Day 9b--How much is a pound of gold worth?

We arrived in Ston, another ‘bottleneck’ city from the 14^th century.  Whether you  were migrating or pillaging in this part of Dalmatia, you needed to pass Ston.  Hence the “Great Wall of Croatia”, quite intimidating actually.  We choose not to ‘stair-step’ it to the top.  The primary reason for the wall was to protect the salt production!  “How much is a pound of gold worth", well, less than a pound of salt in those days!  They still produce it here to this day.  But, we got ours from a shaker.

Onward to Split where we will stay for two days, an amazing autobahn to get there.  First rate.  They even take care of the migrating animals with these overpasses.  Quite a contrast to getting from point A to point B from a few days ago as we ground away on dirt roads to return to Dubrovnik!  The $8 was worth it but wouldn't want to do a round trip commute at that fee.

Day 9a--Why we haven't found any AED's in Bosnia and Croatia it's.........

The Coffee!!

Let me explain.  When we travel, one of the first things we do is to go to the market to stock up on breakfast food.  Most Airbnb's don't have any breakfast items so we pick up fruit, bread, peanut butter, juice and coffee.  Usually a sack of coffee grounds to put in either a drip or french press.

When we started to make the coffee the first day, we discovered instead of ground beans we had powder!  Hmm,  did we get instant accidentally?  (all labeling is in the local language), or is this how they grind their beans.  First, we tried the powder in a drip coffee maker.  Worked ok but seemed to clog the filter.  Then after a couple of days of observing and research, we discovered the answer.

No drip, no press, you put a couple of teaspoons of the powder in a small teacup, pour in your hot water, stir it and start sipping.  Stir, sip, stir sip.  The goal at the end of the cup is to have drunk all the water and all of the powder.  (We did draw the line on a couple of cigarettes while doing so).  There you have it, coffee Baltic style, and a rush that only an AED can duplicate!

And, we can't finish our discussion of coffee without talking about Nescafe's 3 in 1.
This ubiquitous mix if found world-wide.  It is, indeed, a 'classic'.  The perfect lazy traveller's
pick-me-up.  One third instant coffee, one third instant creamer and one third instant sugar.

A few odds and ends:

Need a 'ready-made drain' in your parking area.  An old wheel works great.
 Solidly built, it has plenty of drain holes.  And a bit stylish.

We find this on numerous buildings......Makes sense!

Not sure what the heck this means!

Day 8--Marco........Polo.........

A drive and ferry ride from Dubrovnik takes us to the island of Korcula.  Still on the Dalmantion Coast.  The draw here is the town of Korcula and different beaches to visit and enjoy.  The bonus as we walked the old town was the discovery of Marco Polo's birth house.  (And the souvenir shop next door).

We all thought that Marco Polo was born in Venice in 1254, and, actually so do the scholars!  But, Croatia claims his birthplace and to "prove it" when China opened a Marco Polo Museum a few years back, the former President of Croatia cut the ribbon!  THAT did not go over well with the Italians.  They did everything but threaten war against the Croatians.  Life goes on........

This is Croatia's Napa Valley.  Vineyards everywhere.  Beautiful

The water of the Adriatic Sea continues to amaze us.  Warm, clear and inviting.  Hawaii could take a lesson.  Tomorrow we head north to Split for two days.

Day 7--Chillin' on the Dalmatian Coast

Butterflies everywhere!  Taking a sip.

No, they didn't name the Dalmatian Coast after the dog.  Rather a tribe called Dalmatae in antiquity over 2000 years ago.  More of a "Game of Throne" origin than anything.  (Which, by the way, Dubrovnik was "King's Landing".)  Today we headed to Mljet Island.  (You can't buy enough vowels in Croatia).  A great little island with some great history.

First, in the eighth century BC, it is thought that Homer spent time here.  His Ulysses fell in love with a beautiful nymph named Calypso, they then spent seven years in a cave.  Flash forward to the New Testament!  St. Paul spent time here shipwrecked.  Now for you Bible nerds, you are saying, "No, he was shipwrecked on Malta!"  The name of the island, "Melita" can be used for either island.  However, current scholarship now disputes the 'Malta story' due to trade winds and if you know the Bible story well, Paul got bit by a snake, tossed it into a fire and lived to tell about it.  Indeed, Malta never has had snakes.

Currently, there is a tidy little Benedictine Monastery on St. Mary island in Jljet Island (!)  When we were in the chapel, the monks started singing and the sunlight came through a window, perfect!

Day 6--Don't always listen to the locals

First, a bit of catch up.  Our drive from Sarajevo to Mostar was pleasant and uneventful.  Again, nice scenery.  A great Mediterranean climate.  Both big and small farms and gardens.  No farm machinery though.  Just lots of hard work to cultivate and harvest the crops.
 

                        

Mostar is much smaller than Sarajevo, more rural with more contrasts.  Let me explain.  When Bosnia was rebuilt after the Homeland War, most of the money that wasn't skimmed off the top by the government officials went to Sarajevo.  The smaller similarly devastated communities stumbled on along with less world-wide attention and money.  Mostar is a good example.

Most buildings are rebuilt, but many are not.  Abandoned with nature taking over both inside and out.  Eventually, these abandoned buildings will almost disappear with trees and undergrowth, at least in the summer when they are leafed out.

Different owners, different results.  The first floor has been renovated in these
two buildings, not the 2nd floor! 

A bank owned the building on the left.  It went out of business
during the war.

No records of who owned this building.  Amazing to realize that almost all of the
buildings of Mostar looked like this just 25 years ago

Another tragedy and triumph is the Stari Most bridge.  This Ottoman 16th century bridge rivalled any in Venice Italy.  Both in beauty, utility and age.  As the Serbians systematically bombed Mostar, primarily because it had a majority Muslim population, it especially focused on all the bridges.  All seven of them.  The one they wanted to destroy the most and fell the last was the Stari Most bridge.  Well built 452 years ago. But indeed, with enough explosives and bombs, it finally collapsed.

The rebuilt Stari Most bridge.

Many of the cobblestones are original.  You are looking at over 450 years of wear

After the war, however, the Stari Most bridge became a rallying point for the country to rebuild not only it but the country as well.  It took $12 million and longer to rebuild it than it took to construct it originally, but they and we felt it was worth it!  It is a beautiful bridge, and if not bombed again, should last for another 500 years.

Speaking of the 'next time', our Airbnb host who was 17 during the war, sighed that about every 40 years Bosnia has another war and needs to be rebuilt.  Hmm, WW II, Homeland War, what will happen in 2035?  Only 17 years from now.

A beautiful Airbnb, a short walking distance to Old Town and an amazing Bosnian dinner meal.  Now today, day 6.  I am actually writing this in the car waiting to pass through the border between Bosnia and Croatia.  Our Airbnb host told us of a 'special' way to miss the eternally long border crossing between the two countries. He even put it in my phone.  We started out and 2 hours later after we spent way too much time on dirt roads between farms (!), we ended up at a practically abandoned boarder crossing with no cars and one sleepy official in the guard house.  The only problem was, this crossing was for Croatian or Bosnians only!!!

We were surprised that Google even knew about this road!!

We had to turn around, wind our way through the same farms and the same dirt roads to end up in line with 30 other cars to creep through the 'official' border crossing.  It is now 7pm, we were expecting to be at the border at 4pm.  A late dinner tonight with the locals.

Day 5b--A pope and a president visit Sarajevo

Yesterday's post was a bit dark.  Today, happier........

After the end of hostilities and the trading of POWs, it was time to rebuild Bosnia.  I won't go into what was gained or lost, this cycle of violence, superficial reconciliation and rebuilding is as old as humanity itself.  The weapons only get more deadly.  (Sorry, I am going dark again)

Soon after the cease-fire both Pope John Paul and President Clinton visited Sarajevo.  The pope brought hope, Clinton brought money, they needed both.  A few more pictures.

A great statue of Pope John Paul.  A local thanking him.

The American Embassy as seen from the 'Twist Tower'.  By taking this picture, I think I broke the law.

Call to afternoon prayer at a local mosque

                       

                                                     

Typical Muslim headstones in front of the Mosque

                                   

Look carefully at the hundreds of bullet and shrapnel holes, you can see
why no glass survived during the siege.

Another great drive to our next destination, Mostar.

As we leave Sarajevo, we see this.  We will......unfortunately. 

Day 5a--Sadness at Romeo and Juliet Bridge

(Personal Note)  The last two days in Sarajevo have reminded me of our first trip to Cambodia for service dentistry.  We arrived a day before our team and took the time to go the the Killing Fields outside of Phnom Penh. (If you are unfamiliar with this topic, go to Wikipedia).  Curation of the sight was minimal.  The rice paddies had been drained but what was littered throughout the area, only partially submerged in the mud, were pieces of clothing and innumerable teeth from many of the one million people killed from 1970-1975.

My point?  The impact of the countless teeth in the mud indelibly impacted our next week of doing volunteer dentistry in six orphanages in Cambodia.  And, indeed, I've not allowed that feeling to fade ever since.  Now, Sarajevo, and another memory which will not/should not dim.

First, a story, than a monument.    Admira Ismic and Bosko Brkic were lovers.  They had met at the Sarajevo Olympics in 1984 when they were teenagers.  Now, they were 25 year-old college students when the siege began.  They wanted to escape Sarajevo to continue their life together, but in addition to the war there was another problem; Admira was a Bosniac Muslim and Bosko was a Serbian Orthodox Christian.  However, to leave, one needed to go through "Snipers Alley".  Serbs had been killing Bosnians there since the beginning of the siege.  A no-man's-land.

Bosko had a contact in the Serbian Army and had been promised safe passage.  But, on May 19,1993, as soon they stepped on the Vrganja Bridge, Bosko was instantly killed by a snipers bullet.  Within seconds, Admira too was mortally wounded.  As people on both sides watched, she crawled over to Bosko, put her arm around him and died in a lover's embrace.  The two lay there for four days.  Finally, Serbs forced Muslim POW's to recover the bodies.

Embedded corespondent Kurt Schork filed a story with Reuters telling the world about the tragedy and senselessness of the destruction of Sarajevo.  The world renamed Vrgania Bridge the 'Romeo and Juliet Bridge' due to their love destroyed by the violence surrounding it.  Some believe that the senselessness of their deaths and the world's reaction to it, forced, in part, the opposing sides to the negotiating table to help bring the war to a close.

File Photo   

A sad postscript to this story.  Kurt Schork was killed on assignment in Sierra Leone in 2000.  Half of his ashes were buried next to the grave of Admira and Bosko.



Now a monument.  Officially named 'The Memorial to the Children of Sarajevo'.  It has three parts.  In the middle of the monument are glass pillars representing sandcastles that will never be built.  To the left of the sandcastles, on silver pillars, are the names of the 1,600 children who died during the Sarajevo Siege.  But, most heartrending, surrounding the glass sand castles are the footprints of the brothers and sisters of the children killed in the war.  Difficult to ponder.

                                         

 

In conclusion, I share Admira Ismic's father's comments: "Love took them to their deaths.  That's proof this is not a war between Serbs and Muslims.  It's a war between crazy people, between monsters..............