Bosnia and Herzegovina

Woke up at 3am after only six hours sleep so it wasn’t any hardship to get up and moving to meet our toursbylocals guide, Matija, at the Ploce Gate at 7am.

It gave me an opportunity to try different lighting in order to capture how smooth and shiny and wet-looking the large, well-worn cobblestones look here. Still doesn’t do them justice. They are really, really smooth and apparently deadly slick when it rains and they really do get wet. 

Anyway, we went off touring the countryside on a 2-1/2 hour drive to get to the bigger must-visit tourist attractions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. But don’t  get too excited….

Blagai Tekke (Dervish House)  billed as a stunning 16th century Sufi Monastery. (It was rebuilt after the war.) 

And Mostar, the second largest city (after Sarajevo) where this iconic 16th century bridge was also rebuilt after it, too, was destroyed during the war.

And then 2-1/2 hours back again.  

There were two border crossings (always fun) and some driving along the scenic coastline and past the oyster and mussel bays. Then a lovely, casual dinner and stroll this evening.

So, Bosnia and Herzegovina - check and check. 

Dubrovnik

Well. Apparently a more comfortable long trip is still a very LONG trip.  I did not sleep at all. Which meant we arrived into old town Dubrovnik having been awake for 23 hours at only 9a. So a long trip followed by a long day 

Our driver from the airport advised us that it is a shame that we didn't come 4 or 5 years ago. In the"before"times. Before crowds. Before rising prices. Before Game of Thrones fan travelers. This is apparently King's Landing. And an Iron Throne sitd out on Lokrum island. 

It is beautiful. Approaching by car. And up close and personal. The old town is walled, of course. Quite compact. And well-maintained.

We are staying in an Airbnb on a tiny street right off the main stradun a couple hundred meters inside the Ploce gate. 

And the weather is sublime. Sunny. Slight breeze. Ideal.  

We wandered a little. Took a rest wandered a bit more and then had a stellar meal at one of what must be 100 Italian restaurants in the old town 

Now I can barely stay awake long enough to write this. Gotta get some sleep.

For now, some pics:

Cheers!

Here we are on our flight from Miami to Istanbul transiting to Dubrovnik. This is the first time ever that we have purchased business class tickets. There was a time when we had banked nearly two million mileage points with American Airlines.  We used those miles judiciously through years when you could occasionally snag a business class seat to Europe for 40k miles one way. Now those one way tickets can run 400k!  I still found some tickets for future trips for 58k and 70k. But that is getting harder and harder. Thank goodness we are now extremely flexible in our planning. 

This time, thanks to Google flight search, I settled on buying tickets on Turkish Airlines.  They are cheaper than American, by quite a bit, and allow for a layover in Turkey including three nights in a hotel in Istanbul. We have wanted to go to Turkey since we took the kids to Greece in 1995. By the time we see Istanbul, we will have visited 77 countries. Not bad for two poor kids who had never traveled before we met each other and miraculously found this particular shared passion. 

We “fondly” remember 44hours of traveling from Mozambique to Johannesburg to Heathrow to Gatwick to Antigua to Anguilla all in Coach! Sleeping in airports or curled up on the floor of the plane under Michael’s feet and the seats in front of us.  We did what we had to do to get where we wanted to go; and that crazy path has brought us right here in this moment. Now the Chef has been by to take our entree orders, wine is on the tray, and we are settled in for a long but comfortable flight to IST and then on to the Dalmatian Coast. 

Cheers, Michael!🥂