“The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.”
We enjoyed our time on Korčula with Ladina and Yves very much! It was actually the first time on our trip where we didn’t rush from one place to the next one. Finally, we had time to put up our hammocks and read a few pages in the books which we’ve brought with us - we even installed our outdoor cinema and had a movie night. The camping site was just across the street from the beach and we went for a swim and laid in the sun all day long. Yves and Tom couldn’t believe their eyes when they were sitting at the little peer with their feet in the water and suddenly an octopus held on to Yves’ foot. Of course, he was very surprised and scared at first when he felt something holding on to him in the water, but then, when they realized what it was, they started playing with the octopus in the water and it was amazing to see how he interacted with the two of them, we all couldn’t believe what just happend! We spent the rest of the day being lazy, wandering around our camping site which was in fact huge - it looked like an enchanted garden with old ruins of stone walls which must have been used earlier to build terraces for farming. Later that night we lighted a fire and grilled some delicious Ćevapčićis. The next day, we went on a short trip to visit Korčula, the small town on the island. Since it was off season, there weren’t many tourists. The sun was out but it was a bit windy. We still treated us to some ice cream and pizza. Instead of walking back we took a water taxi and were rewarded with a beautiful view of the city from the seaside.
Farewell…
They next day, Yves and Ladina unfortunately had to head back home, so we all took the ferry back to Pelješac, a croation peninsula. We went for a drink together in Orebić and drove to the other side of the peninsula, from where Ladina and Yves had to take another ferry to get back to the mainland. We decided to stay another few days, since we really liked the layed-back vibe our journey had taken on. Besides, we were well ahead of our planned schedule since we rushed through Croatia a little bit in order to get to the warmer weather - and now it was supposed to stay nice for the next couple of days, so perfect for camping. We looked for a camping site and decided to drive further south to Vucine in Zuljana. We got a spot with an amazing view, we arrived just in time to watch the sunset and cook a small dinner. The next day we went for a stroll along the beaches, it was low tide so it was possible to walk from one beach to the next one. For dinner, we bought fish from the son of the owner of the camping site. He went out that day and catched some snappers with his fishing rod - a condition for Tom to eat fish after he learned about the problem of excessive fishing on his expedition with KYMA sea conservation & research this summer. We also got a bottle of wine from the vinyard of a relative of the owner and it was delicious! We liked the people at the camping site and the spot a lot so we decided to spend a third night - the freedom of having no time pressure is just amazing! We went to eat at the only restaurant still open in Zuljana - it was called Riva and they served nice croatian meals for a very low price.
Yet another new country and just a little booze…
On Friday, we finally decided to leave Croatia and drive to Trebinje, a small town in Bosnia - Hercegovina. To be honest, we didn’t plan to visit this country at all because we weren’t even aware that you have to cross it if you want to drive to the southern tip of Croatia. It is a very short section only and since we went to Korcula, we didn’t even came across that part. However, a colleague of mine suggested to visit Trebinje if we would have some time, and we did, that’s why we decided to go and it was a great decision! Since the weather forecast showed some rain again, we got an Airbnb again. Also, we had to do some laundry and therefore we looked for a place with a washing machine. We were surprised at the very low prices and booked ourselves in for 2 nights. Before we drove to the Airbnb we went to vist the Tvrdoš Monastery on the way, where they also produce and sell wine. It was just about noon when the guy working there encouraged us to taste some wines. He showed us the ancient wine cellar, which was built in the sixteenth century and he was telling us a lot about the monastery, their wine (little did we know that Bosnia is an amazing wine producer) and he also told us about Bosnia in general and about their culture as well as his story of the war which happened there not so long ago. We enjoyed chatting to him a lot. He suggested the restaurant Motel Studenac for lunch and we went there and had our first taste of the Bosnian cuisine. It was delicious but very heavy :D Also, were surprised that everyone was smoking inside the restaurant, something that wouldn’t be possible probably in most western countries (and it was even worse for me, since I actually pulled through with not smoking since we left, and now I was stuck in a restaurant where literally everyone besides the two of us was smoking - note to self: do not go to Bosnia if you want to quit smoking lol). We had to bring half of the Ćevapčićis home with us because we just couldn’t finish them all (second note to self: unless you are starving, do not order a big portion of anything in Bosnia). After we checked in to the Airbnb - a very modern and new apartment - we started doing some laundry. At 6 pm, we met Marko, our tourguide, who gave us a private walking tour through Trebinje ( I think we were the only two tourists in all of Trebinje) . We got the chance to ask so many questions and Marko took a lot of time to answer them all, he even invited us for drinks at his favourite bar after the tour and told us about everything we wanted to know.
History we did not quite know about…
We must admit, we did not know a lot about the history nor the war in the (Ex-)Yugoslavian region. Of course we knew it happened and about when. During the nineties, there were a lot of people coming to Switzerland from this region due to the war, therefore, we have friends as well who originally come from here. However, I guess we were to young back then to understand what really happened, and later in school we never learned about the conflicts here, maybe because this “history” was too young for history class. When we were travelling through the Balkan countries and talking to the people who have experienced this time and have lived here during the war and who were telling us their stories, we got very curious and wanted to learn more. The next day, we went for breakfast in the city and afterwards to the museum, where we could read a lot about Bosnia’s history. Then we headed back home to finish the laundry and since it was raining all day, we watched a documentary movie about the history of the last century in (Ex-)Yugoslavia.
Change of plans…
Einstein’s quote pretty much reflects how we felt - but we were interested. And therefore we decided to learn more. We changed our route and instead of driving onto Montenegro directly from Trebinje, we headed north. We even accepted the colder temperatures, but we wanted to see more of beautiful Bosnia - Herzegovina and learn more about its history but also todays life and culture. We ended our last night in Trebinje after a delicious dinner at Vinska galerija Vukoje with a bar tour and when we walked towards our apartment, there were some younger girls walking in front of us who were obviously going to a bar or night club (we could tell by their style). We decided to follow them and ended up in a Bosnian nightclub called Station. Even though the average age in that place was probably around 22 we had a lot of fun. The music reminded us of younger days when we went out to parties like 15 years ago - it was terrible but amazing at the same time! Since the nightclub was right next to a shopping mall, we found a shopping cart on the way out and Tom gave me a ride home :D we took the cart into the apertment, which was quite handy the next day when we had to move out of the apartment and back into the car, since we didn’t have a suitcase, so we put all our freshly washed clothes in it - of course we brought the cart back before we left Trebinje.