A visitor in Dubrovnik before we are off to a new country

The weather wasnˋt all that favorable for a long weekend in Dubrovnik, but our visitor was on her way, and we would make the best of it.

Irma, my humans friend from the Netherlands, whom she met 2017 in Ecuador at a language school, arrived Saturday evening.

Finally the tent I have been carrying around for years gets put to use

The bike is getting some attention, too

They had booked a walking tour for their first morning. Unfortunately, due to rather foul weather, the tour was pushed back to 5pm instead of 9.30am. These tours obviously make the most sense if you do them at the beginning of a visit, to get an overview of a place.
So they switched to a different one, which was happening at midday.

Cladded in their rain jackets, they set out by bus to check out the War Photography Museum before their tour. A nice, light start.

Currently, there are two exhibitions, one of the conflict in Papua-New Guinea, the other one of the war in Yugoslavia. In a separate room, there were some "best of" photographs.

At the entrance you are given a booklet with texts explaining each picture.

The most depressing part of the exhibition is the fact that these conflicts have been happening so recently, only 30, 40 years ago. And the realization that history keeps repeating itself in the most horrendous ways.

Dead for three days, this chief is receiving his last rites

This is Mostar. We will be there soon.

So much wrong with this

After a rather subdued hour, they were ready for some lighter entertainment by their tour guide. Having done so many of these tours already, my human was not too impressed by their guide, who lacked a bit the usual engagement and good cheer she got used to over the years.

Nevertheless, they got a bit of an idea of the lay of the land and kept on exploring on their own after a light lunch.

The city center, Old Town, is rather compact with a couple of level pedestrian streets, bordered on the West side by the ocean and everything to the East is only reached by stairs after stairs after stairs.

Dubrovnik is the most expensive city in Croatia by far. There is no real reason for it, as far as I can see. There are other spots you would expect to take the crown. Zagreb would be the obvious one, with Split a close second.
To walk on the city walls, for all of 2km, you pay 35€. A normal meal is not to be had under 30€.

Maybe the fact that a lot of "Game of Thrones" was filmed here plays a role. Even if you donˋt want to and donˋt know about it, you will be looking at and photographing "GOT" sets.

The Chastity stairs; you canˋt see the ankles of someone walking up. Unless you walk like Irma...

A solar powered charger bench

The sun peeked out in the late afternoon when they returned to the campsite, so they grabbed some beers and played chess while enjoying the warming rays while they lasted.

After an opulent pancake breakfast in the sun the next morning, my human took off to hike up the highest hill in the area for some good views of Dubrovnik, while Irma stayed at the camp, doing what you should on a holiday - relax with a sea view!

A view into Bosnia & Herzegovina

Dubrovnik Old Town

The newer part

They reunited for a late lunch and then made their way down to the closest beach, inexplicably called Copacabana.

For dinner, they had made a reservation at a Konoba (a tavern) nearby to eat Peka, a very traditional dish.
Peka can be almost anything, as long as it is slow cooked for about two hours under a clay or wrought-iron bell over open flames.
Usually it is veal, lamb or octopus, accompanied by potatoes.

The expectations were high but not exactly met when they received their food. Not bad, but nothing to write home about. Which is exactly what I am doing, of course.

On the last day, they visited a couple of nearby villages, Gruda and Cavtat, where they had some rather random interactions with cows, cats and fishermen.

Cavtat

Dubrovnik airport is only 5min away, as can be seen by the low flying plane

What is that? Can I eat it?

The weather had turned sour again, and the clouds looked rather ominous when my human dropped Irma at the airport in the afternoon.

It was very nice to have a visitor for a few days, and we would be very happy to welcome more, so please feel encouraged!

But now it was time for us to move on to a new country, Bosnia & Herzegovina was waiting for us!

Our first stop in this new country was Trebinje, only 20km from the border to Croatia and not much more from Montenegro.

As expected, the weather wasnˋt any different on this side of the border and so it was a matter of getting wet, drying the clothes on your body while walking around, just to get wet again half an hour later.

This city of 30.000 inhabitants has had a turbulent history, lying at the crossroads between the Mediterranean and the interior of the Balkan Peninsula. The Illyrians, Romans, Slavs, Byzantines, the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarians all left their mark here.

Arslanagic Bridge

Church of St. Archangel

View from Crkvina Hill

Hercegovacka Gracanica, built to honor the famous Serbian poet Joan Ducic

From Trebinje, we headed into the mountainous area around Tjentiste.
This is where the highest mountain of the country, Maglic, 2386m, presents itself as a prominent feature of the Dinaric Alps.

Tjentiste is just a widening in the road, really

But with very friendly locals!

It lies right on the border with Montenegro and on that side, just some meters away, you have another summit, which is all of two meters higher.

The southern side of the massive is taken up by the Sutjeska National Park, the oldest in the country. The strict nature reserve Perucica, one of only two remaining primeval forests in Europe, is part of the park.

The battle of Sutjeska, which aimed to destroy the main Yugoslav partisan forces took place here in 1943. Around 7500 partisans were killed in a month-long offensive by German-Italian troops.

A memorial was erected to commemorate the fallen. Two 19 meter high white concrete "wings" sit on top of a little hill, looking rather brutalistic.

Climbing Maglic was of course the objective we came here with. Unfortunately, the last few days were cold and rainy here, just like in Dubrovnik. Rainy meant snowy above 2000 meters, so the conditions werenˋt the best.

Not on to be deterred easily, my human left me in a car park to try her luck and see how far she could get.

Up through this primeval forest she went, coming out on a wide plateau with Maglic right in front of ther, covered in snow up to the top.

She almost made it. Coming closer to the summit, she fought her way up a narrowing gully through the snow, repeatedly breaking through it, standing knee-deep in the white powder.

Maybe 100 height meters below the summit, the snow became softer as the gully steepened. Off to the right, some ominous dark clouds started drifting in as well. The forecast had promised stabel weather until 2pm.

After setting off a couple of snow slips, she finally decided to turn around.