Today was our last day in Mostar and I was certainly sad to say goodbye. To the city and to the wonderful hosts at our hostel! And also the lovely people we had met here - this was the first social hostel where we had actually interacted with other human beings.
We woke up (with a bit of difficulty, thanks to the litre of wine the night before), packed a bit, and then went down to breakfast. Majda wanted us to help arrange the cushions on the chairs because they had to be removed the night before when it rained. We failed pretty miserably at following her instructions, and she was [hopefully mock] exasperated with us!
After the lovely breakfast with more of that awesome Bosnian bread, it was time to finish our packing. We shouldered our luggage and headed downstairs to say our farewells. Majda gave us both squeeze and told Dan, “You look after Sasha!” And we said goodbye, and walked out the door. Not before one of the ladies working there opened up the big gates as we approached, which was quite hilarious as we thought it was so we didn’t have to climb through the tiny gate. It wasn’t, but it was good timing!
We walked the few minutes t the bus station laden with our things, and waited for the bus to arrive. It was a little bit late, and Dan bought some soft drinks and chips with the remaining Bosnian convertible mark. He got me a cucumber flavoured Sprite. Interesting, since he hates cucumber. It was very cucumbers. Probably quite good with a gin! Although it got progressively more shit as it got warmer…
I fell asleep for a lot of the journey, as seems to be my want of late. So exhausted that I just pass out the moment I’m on moving transport! Didn’t even take a travel sickness tablet. It wasn’t too long before we reached the border crossing - I jumped off the bus and quickly peed (all that damn cucumber Sprite!). The border crossing here didn’t take all that long as our driver managed to nab first place in front of another bus that arrived at the same time.
We drove down the road a little way after leaving Bosnia, and on entering Croatia it took a little bit longer as one guy on our bus got a good interrogation.
Apparently I fell asleep again, according to Dan, after we left the border crossing and stayed asleep for a lot of the journey towards Split. At least it makes it go quicker! I feel bad for Dan as I’m pretty awful company, but seeing as I’m such an awful sleeper at the best of times, I really do need to take any opportunity I can get. It’s like I’m a baby that needs to be walked around the block in a pram to be able to go to sleep…
We arrived into Split at about 4pm and by now I had a pretty one-track mind for lunch, as we hadn’t eaten anything except the chippies. We had a little bit of difficulty finding our accommodation - this time we opted not to stay in the Old Town because we just wanted to be close to the bus station, but to be fair, everything is pretty close to the Old Town in Split. As we approached Apartment Merika, a lady downstairs spotted us and jumped up - it was the owners sister. She saw us into our room and got us set up, saying that her sister would be around shortly.
Literally a minute later there was a knock at the door and I could have sworn the original girl had just changed clothes - they looked so alike! Dan paid up while I researched where to go for lunch.
I settled on a gastro pub/street food on the other side of the Old City, and the weather was warm enough to don our shorts. We reached the restaurant and found a high table outside and perused the menu. There weren’t a lot of things, and it was a bit more expensive than we thought - but it was cheap by Split standards. We had simply gotten used to the ex-Yugoslavia price tags we had been experiencing the last few weeks!
I went with a raw tuna salad and Dan with a fish stew, which came in a big bread roll. The gastro pub had barely any indoor seating - it was designed to take your food away! We weren’t completely full at the end (we hadn’t eaten all day) so also grabbed some rosemary potatoes, which were delicious.
We figured now would be a good time to enquire about the bus or train to Ljubljana so the plan was to wander through the Old City towards the bus and train station. On the way, we passed a supermarket so we got some things for the next day - as the idea was to go to the Krka National Park, we thought we would take with us a packed lunch.
So we bought ourselves some wine (duh) and ingredients for a salad, and continued towards the bus station. On the way, we noticed that the train station seemed to have a specials notice board for trains to Zagreb. Upon enquiring, it turns out we were eligible for these cheap tickets, so figured why not! Let’s get a train for a change - there’s been oh so many buses, and the train was considerably cheaper.
We continued on to the bus station to get tickets for the Krka NP for the next day. The lady who served us was, frankly, a bitch - even thought the sign said we could get return tickets she refused to sell those, and was not particularly clear about where we would be able to get return tickets, until she spoke loudly and slowly into the microphone “YOU WILL HAVE TO BUY THE RETURN TICKETS THERE.” Thanks. You could have just said that the first time, bitch.
As many tickets got as possible, we found a little gap along the tracks of the railway which would pop us out right near our accommodation. Turns out about 10 minutes walk from where we were was a little beach, which I had no idea was there! Dan had been there before, so we grabbed the bottle of wine, a towel to sit on, the bottle opener which was provided by our accommodation, and walked to the beach.
Beach is a bit of a stretch of the term, it was mostly concrete, but there were still a few people swimming. There as no way we would be swimming with the fading light and warmth, but we thought we would dangle our feet in the water. We walked around the whole bay until we were at a corner, and set up camp here. Shoes off, towel down on the concrete. The water level was too low for me to be able to reach the water unless I perched my bum on the edge and streeeeeeetched, I could dangle my toe in. Dan, of course, couldn’t stop getting his feet wet in the cold water.
We sat here and people watched, drinking our 1L bottle of wine (which proved to be a bit too much). A styrofoam box floated over to us, which broke the serenity. Dan fished it out with his long legs and we put it in the bin - doing our little tiny bit for the environment! We poured one final glass into our sippy cups to keep for tomorrow at Krka, and packed up our things and headed for home.
On the way, Dan heard some train noises, and decided he would come back a little later to take some photos. We managed to duck into the supermarket near our accommodation just before it shut and picked up some blue cheese and crackers (because I was desperate for something salty after the wine!) and some puddings for dessert.
Back at the accommodation, I “cooked” the salad (while eating cheese) and while Dan was back at the station taking some photos. I put in gouda, Roma tomatoes, sausage, green of some description, some mushroom and balsamic salad. We would see how it would go - hopefully a success!
It was time to call it a night - it had been yet another long day of travelling and we would have a big day on the morrow.
Til next time,
xx
We woke up (with a bit of difficulty, thanks to the litre of wine the night before), packed a bit, and then went down to breakfast. Majda wanted us to help arrange the cushions on the chairs because they had to be removed the night before when it rained. We failed pretty miserably at following her instructions, and she was [hopefully mock] exasperated with us!
After the lovely breakfast with more of that awesome Bosnian bread, it was time to finish our packing. We shouldered our luggage and headed downstairs to say our farewells. Majda gave us both squeeze and told Dan, “You look after Sasha!” And we said goodbye, and walked out the door. Not before one of the ladies working there opened up the big gates as we approached, which was quite hilarious as we thought it was so we didn’t have to climb through the tiny gate. It wasn’t, but it was good timing!
We walked the few minutes t the bus station laden with our things, and waited for the bus to arrive. It was a little bit late, and Dan bought some soft drinks and chips with the remaining Bosnian convertible mark. He got me a cucumber flavoured Sprite. Interesting, since he hates cucumber. It was very cucumbers. Probably quite good with a gin! Although it got progressively more shit as it got warmer…
I fell asleep for a lot of the journey, as seems to be my want of late. So exhausted that I just pass out the moment I’m on moving transport! Didn’t even take a travel sickness tablet. It wasn’t too long before we reached the border crossing - I jumped off the bus and quickly peed (all that damn cucumber Sprite!). The border crossing here didn’t take all that long as our driver managed to nab first place in front of another bus that arrived at the same time.
We drove down the road a little way after leaving Bosnia, and on entering Croatia it took a little bit longer as one guy on our bus got a good interrogation.
Apparently I fell asleep again, according to Dan, after we left the border crossing and stayed asleep for a lot of the journey towards Split. At least it makes it go quicker! I feel bad for Dan as I’m pretty awful company, but seeing as I’m such an awful sleeper at the best of times, I really do need to take any opportunity I can get. It’s like I’m a baby that needs to be walked around the block in a pram to be able to go to sleep…
We arrived into Split at about 4pm and by now I had a pretty one-track mind for lunch, as we hadn’t eaten anything except the chippies. We had a little bit of difficulty finding our accommodation - this time we opted not to stay in the Old Town because we just wanted to be close to the bus station, but to be fair, everything is pretty close to the Old Town in Split. As we approached Apartment Merika, a lady downstairs spotted us and jumped up - it was the owners sister. She saw us into our room and got us set up, saying that her sister would be around shortly.
Literally a minute later there was a knock at the door and I could have sworn the original girl had just changed clothes - they looked so alike! Dan paid up while I researched where to go for lunch.
I settled on a gastro pub/street food on the other side of the Old City, and the weather was warm enough to don our shorts. We reached the restaurant and found a high table outside and perused the menu. There weren’t a lot of things, and it was a bit more expensive than we thought - but it was cheap by Split standards. We had simply gotten used to the ex-Yugoslavia price tags we had been experiencing the last few weeks!
I went with a raw tuna salad and Dan with a fish stew, which came in a big bread roll. The gastro pub had barely any indoor seating - it was designed to take your food away! We weren’t completely full at the end (we hadn’t eaten all day) so also grabbed some rosemary potatoes, which were delicious.
We figured now would be a good time to enquire about the bus or train to Ljubljana so the plan was to wander through the Old City towards the bus and train station. On the way, we passed a supermarket so we got some things for the next day - as the idea was to go to the Krka National Park, we thought we would take with us a packed lunch.
So we bought ourselves some wine (duh) and ingredients for a salad, and continued towards the bus station. On the way, we noticed that the train station seemed to have a specials notice board for trains to Zagreb. Upon enquiring, it turns out we were eligible for these cheap tickets, so figured why not! Let’s get a train for a change - there’s been oh so many buses, and the train was considerably cheaper.
We continued on to the bus station to get tickets for the Krka NP for the next day. The lady who served us was, frankly, a bitch - even thought the sign said we could get return tickets she refused to sell those, and was not particularly clear about where we would be able to get return tickets, until she spoke loudly and slowly into the microphone “YOU WILL HAVE TO BUY THE RETURN TICKETS THERE.” Thanks. You could have just said that the first time, bitch.
As many tickets got as possible, we found a little gap along the tracks of the railway which would pop us out right near our accommodation. Turns out about 10 minutes walk from where we were was a little beach, which I had no idea was there! Dan had been there before, so we grabbed the bottle of wine, a towel to sit on, the bottle opener which was provided by our accommodation, and walked to the beach.
Beach is a bit of a stretch of the term, it was mostly concrete, but there were still a few people swimming. There as no way we would be swimming with the fading light and warmth, but we thought we would dangle our feet in the water. We walked around the whole bay until we were at a corner, and set up camp here. Shoes off, towel down on the concrete. The water level was too low for me to be able to reach the water unless I perched my bum on the edge and streeeeeeetched, I could dangle my toe in. Dan, of course, couldn’t stop getting his feet wet in the cold water.
We sat here and people watched, drinking our 1L bottle of wine (which proved to be a bit too much). A styrofoam box floated over to us, which broke the serenity. Dan fished it out with his long legs and we put it in the bin - doing our little tiny bit for the environment! We poured one final glass into our sippy cups to keep for tomorrow at Krka, and packed up our things and headed for home.
On the way, Dan heard some train noises, and decided he would come back a little later to take some photos. We managed to duck into the supermarket near our accommodation just before it shut and picked up some blue cheese and crackers (because I was desperate for something salty after the wine!) and some puddings for dessert.
Back at the accommodation, I “cooked” the salad (while eating cheese) and while Dan was back at the station taking some photos. I put in gouda, Roma tomatoes, sausage, green of some description, some mushroom and balsamic salad. We would see how it would go - hopefully a success!
It was time to call it a night - it had been yet another long day of travelling and we would have a big day on the morrow.
Til next time,
xx
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