Holiday weekend in Bosnia and Croatia

This past weekend I ventured to Bosnia and Croatia. It was a very interesting experience but very enjoyable. Our journey started on Wednesday, November 26, and we met at 1:40 PM near the schools and checked-in ane boarded the buses. At 2:00, the buses left for the port of Ancona and about five hours we arrived and boarded the ferry to Split. At 9:00 PM the boat left, and Cierra and I decided it would be a good idea to purchase a cabin for the night so that we could get a good nights rest. We "upgraded" our ticket and went down to the basement and had nice relaxing showers, read, and took our motion sickness pills (with sleeping aid!) and we were soon off to a deep slumber...

On Thursday, we arrived in Split at 7 AM. With our cabin purchase, we were given a ticket for Breakfast which was really nice. It was pretty standard- hard boiled eggs, bread and meats, coffee/tea, and cold cereal. I felt bad for the rest of the gang who hadn't eaten anything since the night before. Anyways, we boarded the buses in Croatia and took off for Medjugorie, where we stayed for the remainder of the trip. After we arrived at Medjugorie, Bosnia, we checked into our hotels and had some free time for a quick lunch. The food in Bosnia was so cheap! You could easily have a full meal and drink under 6 euro. Everyone had burgers at this one place we went to, but since I am not fond of burgers I had a grilled chicken burger- yum! Everyone here on the program goes crazy whenever they see that there are burgers on a menu haha. After lunch we met up with the guides at the main Church in town. On the tour we went to the Apparition Sites. This was a very rocky and muddy trail- I was glad I had my sturdy nike tennis shoes on! We learned that Medjugorje joins two other "holy sites" in Europe as places of Pilgrimage dedicated to appearence of the Blessed Virgin Mary. As we were walking up the hill to the sites we were told the story of the appearance. On June 24th, 1981, at about 6 pm, two young people. Ivanka Ivankovic and Mirjana Dragicevic, were out walking on a hill known as Crnica just outside of town. They later reported that they had gone to look for their sheep to vring them in for the night. They said they saw a young woman with a child in her arms, who beckoned them to come nearer, however they did not approach her. After the tour we met back at my pensione and students of Professor Gbikipi gave a report on the conflict in ex Jugoslavia and their was a discussion. I think they are trying to incorporate history more with these planned GU trips. I thought it was a bit unnecessary after our informative tour earlier that day... oh well enough complaining :)

Since it was Thanksgiving, we made sure to go out for a nice place to eat. Apparently, there really is only a select few restaurants in our small town, so pretty much all of the Gonzaga crew gathered at the "Garden Pub." I felt really bad because there was basically only one waitor and cook in the entire restaurant; I'm sure they are not used to having crowds like that! For dinner, I had a "Piccante Pizza" which had tomato sauce, cheese, prosciutto, and hot peppers... yum! We also had quite a bit of wine (or vino as the Italians call it). After my huge pizza and bread I was definitely stuffed! During dinner I got a call from my boyfriend as well as my parents and brother, who were starting their celebrations early in the day. It was so weird not being there with them! After dinner I came back to the hotel with Cierra and went to bed- I was very tired after all the wine! :)

On Friday, we had a lovely Breakfast at our pensione (which had the best cereal)! and then we all met the buses for our departure to Mostar. Mostar is the administrative seat of government for the Herceogvina region. The city was dramatically effected by the major armed conflict during the 1990s. The town is exceptional for its dwellings and monuments assembled harmoniously over the centuries thanks to favourable geographical conditions and a sound economic climate. Once we arrived in Mostar, I realized how FREEZING it was! I was all bundled up and felt like an ice cube! I wasn't going to let that ruin my day though! As a group we walked over to meet University students from "Dzemal Bijedic" at the Pavarotti Center. These people were very nice! They talked about their experiences about growing up with the war going on, their life as a student in Moskar, and other various topics. It was nice to see their different perspectives about contemporary and current issues. After our meeting with the students we met up with the guides for a walking tour for about an hour and a half. My favorite part of the tour was walking over the famous "Mostar Bridge" which is a historical monument that was destroyed in 1993 during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (part of the former Yugoslavia). The elegant bridge spanned the River Neretva and was designed by the Ottoman (Turkish) architect Mimar Hayruddin. After the tour we had the rest of the day free and somehow I managed to lose my group of friends so I tagged along with a random group. We went to a local restaurant and had some authenic "Bosnia" food. I had a potatoe pie that had a flaky crust. It was really good- and the best part was it was only two euro! After lunch I walked around with this group and just did some shopping. I didn't end up buying anything except postcards, but I was fine with that. Most of the souviners were "scholky" gifts as my mom and I say :). Here is a picture of us on the famous Mostar bridge. At the beach overlooking the bridge, I finally met up with Cierra and since we were so cold we went to a little restaurant and sipped on some hot chocolate and just chilled in there for a couple hours until we had to board back on the buses. It was nice just to relax, read, and write postcards. The buses left at 5:30 PM and we had dinner at the hotels. We had some vinagerette salad, chicken noodle soup, cordon bleu (how random!) with potatoes and green beans. There was also a desert included, but at that point I was so stuffed, I pawned it off on a buddy. That night was really rainy and so we attempted to go out, but since there were overwelming puddles and no where to go really, my friends and I just turned around and went back. Kinda a boring night- but at least I got a good nights rest.

On Saturday, after Breakfast we met the buses at 8:30 and left for Dubrovnik which was a 2-3 hour drive. The picture above is taken from the bus- beautiful huh? This was definitely my favorite part of the trip. Once we got there, we took lots of photos and found a nice little Italian restaurant where we could sit and relax outside. The weather was much warmer there than Mostar. I had pizza (again) and a coke. According to the handout we received prior to the trip, Croatia has a population of approximately 4.9 million. It features a total and border of 1.778 km stretching from the historic city of Dubrovnik in the South to the ancient Roman city of Pula in the North, encompassing a 1.278 km section of the Adriatic Sea. Dubrovnik was founded in the first half of the 7th century by a group of refugees from Epidaurum (today's Cavtat). They established their settlement at the island and named it Laus. I thought this little town was super cute and I loved all the shopping around! After lunch I got some adorable Havaiana flipflops and some other souviners like a shot glass for my friend Kate (we always get eachother shot classes from our travel destinations), postcards, and a fun brown-bowed headband. After shopping, we stumbled upon the "Buza Bar" in the Old Town, which hangs over the cliffs. Some describe it as the "most beautiful bar in the world" What do you think?
I loved the view from up here. It was amazing! After a few drinks, we walked around the scenic Old town and along the city walls which had a great view of the Old town and the sea.
Here is a picture of all of us taking a break from walking along the city walls.
After the small walk, we continued shopping to use up our Kunas that we pulled out for the day. We met up with the buses at 5:00 pm and headed back to Medjugorje. Dinner was on our own, so we went back to Garden Pub. It was still pretty crowded, but nothing like the first night. Emma and I split some white wine, and I got tagliatelle and grilled stuffed chicken (so good!) and Emma and I split a pizza (bad choice because I wasn't even hungry after my other course). I always overestimate my hunger. I think I am starving, but after a few pieces of bread I am already sorta full.. oops. After dinner we went downstairs to the bar for a few more drinks, but we were all tired from our busy day and went home pretty early. I was all ready for bed and then I found out my room mate for the weekend had the key (we had to share an individual key between the two of us) so I had to walk with a couple friends all the way back to the bar just to get the key and walk back again. That was frustrating, but it was just something I had to do... I was exhausted!

On Sunday I got to sleep in until around 9:15, had Breakfast at the pensione, and my friends and I went to a mass at the local church. We thought it was going to be in English, but it ended up being in their native language... turns out the English mass was right after ours. OH well! The experience was pretty boring to be honest- I am not Catholic like my friends (most of my friends at Catholic going to a private Catholic College), but the music was pretty at least. I think I would've enjoyed it more had it been in ENGLISH. Haha oh well... after the mass we had a quick lunch at a restaurant- I had a tomato sauce risotto with fresh vegetables. Then we packed up all our stuff and met the buses at 2:00 pm. From there we drove back to Split (another 3-4 hour drive) and had some free time in Split. We just got some snacks at a grocery store and played some card games to pass the time. I learned a new game called "Idiot" which was super fun. I actually won the second time around! We also played BS- classic! We met up at the port for passport control and boarded the boat. The boat left at 9:00 pm again and Cierra and I got another room. We invited some buddies to join in on the room with us because the quads are ten euro cheaper than the double. The night was rough- so shaky and rocky. At one point in the night it felt like we were totally tipede on one side! It was freaky for sure- I definitely screamed a couple times because I was so freaked out. I wasn't feeling sick- but I really thought we were going to die. The waves were insane! Luckily, I am alive to tell my story... haha not that dramatic; I was just scared. We had Breakfast again on the boat- this time they had scrambled eggs! I was very excited- I hadn't had those since I left the states!

At 7:00 AM on Monday we finally arrived in Ancona. We boarded the buses and had a long 5 hour bus ride. I mainly just slept, read magazines, and listened to my ipod. Around 12-1 we arrived in Florence. Yes, it was 22 hours of traveling. Thats a total of 44 travel hours just to get from Florence to Bosnia and then Bosnia to Florence. I think its much cheaper to travel by boat for big groups. At this point we were all so starving from our long journey, but luckily since it was Monday the pensiones had lunch prepared for us.

WHEW! That had to be my longest blog entry yet. I hope you are not bored to tears!

Arrivederci!