Got a much better, longer sleep – didn’t get up until 7:45 – quite late for me. Had a nice hot shower, did yoga, ate breakfast on the lower deck under the grape arbour, then walked down to the old city with the stuff I’m sending home.

At first the lady at the post office had to go thru a very large book to see if the ‘metal’ things I was sending were ok (saw page after page with ‘Kanada’ on them). At last she said it would be ok and we found a box that was perfect for the various size and shape of objects I had. Ended up being almost 2.7 kilos, or about 10% of the weight I had been carrying. Hope if makes a difference – at least the bags won’t be so full so packing them down will be easier.

Went to the ‘Museum of Sarajevo 1878-1918’ that is at the spot where Franz Ferdinand and his wife were shot in 1914. It was really pretty good – the display area wasn’t huge, but there was a large inter-active computer screen that had lots of different stories about the city and history going back further than 1878. I found out that the name Sarajevo means ‘palace in the fields’, which I thought was quite lovely.

I spent over an hour in the museum, then walked around a bit and picked a nice quiet spot for lunch. It was on a very small back-alley that didn’t have a lot of the normal foot traffic. I was the only customer at the time and ordered a nice cup of black tea and a salad of some sort – she said it had ‘cheese’ so I went for it. Salad turned out to be quite refreshing – lots of cheese (think it was goat’s cheese – white and salty) lots of tomatoes and lettuce (picked out the large onions and yellow peppers).

Got some other restaurant’s free wi-fi signal so caught up on emails, etc. Colin can meet me in France about a week earlier than planned so if I leave here in a couple of days and slowly make my way to France (via Italy? Or Germany?) it should work out ok.

Back at the hotel to sort out my pic’s – another thunderstorm happening in the mountains, but no rain again (at least not yet).

Did more laundry then ate dinner (left overs from chicken dinner last night). Chatted some more with Mirza, and went back down to the ‘old city’ shortly after the sun-down fireworks went off. Just walked around awhile, then came back ‘home’. The Hungarians are apparently hung up at the border so won’t be here until after midnight, and they have to pass thru my room to get to their room.

Nice and quiet in the room, but didn’t sleep too well. Walked down to the old city and strolled around a bit.

When I was studying one of my maps a guy came up and asked if I needed a guide – I asked how much and he said whatever I wanted – he was a history student and wanted to practice his English. We agreed on 10 KM (about $5) and off we went. He was very knowledgeable and had interesting stories.

I saw the place where Franz Ferdinand was killed that started WW1 as well as a lot of other stuff – he seemed to know about all of the most famous buildings and places.

There’s one road that has a mosque, a christian church, a Jewish temple and a Catholic cathedral and he knew the date each was built and sometimes re-built, and by whom. The cathedral has one spot that was shelled during the 1992-5 war and the holes have been painted red – they now call it the roses.

Spent about an hour sightseeing, then took myself to one of the places my host Mirza had recommended as having authentic Bosnian food. It reminded me of one of the Greek places Sue and I went to in Olympia, Greece in 1985 – all of the food was already prepared behind the glass and you just pointed to what you wanted. A little bit of English by the cook helped, or I might have ended up with a portion of okra (yuk!!). I ended up with a stuffed tomato, two stuffed vine-leaves, a large meatball and a fair-sized portion of pasta with carrots and beans (which was very tasty). Grand total 7 KM. Only down-side was they didn’t serve tea and my water bottle was getting empty.

Walked past a post-office and inquired about shipping a box of stuff back home – price depends on weight and you also pay hefty customs. Picked up some fresh veggies and more water at a store on the way back to the pension/hotel, then sorted thru my stuff to see what I can get rid of. Ended up with a nice little pile of things that I don’t really need or haven’t used much. Hopefully this will make loading and packing the bike around a little easier.

Chatted again with Mirza – he said he’ll probably go down to the old town this evening as there’s apparently lots going on at night there so I invited myself to go with him. We left shortly after the sun-down fireworks went off. Tons of people – some places were more crowded than they were this morning. Stopped to walk part way thru one of the many cemeteries on the way.

Mirza went to one of his favourite restaurants so I also ordered a bit of food – a ‘small’ order of chicken with a half-piece of bread. Luckily I order the small – a regular size would have fed me for two days! It’s very tasty too, and of course very cheap.

Walked around for awhile then picked up some fresh baked thing for his dad on the way home. Late night for me – around 11 when we got back.

Packed up and hit the trail for Mostar around 10:45 – sad to say good-bye to Sandra and the owner.

The ride to Mostar wasn’t too bad until the last few miles when the small, quiet road became a big busy one.

There’s only two trains a day to Sarajevo but the buses go every couple of hours. I was nervous about putting the bike on another bus, but the drivers could not have been nicer. They did everything for me and it only cost an extra $3.75 for the bike and all my bags. The drive to Sarajevo was awesome – really tall craggy mountains all along the Neretva river (at least most of the way was along the river). Very stunning scenery.

The bus station was a lot further from the campsite I’d chosen than I thought it was going to be so I took a cab instead of trying to ride with all my gear. It’s actually a house with a small yard in the back, but rather than pitching my tent I opted for a shared room – there’s no one else here right now so it’s actually a private room with bathroom and everything. The host (Mirza) is really nice and spent quite a while chatting with me and telling me all about the sites around here. We’re just a little way up a hill from the old town, so there are tons of places within walking distance, as well as a bike path that goes for miles.

The sundown fireworks just went off – taking that as my cue to shower the road dirt off and get to bed early. There’s a bit of a view of the city from the bedroom window, as well as the outside upper deck.

Got a ride with Sandra to an ATM at a gas station several miles up the highway – glad I didn’t have to ride my bike, as there is no bike-lane and very busy traffic that mostly doesn’t seem to care about cyclists. Ended up going to the outskirts of Mostar to a department store with her and while she did another errand I tried on sandals – the ones I got the other day are a little too big and bug my feet. I splurged and went for a pair that cost 7.50 MK – about $5.50 – as opposed to the ‘cheap’ pair I got the other day.

Went for a short ride after we got back to camp – up the cycle path towards Mostar a bit just to refresh my memory of what it will be like tomorrow. Kind of decided to cycle to Mostar then catch a train to Sarajevo and maybe spend a couple days there before heading further north back into Croatia.

Treated myself to another dinner at the campsite’s grill – this time meatballs with grilled zucchini and fries. Well, they were more like little sausages than meatballs, but they were tasty – had enough leftover for breakfast again.

I’m calling this my day of rest, it being Sunday and all. Started out a bit overcast, although the wind isn’t as bad. Spent quite a bit of time at a table on the terrace playing cards while my ipad recharged, then did a bunch of research on getting north to Osijek and where to stay. Might spend a day or two in Sarajevo on the way depending on trains, etc.

Had to leave the terrace after a while to get away from the cigarette smoke – almost every adult I’ve met here smokes and even though it’s outside it still bothers me.

It got sunny later and I was going to go for a late afternoon ride but a bunch of folks arrived to eat at the restaurant so I didn’t want to leave my campsite unattended. Some other campers have also arrived – at least three vans and some tents. I think I’ve been the only camper here most of the time except for one night when some ‘British guys came back’ from somewhere. They weren’t really Brits, though – they now live in London and were driving a van with UK plates but were actually from South Africa.

Tomorrow or the next day Sandra is going to drive me up the highway to a gas station that has an ATM so I can get cash to pay my bill when I leave. I think I’ll pack up and head north Tuesday or Wednesday, riding the Ciro trail to Mostar and figuring out if train or bus will work best. Finding out online how to get from Mostar to Osijek isn’t as easy as one might think, especially since I have the bike. I’m hoping there is a train that will take me at least part of the way – I’m wary of putting my bike back on a bus. Osijek is supposed to have lots of great cycling paths and I’ve located at least a couple of nice looking campgrounds, so – fingers crossed!

Really fierce wind storm during the night – wondered more than once if the tent was going to become airborne. No rain – at least that not that I noticed. Sandra came in the morning and told me that if it happened again, or any other kind of storm that I should go to the motorhome if I didn’t feel safe in the tent – they are so nice here!

The wind was still coming and going in very strong gusts, so didn’t plan on a long ride, but only across the bridge to the store – and feel lucky to be alive. I had just started across the span when I saw a car approaching towards me – no problem, I thought – no one coming behind me, so lots of room – it’s not a single-lane bridge, after all. Then suddenly a second car pulled out from behind the first and went to pass him. Don’t know if the stupid bitch even saw me, but I hit the brakes and lunged as far as I could onto the sidewalk, pulling my bike with me. The idiot who passed may, or may not even have seen me, but swerved back into her own lane right in front of the car she’d overtaken. I yelled ‘F***’ at the top of my lungs at her, and the overtaken car honked his horn at her – she likely didn’t even notice or care.

Heart palpitating I continued across the bridge to the store and stocked up on more veggies, as well as some kind of crackers and ‘mini Italian bruschetta with tomato and oregano’ in a bag.

Tried to load pic’s onto my blog for yesterday, but even with fairly good wi-fi here it repeatedly failed – seems wordpress wants everyone to upgrade so they seem to make it as difficult as possible for those of us that want a freebie blog site. The wi-fi at my Blagaj campsite was a bit better and I never had a problem there.

Ate picnic lunch inside my tent as it’s so windy outside. While I ate I read an article in the Guardian about a man whose wife died (of acute leukaemia) a week or so after giving birth to their daughter. I sat here with tears streaming down my face and just sobbing – it was an incredibly well-written piece – simple but so descriptive and moving.

Colin confirmed that his house in England is empty 11 months of the year, and that I can use it during the summer as my base! That’s so awesome – it’s in Worcester, and if I can use it for the very last bit of July and most of August it will solve my dilemma of where to spend the last half of summer. Coming back to Croatia or Bosnia and Herzegovina is such a long way – the UK is so much closer and easier since I’ll be in France anyway. It’s an ideal situation for me – I can hardly believe it!

As I sit in the tent here in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina looking out at the Neretva river about 10 metres away I’m beginning to realize how fortunate I am. Many people have told me that I’m ‘brave’ to be on this journey, but I mostly have thought I’m a bit crazy. I’m not sure what I want or expect – some kind of revelation? I’m sure that doesn’t come from where you are physically, but mentally. Perhaps I haven’t arrived yet.

I’ve still not figured out why churches have to ring their fricking bells every hour during the night! In Stobrec it wasn’t even one, but two churches, and they weren’t synchronized properly – just as one ended the other began. Then in Blagaj it was the mosques – not every hour exactly, but in the middle of the night and various times during the day, then of course, the sundown gun-shot followed by wailing. Here it’s another church every hour – how many people really need to know in the middle of the night what time it is? Doesn’t anyone have a clock? Normally if I’m asleep it doesn’t actually wake me up, but if I’ve woken for some other reason and am trying to get back to sleep the bells really don’t help.

Considering how early I got up I didn’t get riding until almost 11:30, after doing a bunch of laundry. Headed south along the Ciro trail 14.5 km to Capljina. Saw the town of Pocitelj across the river, which has some apparently great ruins and old city, but unfortunately there’s no bridge over. Would have to go to Capljina then back up along the M17 to get there so didn’t bother. ‘Bike path’ was mostly paved, with a 3-4 km bit in the middle that was dirt/rocks/pot-holes.

Capljina was a fairly large place (at least compared to Blagaj and now Zitomislici, which is even smaller) rode around looking for a place to get my hair cut. Stopped at one place and asked how much for a haircut – lady just looked at me and shook her head. Asked another lady sitting by the door if she spoke English and she said very clearly ‘no’. Didn’t want to go in to an unfriendly place like that so kept looking. Not far along the street came upon another salon and asked how much – she said she was busy and could I come back? I said no – I need to return to Zitomislici and she replied that if I waited just a few minutes she would fit me in.

Happily sat and waited while she cut a fellow’s hair – another lady was sitting waiting for her colour to set. Rose cut my hair exactly how I wanted it – very short all around with the kind of purple (now rather pinkish) ‘mop top’.

Ride back was not bad – passed the ‘tree trimmer’ again – huge tractor-like machine that hacks the bushes and trees back from the road. Waited a minute or two until he finished the tree he was working on and indicated that he saw me – wouldn’t want to try and squeak by thinking there was room just as the giant muncher moved!

Ate lunch, then had a nice shower – again totally filthy from the ride on the dirt/rock part of the road. Did more laundry – face-timed Dom. Sitting on the lounge chair outside my tent watching the clouds gather and listening to the thunder approach.

Wind picked up pretty good, but no rain, at least not yet. Pretty nice sunset.

The storm during the night wasn’t as bad as Sandra had feared – it rained fairly hard from time to time, but didn’t seem that major. Left the motorhome, did yoga by my tent, ate a rather sparse breakfast – must go to the store – went for a ride just after 10. Turns out today is a holiday of some sort, so lots of kids in the playground here, and most businesses are closed – need to get a haircut tomorrow, I guess, if I can find a barber (my hair is almost an inch long on the sides!).

Not much of a town, at least on this side of the river. The Zitomislici Monastery is right across the highway so went and had a look. A couple of folks were just leaving, so had the place to myself.

As I entered the ‘foyer’ a young monk came up and opened the inner door for me – wow. I wasn’t expecting what the inside was like.

The Monastery has been on that site since at least the 1600’s, as it was renovated in 1602. It was torched in 1941 and most of it’s treasures and manuscripts were lost to the fire. Then it was completely destroyed in the war of 1992-95, before being rehabilitated in 2005. The beautiful paintings inside were done in 2012, according to the monk.

I ended up spending around an hour altogether, including the graveyard and lighting a candle in an outdoor three-tiered stand filled with sand to catch the dripping wax.


Just as I was leaving a van with six or seven people arrived – my timing was perfect.

Took a side road when I left the monastery but eventually it just looped back to the highway. Went back the way I came, then past the campground and over the bridge to the rest of Zitomislici on the other side of the river. Again not much of a town, but did follow the road beside the train tracks until the road ended, then back to the store I got directions in front of yesterday. Loaded up on veggies, etc – likely stay a few days where I am and was almost out of everything.

Got back to camp right before it started raining again, made soup and fresh veggies for lunch, in addition to what I thought was tuna that I got at the store. When I opened the can I was a bit surprised – it was actually tuna covered with ‘Mexican style vegetables’ – beans, etc. Actually not bad, but not what I had expected.

The flip-flop fix didn’t hold – strap was flapping again so tried something different. I sowed the strap on to the sole, pushing the needle thru 1/4 inch of rubber with the handle of my Swiss-army knife – that thing is so useful! The next larger town I’m in I’ll have to buy some sandals or something, I guess.

Went up to the terrace/bar are to sit at a table and play cards. A girl came over and asked if she could play with me – showed me a kind of rummy. Played for awhile – her name is Marianna and she’s from Osijek in north-east Croatia. I believe her aunt and uncle are the owners of the campground and she also just started working here. She speaks very good English, which she learned as a kid watching cartoons and movies. They don’t dub very many shows here so almost everything is in English with subtitles. Might have another change of plans and visit the area she’s from instead of going directly to Zagreb.

Restaurant got busier so Marianna had to work. Treated myself to dinner – skewers (pork) with fries and grilled vegetables. Skewers and zucchini were grilled over wood on the outdoor grill – both very delicious – cost me about $9 including tip. Took left-overs back to the tent for breakfast tomorrow.

Up nice and early to pack up all my gear. Hung the tent, fly and ground cover to dry and air out while I ate breakfast. Walked up to the ATM for cash to pay my bill, and got the German guy that arrived yesterday to take a pic of myself and Nedzad. Found out there was an earthquake last night just after midnight – didn’t feel a thing. One of the straps on my right flip-flop came out from the sole so I glued it back on with my tire-patch repair kit glue – hope it holds when I want to wear them later.

Got on the road to my next stop just after 9:30. The 1 km along the main highway wasn’t actually too bad – it wasn’t quite so windy as the first time I rode (without all the gear) so I didn’t feel so unstable. The Ciro is really nice – paved a good part of the way, then dirt/rocks for the middle bit. It runs along the Neretva river next to the new railway line.

Right at the town of Zitomislici the road continues straight but the Ciro veers left, than right again along the river. I stopped and asked a guy in front of a supermarket where the campsite was and he indicated I needed to go back to the road and up and over the bridge to the other side of the Neretva. Found signs at the other end – part of the campsite is under the bridge, and along the east bank of the river. Took awhile to pick my spot, which Sandra (the owner?) cleaned up for me – raked leaves, etc. While she did that I sat up on the terrace where there’s a bar and a bunch of picnic tables. Had two cups of tea (my own bags – all they have is fruity ones) then put my tent up. Could hardly move when I got up – arms are really sore from steering on the dirt/rocky part of the trail/road.

Had lunch on a lounge-chair outside my tent, then took a really nice shower – I was filthy from the dust and sweat. Feeling human again went back up to the terrace and had the ice-cream Sandra had offered me earlier – very refreshing.

Sat on a lounge chair for awhile looking at the river – someone across the river is clearing weeds or grass:

Just as I was cutting up veggies for my dinner the thunder started and very shortly after the rain came. Brought everything inside, except the campstove, of course – cooked soup in the rain, then ate in the tent.

I’m not used to spending so much time in the tent – the place at Blagaj had a nice sitting area under cover that we got to use, in addition to the kitchen.

Could see lightening from inside the tent, and it was pretty close – the thunder wasn’t very far behind. Was settling down very early when I heard Sandra calling me – she was very worried about the storm and implored me to spend the night in the camp’s motorhome (no charge). Grabbed a few things, including my sleeping bag and moved in quickly.

Did a bunch of laundry before heading out for another ride. Went to Buna, then turned south and up a side road up a hill – got too steep so turned back, then south again to Hodbina.

Took a side road east until it ended, then back to the M17.3 – kind of a main road, but not that busy. Went back to Blagaj the ‘long way’ and did the rest of my laundry.

Tried to find the barbershop so I could get my hair cut, but everything was closed for the afternoon. Walked down to the vendors near the dervish temple and got some more earrings.
Tried again to visit the Velagic Family Complex, but was still closed.

Landlord has decided to renew the lease after all, and has agreed to hire a yard maintenance guy to help out so the neighbours don’t freak out again about the state of the yard. Elsbet is on the mend and Dom’s new chiropractor is helping, so all is looking better.

Nephew Tim’s wife Megan had their baby months early so little fellow is in NICU in London, ON hospital – will likely be there for several weeks. Hope and pray that he will be ok, and get strong and healthy.