), which was the inspiration for this famous painting. We did stop on Gospa od Škrpjel, an unpronounceable island with another church on it, and most exciting of all, a LIGHTHOUSE.
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As well as borders, I love lighthouses
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Then it was back on the boat for the hour long trip to the main event, the old city of Kotor, which is actually quite similar to Dubrovnik (see the next chapter, if I ever get round to writing it), although much slower and apparently even older.
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St. Tryphon Cathedral, (built in the 12th century)
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Entry to the old city was free, but they made up for it by charging 15 Euros (despite not being in the EU, they use the Euro) to climb the massive hill behind the city.
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I'm going to climb that
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I was only about 100 steps into the climb when I regretted it, as it was 25C and I was already knackered, but I'd paid my 15 notes by this point, so I was buggered if I was going to let that go to waste. So I kept going, and to be fair, the views were pretty spectacular, and there were a fair few abandoned monasteries and churches to explore on the way.
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Half way there
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I finally made it to the top, a knackered sweaty mess
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Of course, I'd neglected to bring any spare clothes on this day trip, so by the time I was back on terra firma, I was absolutely drenched with sweat, which I didn't think my fellow bus passengers would appreciate. There was no shortage of shops selling t-shirts in Kotor, although it seems to be some unwritten by-law stating that every t-shirt must advertise that the city is crawling with stray cats. So I decided to go all-in, and buy the most garish one I could find. 15 euros later I was walking around in this monstrosity. I give it two washes before the ironed-on pattern falls on.
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| Coming soon to a charity shop near you... |
And coming soon (hopefully) the final chapter of this thrilling mini-adventure ... Dubrovnik. And some real pals!
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