The Final Countdown. Day 38: Mostar

We had been looking forward to today for literally months. Hostel Majdas run a tour every second day, I think it's just called Bata's Crazy tour, and I had heard so much about it. Dan had unfortunately missed out on joining it last time he was in Mostar and at the time had been told that if he had let them know in advance, Majda could have put his name down! So this time, the moment we booked our accommodation (back in March sometime), we asked immediately if we could be put down for the tour.

But first: breakfast. Majda was busy cooking breakfast and soon after 9, we were called to collect our plates. One of the tables in the sunshine had been set up to eat at, and so with the Aussies from the day before we all hoed into our meal. It was some kind of delicious french toast type bread - which Majda would only call Bosnian toast, and that red paprika stuff I had been enjoying the day before. Majda came over and gave those doing the tour some instructions: take some money with you, take your passport as you will be going close to the Croatian border, and grab a beach towel - don't take the one from your room!

To be honest, I don't want to talk too much about the tour for a few reasons.

1. You just need to experience it for yourself and I don't want to give too much away
2. Bata is amazing and, as per the tour's namesake, it is a crazy tour, and I don't want anything I write to possibly unhinge that!

I will write a few things though. Bata is Majda's brother and, as we learnt later, was actually the one who started the hostel. He has been doing the tour for 13 years. He himself (and his family) was personally very affected by the Bosnian war - Sarajevo was under siege for 3 years, 8 months, Mostar for at least 3 years and is still having some significant issues. He was 21 when the war began, and was of Bosnian Muslim descent, and if you've read any of my previous posts - this means that he was a target, as were his family. He fled to Norway, his sister to London and his parents to Sweden (I think). They reunited back in Bosnia after the war, and started the hostel.

The tour consisted of:

• squeezing more people than we thought possible into Bata's "girlfriend" Bella, his mini-van
• learning a little bit about Mostar, before, during and after the war
• Driving out to the Kravice Waterfall for a swim
• visiting the old town of Pocitelj and climbing all over the ruins and experiencing the view - also learning about the devastation that happened here during the war
• Bosnian cordial, coffee and sweets at Grandma's house! (This was a massive highlight)
• Finishing up at the Blagaj Dervish House, where a river literally comes gushing out of a sheer rock face as if by magic.

Bata was equal parts completely, utterly, dead serious and could flick in an instant to ridiculously hilarious, and back again. I managed to get myself two mythical euros off my tour by teaching him a few things - the word "immerse", as in "backpackers immerse themselves in a culture" and the old Aussie slang, owyagoinmateolright? 

The waterfall was very beautiful, and we were told to swim over to the waterfall and explore it for a little while. I was a tad surprised by this, and then when it was explained that it was very....r-r-r-r-r-r-refreshing and has a quick current I got quite concerned. I needn't have been concerned about the current, but the .... briskness of the water literally took my breath away! I jumped in in such a way as to not get my head wet (as I still wanted to wear my contact lenses) and had to immediately come back to the side to hold on the catch my breath. 

At the very end of our tour, as Dan and I were walking with Bata, he turned to me and said (NB, it was bout 9pm by this stage, and we had been on the road since 10.30am), "Sasha! Why are you still smiling? You shouldn't be smiling anymore!" to which I quipped, "It's all that sugar and coffee!" to which he laughed. As we approached the minivan, and tiny, weeny teeny tiny puppy came running wobbly legged out of no where and up to Dan (of course, damn Snow White that he is!). IT WAS SHO CUTE. One of the members of our bus picked it up despite Bata's wishes and tried to take it to the van, but another puppy appeared and so the mother must have been somewhere close.

We arrived back to the hostel at almost 10pm, with a massive cooked meal waiting for us made my Majda. I wish I could tell you all the stories Bata told us, but I simply won't do it justice, and how this man has seemingly boundless and unlimited energy. I don't know how he does these tours!

We crashed hard into bed that night, and I had the best night's sleep I have had for a long time, I was so exhausted.

Til next time,

xx