Internet issues in Bosnia-Herzegovina

So, I have been in Bosnia for the past few weeks. Sorry I have not updated much, but I was having internet issues in Bosnia. But now we are back in Zagreb for a week, and I will hopefully have time to write about how amazing Bosnia is.

However, I will write about our experience yesterday, because it was amazing. We left early from Mostar to go to Dubrovnik, a city on the southern coast of Croatia.We got there around noon, after a few hour drive. The drive itself was so gorgeous. We went through mountains, by an amazing blue-green river and saw some of the coast. It was sunny and pretty warm so it was a perfect day to go.

When we arrived, I think we were all in awe to see the Adriatic. It is such an amazing color blue, it looks fake. The first thing we saw was... a ton of tourists, mostly old people speaking English. It was weird! We do not normally see many tourists. We took a quick tour around before we went for lunch. The city is surrounded by a big fortress-type wall which looks out over the sea. We walked around inside of it, where there are many gift shops and restaurants and coffee shops. We also saw a war memorial (we do not really go anywhere on this program without seeing one). Although there have been many wars in Croatia, Dubrovnik has historically been left alone, due to its beauty and history. However, in the most recent war, it was attacked. It was horrible to see the pictures of the town on fire and bridges being bombed. Really, most of the towns we have been in went through the same thing, but for Serbia to attack Dubrovnik was really sort of a slap in the face.

We went for lunch at a small cafe with amazing seafood (of course). Apparently, it is a good month for oysters, so we ordered some. I do not know if I have ever had oysters before, but I am sure that they were not as good as these. They were really delicious. We also ordered a huge plate of mussels, and mussels risotto and calamari risotto (it was black). And of course, white wine. There were a ton of cats all around the restaurant, begging for food like dogs! One of them even jumped up on my lap and took a nap! It was adorable. We ate A TON of food, and then went to finish sightseeing.

It is possible to take a walking tour around the top of the fortress wall, so we did that. I cannot even begin to explain how amazing it is. As soon as I post pictures, you can see for yourself, but even those do not really do it justice. Needless to say, it is a view I will never forget.

Of course, since most of us in the program are usually landlocked, we NEEDED to swim in the water. A few of the girls got a little more adventurous and went to find a rock to go climb and jump off of, but the rest of us just trespassed onto a local beach. I was content to stand with my jeans rolled up and let the waves wash over my feet, but two other girls stripped down and jumped in! It looked really fun and I wish we all would have been able to go swimming, but we were only on a day trip with nothing to change into for our hours of travelling back to Zagreb.

We finished the day watching the sunset at a cafe jutting out from one of the fortress walls and listening to the waves crash on the rocks below us.  We took a short flight back to Zagreb, and returned home (I think we all feel like our first host families are like "home" to us now).

We have the next week to work on our ISP proposal before returning to Belgrade (or whereever we choose to go), so hopefully I will find some time to update about my trip to Bosnia.