Apparently British Airways partners with this Hungarian airline. You could have told me that before I stood in line for 30 minutes, no?
Why no seat B? Where did the B go? This made me crazy.
Bosnia!
Saravejo
These guys do this every day. I loved watching them interact - truly a group activity.
The guy in the black beret is my favorite.
Main street in the Old City. Sarajevo is all about the sidewalk cafe.
Maja's Fletcher Mobile
Local brewery. Not bad!
Maja! You'll see more of her later, in the kayaking photos.
I saw the coolest graffiti on this trip.
Pigeon Square. No, really - that's what it's called.
BiH (Bosnia i Hercegovina) played Turkey that night in World Cup Qualifications. 1-1 tie.
No, really - it's full of images of Bill Gates.
Game on!
I appreciate relevant marketing.
Mostar, a contested area down in Hercegovina. This is an important building, but the reason escapes me. All I know it was the first stop on Bata's Tour, which is a 10 hour tour of Mostar and near-by places of interest.
Shopping mall, bombed during the conflict.
The first wave of the war officially started here when a large car bomb went off. I think it was opposition to the Serbian military, who were occupying the town and living here.
A big cross, put up by the Croatians when they decided to take over the area. The local Muslim population was not happy.
Burek! Most amazing street food. Rolls of meat (or cheese or spinach) filled pastry.
Medjugorje, a Catholic pilgrimage site in southern Bosnia fit to rival Mecca for Muslims.
Everything has been built in the last 25 years, since four hikers saw a vision of the Virgin Mary.
I found the butterflies and flowers more inspirational, truth be told.
The region is known for its wines.
Like slivovitz (plum brandy), but this type is soaked in walnuts. Good, but not a session drink.
Kravice waterfalls, also southern Bosnia. The water was freezing, even though it was September.
Bata, our crazy yet adorable tour guide.
Rope swing
It's really hard to hold on past the nadir.
Some people were better at it than others.
Higher rope swing, but easier - no land beneath you that you have to avoid.
A swing on a rope.
Charming, but...
very hard to get off gracefully.
Boys in sunlight
They were looking at someone who had just jumped off a cliff.
Climbing up was almost harder than jumping over the edge. Well, except for me. I didn't jump. I don't do well when a running start is required.
Party bus. This whole tour was really an awesome time. And it's only halfway over!
Waterfalls from above.
The tour group. Really awesome people to spend the day with.
Me and two Australian sisters. It's amazing how quickly you take a shine to people when you're traveling, even if you never see them again.
Bata making a point about not dawdling.
Cute dog! There weren't many of those in Jordan.
Počitelj, an old fortress and caravanserai for traders coming down the Neretva River
That way lies Croatia
Mosque, hammam, and places to sleep. This is now an artists' colony.
It was windy.
Moving on to a monastery on the banks of the Buna River. I don't think I have pictures that do it justice because it was so dark, but the location was monumentally beautiful.
No sexy poses and no romance, got that?!
Back at the hostel after a long but fulfilling day. Thanks, Bata and Madja!
Bosnia gets the fully connected tabs. (See blog post on Reverse Engineering for why I took this photo.)
Now heading up into the mountains with Maja.
There's Maja again.
Neron, I think his name is. Beautiful dog, but really stinky.
Hitko's River Rafting and Kayaking business. This place was home for 48 hours, and we loved every minute of it.
The cottages where we slept.
The mountains around the Neretva River.
More dogs!
It was cold enough to warrant heavy wet suits. Fashionable, no?
Sheep! I had missed sheep since Jordan.
The first kitten I was willing to pet in a while. So ridiculously cuddly.
We took the dog with us on a long walk.
On our walk, we picked ripe fruit right off of trees, like these plums here.
Serb retournee houses. These are houses that belong to Serbs who were chased out after the war. They have been returned to the Serbs, but not many people have come back to live here.
While the hiking was beautiful, it was best not to wander off the path as there are still uncleared landmines in the area. Lovely.
Site of River Kayaking, Day 2
I don't think Maja actually wanted me to post this, but who can resist showing off the leopard print spray skirt?
This kayak is really good at turning over and useful for doing tricks. Less useful for learning how to river kayak with instructions translated from Bosnian.
In every picture, I look like I'm concentrating hard.
Photo shoot!
"I'm sorry, he looked like he was gesturing wildly while speaking Bosnian. Could you translate that faster? Thanks!"
When I learned how to river raft, it was in the Dominican Republic and all in Spanish. I mean really, how important is it to understand the instructions?
Jenni, Hitko's wife, was preparing an amazing iftar meal that she invited us to join.
More walking, more collecting fruit. No dog this time, he was just to stinky to have upwind.
This is what haystacks look like in BiH.
Best. meal. ever. My apologies that it's blurry. Chees pie, stuffed peppers, beef, and grape-leaf wrapped things that I loved (and I usually hate grape-leaf wrapped things). I want to go back to BiH just for the food.
Believe it or not, they eat cookies for breakfast. My last meal before heading to Croatia. Thanks for everything, Maja and Hitko and Co.!
