Med Experience - Bosnian Adventure

Well after spending the last 13 weeks looking after hundreds of Sail Croatia travellers, my fellow on-board rep, Sarah and I were absolutely shattered.  We wanted to go to sleep and sleep for weeks. And not drink. Ever again….We wanted to be looked after – hello? Mum – where are you?? However, we all know as travellers, there’s still so much more to do and see and sleep is very much a luxury that can be done when, well, when you’re dead.  Sarah and I wanted to trip through Bosnia and Herzegovina as we’d heard Croatia’s neighbour is full of incredible history and beautiful sights that were worth checking out.  That’s when we found Med Experience - a company offering 5 or 7 days trips through Bosnia.  Since we had such a short time (I get to see my best friend in t minus 1 day!!!), Sarah and I thought this was absolutely perfect for us – we could see Bosnia and also get looked after – win win!

So, we joined some of our fellow travellers in Split (the rest were coming from Dubrovnik) and headed for Bosnia.  As we crossed the border into Bosnia, a few of us needed to use the loo.  Was quite entertaining hearing about Sarah’s first experience with squat toilets (and didn’t we use a few throughout the rest of the week!) – see, we got culture, history, sightseeing and local living all in one! 

Kravica Waterfalls

Our first stop was Kravica waterfalls in the Herzegovina part of the country.  Here, we met our delightful and rather funny tour leader, Mustafa.  Ever full of jokes, Mustafa made us all feel welcome from the beginning and off we set into the waterfalls.  Wow.  It’s the only word to describe it.  Raging after being subject to heavy rain the previous few days, Kravica was spectacular.  The water level was so high, it had washed out one of the restaurants in the area.  We did go for a quick dip, but when I say quick, I mean, the fastest I’ve ever run while laughing…The water was absolutely freezing – zero degrees wouldn’t be far off.  Within seconds my toes felt like ice and I was frozen to the core.  Totally, totally worth the froze bite though – an amazing way to break the ice (excuse the pun) with the other travellers on our tour!

Med Experience Tour Group

Back into the bus we went and we continued on to Mostar.  Here our afternoon was free to roam around, so Sarah and I went exploring the Old Town.  In true Aussie fashion, we went and sat down at a riverfront restaurant and had a beer…so much for not drinking.  It was a delight to watch the tourists on the bridge, combined with the serenity of the river and surrounding greenery, without having to worry about our groups…was Relaxation with a capital R.  We also got lucky and saw a guy jump off the bridge – stupid if you ask me, but maybe just a little crazy!

Mostar River

Stari Most (Old Bridge)

Relaxing with a beer watching Stari Most

 

That night, Mustafa took us to a local restaurant in the Old Town and introduced us to some local delicacies.  He did forget to warn us about the large size of the meals so everyone at the table (including us) ate way too much and were ready for bed by 10pm.  Yes, we are big party animals! During dinner, Mustafa entertained Sarah and me, as he reminded us of one of our Sail Croatia colleagues, Dragan.  Turns out, Mustafa grew up with Dragan, so we tried to get some juicy stories about him…don’t worry Dragan, we don’t know too much! J

The next day we did an optional city tour, which was full of history and personal experiences from our local guide.  You can read more about Mostar in my Bosnia blog.  After this, we tried our hands at cooking some of the local food – that was a laugh! Especially when the class combined beer and wine with knives and inexperienced travellers…. Nonetheless, we all survived without chopping off a finger and prepared 5 dishes, including Burek from scratch.  Rolling out that dough was interesting – some odd shapes and often holey – but they all managed to turn out pretty good! We got to eat all our food, so dinner was delicious and we even had plenty of leftovers for the next day’s bus trip.

Our group with our first few meals prepped (and wine in hand!)

Me, attempting to make burek

We headed to Sarajevo the next day, with a stopover to do some Rafting!  Freezing water matched with rapids and uncoordinated rafters meant some great photos and laughs were had.  Mustafa then took us to a local hang out, Kino Bosna for a night out.  Kino Bosna is an old cinema turned “pub” of sorts; think wooden tables, mismatched chairs and sofas; with lots of smoke and noisy chatter.  The best thing here was the locals we saw, the Bosnian music we got to hear (the band came and serenaded us!) and the cheap drinks!

The band playing at Kino Bosna

On Tuesday, we had a whole day to explore Sarajevo, but started our morning with a war city tour, taken by Mustafa.  You can read more about Sarajevo and war stories in my Bosnia blog.  While the stories were horrific and very difficult for us to comprehend, it was great to have the knowledge of Mustafa, who was born and grew up in Sarajevo.  He told stories of what it was like in the war time; what he got up to; times when he was almost killed; the things he saw that a young boy should never have to witness.  I think we all agreed it was invaluable to get this personal insight into what it was like, rather than just history you can get from books.

Our final day was more insight into the 1991 wartime and the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica.  Read more about this in my Bosnia blog.  While the bus travel was long, the background and sights we visited were eye opening and mellowing.  It opened our eyes to the scale of devastation that was experienced in Bosnia, not so long ago.  It showed us the strength of the Bosnian people to start anew, re-build and band together to help those who had suffered. 

After a long day our 5 day trip ended back in Sarajevo.  We said goodbye to our lovely group and of course our entertaining tour guide, Mustafa, as they continued on for the mountains.  The entire trip was amazing – a good mix of group activities and free time to roam at your leisure.  Our fellow travellers were around our age and Mustafa was very knowledgeable and helpful without being overbearing with information.  I definitely recommend Bosnia and Herzegovina as a must see while in Europe!

Sarah and I "just chilling" on the Stari Most

Until next adventure…

xx