RAIN!

One thing I didn't mention about the trip from Zagreb to Sarajevo was the route. We started in a Serbian area, the only reason I know that is that all the signs were written with the Cyrillic Alpabet. It was pretty flat but then we went into a river valley and followed what must have been originally a goat track. It wasn't unlike Hwy 299 between Arcata and Redding, the only real difference was that 299 is 3 times as wide and has shoulders. Although it wasn't too bad staring straight down into nothing or looking up and seeing these huge boulders ready to spring on top of the bus and the daredevlin antics of Laurel & Hardy (the bus driver and his relief), it was absolutely terrifying when we passed someone walking along the road. One time a woman leaned so far back I thought for sure she was going to tumble down the cliff or the woman with her baby carriage I thought for sure was going to be sucked under the bus. It was a beautfiul trip thogh witht he Karst (limestone) mountains towering above and the river winding below.

There was one section though where about 50 houses had been totally destroyed, housing is in very short supply in Bosnia because the Yugoslav army did its best to eliminate as many houses as possible.

The morning I left Sarajevo, I had to leave about 6 am to get to the bus station in time. As I was leaving, the loudspeakers from the mosque below were alive with the call to morning prayers. It was Ramadan while I was there so that may account for the fact that so few people were out and about. Even the internet cafe I was at was playing muslim music.

There is an Apple Center in Sarajevo, in one of the University buildings, it looked a lot like the one in Budapest so I assume there must be some relationship there. I even saw a few white earbuds around town.

One of the oddest things about Sarajevo was the lack of tourists. Of course, it was off season but still. There were a few Northern European types but there was a definite lack of backpackers. The only foreigners I saw were those dressed in military uniforms, French, Italian, Finnish flags were very apparent on uniforms.

One thing I haven't mentioned is how impossibly clean the streets are. Sarajevo was absolutely spotless. It took me awhile to notice as there are so many destroyed buildings. The same with Croatia, the beaches don't have a single scrap of paper, the streets are spotless, there are little garbage cans everywhere and the water itself is the bluest, clearest looking stuff I've ever seen.

So, Dubrovnik is by far the most beautiful place I've ever been. The sun was shining all but the second to last day I was there and Except that day I spent a couple of hours every day on the beach. My accomodation was a room in the house of a 60ish woman. She lived in the ground floor of a 3 story stone house. The view was to the northwest and took in the ferry terminal and the sunsets were always incredible. She didn't speak much English, so most of our conversation was in French, although mine is so rusty that it was tough going at times.

I have a lot of pictures but this place doesn't have USB connections so, maybe from Ljubljana.

From Dubrovnik I headed north via bus to a little town called Orebic. It's on a little peninsula jutting up from Dubrovnik and isn't anything special but it has a southern exposure so is warmer than the more beautiful town of Korcula with its northern exposure.

Three days of beach and hiking up in the foothills, the forests are pretty dense and full of a few familiar plants but many I dont know. Lavender grows wild and the Italian Cypresses are huge. I'm sure it's considered rude but I've spent a lot of time peeking over walls into people's gardens. The pension I stayed at in Orebic had a beautiful garden and it was filled with hibiscus, gardenias and all sorts of exotics. It would be fun to come and pretend to do an article on Croatian gardens just to get inside of some of these beautiful places, maybe next time!

So, rain... Well, it's a good thing I decided to move on today as I woke up to cloudy and windy but warm skies and just as I got to the ferry terminal it started to pour down. I'm in beautiful Korcula now waiting for the bus to take me to the other end of the island so I can catch the ferry tomorrow am at 630 to Split. I'm hoping the rain stops so that I can enjoy Diocletian's Palace but I'm not holding my breath.

Only 9 days to go and only one more new country to see, Slovenia.

Lyle

the z's instead of y's and the lack of apostrophes is due to the strange keyboard layouts not my dyslexia!

Oops, meant to post the Sarajevo posts on the previous one. I don't know the name of the town, it was between Sarajevo and Dubrovnik. Typical Bosnian village.

The Church was up on the hillside on the mainland opposite Korcula. There was no road to it, just a few paths through the maquis. An old women who lived in the cottage behind the church was herding her two massive goats when I got there. I never saw her again. Maybe she didn't like company. The tower is in Korcula and supposedly the birthplace of Marco Polo. It's disputed of course and the current party line of the historians is that he was probably born in Split.

The house was on the waterfront in Orebic and was a captain's house because of the two windows in the attic where the captain's wife would keep a lookout for his ship. Similar to the widow's walk of houses in the coast NE of the US. Most of the doorframe had been replaced, all carved stone of course. It's amazing coming from the land of wood houses to see such intricate stone work.