Bosnia and Herzegovina

Today, I went to see Bosnia and Herzegovina

Dubrovnik used to be an independent republic and it is separated from the rest of Croatia by a 20km stretch of Bosnia and Herzegovina along the coast.  We drove up the coast and had to go through a border crossing out of Croatia, one into Bosnia and Herzegovina, and one back into Croatia.  We drove inland and admired views of the Adriatic Sea as we drove along the Croatia coast along the Adriatic Sea.

We drove through the Herzegovina part and headed to Medjugorje, which is known for a sighting of the virgin Mary by 6 girls in the 1980s.

We went to Mostar which was an amazing city.  It is known for its Old Bridge built in the 1500s  It was destroyed after three days of bombing in the 1990s during the war that separated Yugoslavia into six countries.  After the destruction of the bridge, the stone was dug out of the river and the new bridge was made with the old stone exactly the way it was so it could continue to be an UNESCO World Heritage site. .

We ended the day by driving down the Neretva River delta to the town of Pocitelj.  We saw the Haji-Ali Mosque and Sahat-kula, a silo-shaped fort on top of the hill above the town.  Everything was closed just as they were in many places we have been because it is not tourist season here yet.  

Montengro

Since I am on a quest to get to 50 countries before I am 50, I decided to hop over to Montenegro for a day while I was in Croatia. It was me and 8 other people with Super Tours.  We drove along the coast and stopped at the Croatia border check, then the Montenegro side.  It actually went pretty quickly.  Apparently it takes forever during the busy summer months.  We drove along the Konavla Valley and Bay of Kotor.  We stopped for lunch in Budva, went to Kotor and then stopped in Persat on our way back to Dubrovnik.  The drive was beautiful even though it was a cold, rainy day.

Small world story:  I had already started eating lunch when I saw one of our group come in and I invited her to sit with me.  Her name was Madeline and she was from New York.  She has friends that are living in Dubrovnik for awhile so she visited them.  I told her that I was here for a teacher conference at the end of the week.  She said the friends that she was staying with had a friend from Italy coming to that conference and she was going to stay with them too.  I asked if she was from Milan.  When she said yes, I asked if her name was Kira.  I totally think she was talking about one of the women in my math class!!!


Kotor had a lovely old town and we had plenty of time to explore it on our own.  I wandered around through the narrow alleys and heard laughter and smelled brownies baking.  The tourist season hasn't opened yet here and things were pretty dead so I was intrigued by the laughter.  I came across a group of young women in a little area with a sign that said "Shiloh Ministries"  I asked about it and had quite a lengthy conversation with them.  They were part of something called "world race"  where they do mission work in a country for a month, then move to another country and repeat that for 11 months.  I think they said it was a part of Adventure Missions.  They were sweet women and as I talked to them several people stopped by enticed by the smell of brownies and they got to share their ministry with them.  One of the women went to Illinois Wesleyan so we talked about Bloomington - Normal!!  The group and I prayed together before I left.  This encounter was a big bright spot in my day!!