Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia: My life on the bus

For starters here's a map of Bosnia and Croatia for your reference:

Overall I am so happy that I went to Bosnia and Croatia! Those countries are truly beautiful. I loved Bosnia because I got to see trees again! Florence doesn’t have much in the way of trees, and being from the Northwest I really love trees.

The history of the Balkans and the former Yugoslavia is not very happy. During my time in Bosnia I learned a lot about the war there and how the people and landscapes have been affected. You may remember some years ago during the Clinton administration when America went to Bosnia and it was quite a controversy. Let me tell you that the people of Bosnia are quite fond of Clinton and what he did for them.

The journey to Bosnia began on Wednesday (October 31^st) afternoon with a 5 hour bus ride from Florence to the port in Ancona. We took an overnight ferry to Split, Croatia. The overnight ferry was not very fun, it was difficult to sleep because the lights were on and it was pretty noisy. A lot of people slept on the floor because the chairs were not very conducive to sleeping. After the ferry arrived in the morning we drove on the buses another 4 hours to Medjugorje (Med-u-gor-ia) Bosnia. You may want to look at the map of Bosnia and Croatia to see the places I’m talking about. This drive was incredible! We drove along the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia which is gorgeous! It was also scary because the bus was so close to the cliffs the whole time! We also went through the Bosnian countryside which was very rocky and the trees were all changing colors for Fall.

One we arrived in Medjugorje we checked into our hotels and I took one of the most satisfying showers of my life! After spending the night on the ferry boat and several hours on a bus with 50 other people, I was feeling pretty gross. That afternoon we had a guided hike up Apparition Hill.

This is the view from half way up the hill:

Apparition Hill – Back in the 1980s the Virgin Mary appeared to six local school children. From that point on, they had daily apparitions. Three of them still have daily apparitions, two are once a year, and one is once a month. People come from all over the world on a pilgrimage to Bosnia to climb the hill. A lot of them do it barefoot too. Also, there is a statue of the Virgin Mary on top that people pray in front of.

On the way up Apparition Hill there are relief statues of some of the mysteries. Our guide stopped us at each of them to say the rosary. The walk up the hill isn’t very long, but it is very steep and rocky and takes a while with all the rosary stops. Once we made it to the top I was amazed at all the people! So many of them were praying so hard they were crying. This whole trip got us all thinking about religion in general and Catholicism specifically. I will only briefly tell you my thoughts on this in effort not to spark any debates. It seems to me that people should not feel they have to travel all the way to Bosnia and climb up a rocky hill barefoot for God to listen to their prayers. But if that it what brings peace and happiness to your life than by all means, I support that. Here's a picture of some of the pilgrims:

Also in Medjugorje, there is nothing to do in the town. I really mean that. There is one main street that has a few restaurants, one bar, but there are tourist shops selling rosaries all over! So I guess there is one thing to do in Medjugorje: buy rosaries. Some of us were a little weirded out that this town is building an economy on the apparitions. Before it became a pilgrimage town, it was just a tiny village. Also the apparitions that are daily happen at the exact same time everyday. It was sort of strange. Since we were staying in Medjugorje, we spent a lot of time there and got a pretty good feel of the town.

After the hike up Apparition Hill, we went to talk from former drug addicts who live in a community in Medjugorje. They have been healed from their habits with prayer. Two guys who happened to be from Chicago shared their stories with us. It was very interesting to hear from them. The community was started by an Italian nun and there are now over 50 communities like the one in Bosnia all over the world.

By the time the talk was over I was really hungry! And so were my friends! I went to dinner with Alex, Kathleen and Katie in town. It was really good food and cheap too! We even got dessert of delicious cake for €1!

About money…. Bosnia is on the BAM (Bosnian mark) and it is two marks to one euro. But all over Bosnia they list the prices in euro and want you to pay in euro instead of mark. The ATMs in Bosnia give you marks. Also, most of the places we went to would take any form of currency (euros, marks, Croatian money, even American). It was a little odd.

On Friday we went to Mostar to meet with some local students. My group met with a girl named Riza. She was an interesting one to say the least. We thought we were going to talk about the war and how it’s affected her life and all that, but all she wanted to talk about was our sex lives. Talking to a group of students from mostly religious backgrounds, that sex life is pretty non existent, so I don’t think we were able to enlighten her with our American lives. It was easy to tell that her idea of Americans is from watching MTV. I have some great quotes from our talk with her, but they are a little inappropriate for this.

After our meeting, we went on a tour of Mostar with a more normal girl. She was one of the best tour guides I’ve had in Europe! We learned a lot about the war and the town. In Mostar a lot of the buildings were destroyed and some of them are purposely not restored as a reminder of the devastation of war. Also, there is an old bridge in Mostar. It is on EVERY post card. Here’s a picture of it:

I think it looks straight of a mythological world. I’m half expecting a lady in a gown to ride over it and meet a knight in shining armor. The bridge was built in the 1500s and stood for most of the war, though it was hit really hard. Eventually it fell and was rebuilt to look exactly the same in the late 90s.

In Mostar I had a really great lunch of traditional Bosnian food. We had Cevapi which is a grilled sausage. They say if you’ve been to Bosnia and haven’t have Cevapi, you haven’t been to Bosnia! After that we had some Tufakia (too-fak-i-a) for dessert. It’s an apple soft boiled and sweetened, filled with nuts and cinnamon, then topped with whipped cream and a cherry. It was DELICIOUS! After lunch did a little shopping, I bought a nice scarf and some earrings. The dessert:

That night we had a group dinner in the hotels. The food was really good but the wine was terrible! Pretty sure it was not ready for drinking yet.

Saturday was the trip to Dubrovnik, Croatia. Dubrovnik was a three hour bus ride away. It’s a really cool town on the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia. The old town is completely surrounded by an old fortress! You can pay to climb up and walk along the fortress walls, but I was too cheap. Dubrovnik, however, is like the Monte Carlo of Croatia. It was so full of tourists! Cruise ships stop there on tours of the Mediterranean and people are everywhere! We wanted to find shops that had more unique things for sale, but everything was so expensive. I bought two small candle holders of handmade glass for $8. (That’s 40 Croatian.) I thought it was a good find. The castle:

We didn’t have much time in Dubrovnik and soon it was time to ride back to Medjugorje. For dinner that night, Alex, Lena, and I had dinner with 2 of the student life staff: Shelley and Peter. Peter is the coolest. He’s from Austria and I’m sure is part Mountain Goat. He’s ALWAYS leading us on hikes and then finishing that up with a hike and then getting up early for a hike. You see what I mean? The man is always hiking! The dinner was really good! I had a great salad and some pizza.

Sunday morning was free time in Medjugorje before getting on the buses to go back to the ferry in Split. I went to see the statue of Jesus that’s behind the church in town and leaks water from its leg. People think it’s a miracle and rub napkins over the water to take some. It struck me as a little strange, but to each his own.

When it was time to leave Bosnia, it was a full 24 hours of travel to get back to our home in Florence! Got here Monday afternoon and have just three days of school this week. Tomorrow (Thursday) I am leaving after classes for Roma to see Miss Angela Chou!

And for the two days of school we missed for Bosnia we have to have school on two Fridays to make up the missed lessons.