On Wednesday, we went on a day trip with a group out to Mostar, a city in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It was a beautiful little town described to us as "west meets east meets north meets west". It is a city of many cultures, with influences from western/central Europe as well as Turkey from when the Ottoman Empire controlled the region. There are huge populations of many major religion - Christian Orthodox, Catholics, Muslims, Jews - and the city was one of the first cities in the former Yugoslavia that had a large population of interreligious marriages. Our local guide did apologize for the haze - apparently they had just had a bunch of fires in the surrounding hills, which happens often in the summer, but get this: they can't send firefighters into the hills to put out the fires because there are still LANDMINES!!! Landmines had been planted there when the countries of the former Yugoslavia were warring with each other, and they haven't all been found. Rachelle, I'm glad that Matt doesn't have to go through that kind of danger - no need to make firefighting any more dangerous than it already is.
After a lunch of food very similar to Croatian food and a rushed shopping trip in the Turkish-style bazaar, we all hopped back on the bus and headed to Medugorje. We weren't entirely sure what the importance of Medugorje was, other than it had some sort of religious importance, so we asked our guide.
He told us that at the end of the war, twenty years ago, the Madonna (aka, Mary, mother of Jesus) appeared to some of the children of what was then a small village. Word spread, a statue was built on the hillside, and now Catholics flock to Medgorje to pay tribute in a way similar to how the Muslims go on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Indeed, it was a steep, rocky climb to see the statue, but we encountered hundred of people, some even barefoot. The church at the bottom of the hill has confessionals and masses in half a dozen languages, and Medugorje, which was once a small village of a few hundred people, now gets around 3 million visitors a year.
On our way back to Croatia, our guide took us to Kravica waterfalls. It was a beautiful little place with waterfalls and a small lake, and a nice way to end our trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The next day, we went on yet another day trip out to Krka National Park in Croatia to see MORE waterfalls!
One of the waterfalls had a lake in front of it where we could go swimming! There were also tons of fish in all the little streams and lakes.
Included in our day tour was a visit to a local restaurant for a lunch of all-you-can-eat Dalmatian prosciutto (Dalmatian is the region in Croatia; it is not prosciutto made from dogs), cheese, and bread, all of which is made at the restaurant. I think Steve and I ate our weight in prosciutto - it was easily the best I've ever had. The restaurant brought out a platter each of cheese, prosciutto, bread, tomatoes, and olives for every two people, basically. Plus a jug of white wine and a jug of red wine for every four. It was eat, eat, eat for an hour and a half. An hour and a half of pure deliciousness.
After we had eaten our fill, we headed off to the cultural city of Sibenik for a little while to walk around before heading back to Split in the evening.
And now on to Plitvice Lakes Natioal Park for the weekend!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment