Stupidity

Day 555

I was up early for a bus. All of my entries seem to start this way lately. I should really just copy and paste that line. As I walked to the bus station the morning call to worship began and I was reminded that not only was I in the Muslim area of BH, but of the call to worship I first heard, several years ago in Amman, Jordan. It scared the hell out of me, causing me to sit straight up in bed and I was unable to fall asleep afterwards. This time, walking alone in the dark, the noise was almost comforting.

On the bus the ticket checker said that I had the wrong ticket. I got really angry because the woman had sold me the wrong thing and I had to change money with some nice tourists on the bus who had Euros, I was all out. Later on I looked more closely at my tickets. The woman hadn’t exactly sold me the wrong ticket; she had just sold me one from Dubrovnik to Kotor, not from Mostar. Did she think that I planned on walking there? What freaking moron!

The ride was rather annoying because the cost is in BH and Croatia. We had to have our passports checked every few miles. Luckily they didn’t stamp every time or I would have no space left in my passport at all. I was really happy to finally get into Montenegro and for the passport checking to come to an end.

Soon I was in Kotor, Montenegro, a whole new country for me. Kotor is a really cute walled town with some castle ruins sitting above it. Pretty much everyone who comes here treks up to it. I am way too lazy and it was way too hot out for me to be bothered with it. Instead I got some lunch and wandered the town.

Laundry at the hostel was cheap and I was glad to finally have some clean clothes. The guy at the hostel told me that there was no way that I could go to Pristina for at least 3 days. This did not work with my itinerary so I went to the bus station myself to see what my chances were. It was there that I found out that I could make it the next day.

Back at the hostel I waited forever for my clothes to dry. They had a dryer, it was just taking forever. I had wanted to shower when I had clean clothes, but it was about midnight when this happened and there wasn’t any water. The guy at the front desk told me that it was often turned off at night. The toilet wouldn’t even flush! How is this normal or even something that should happen!

I went to bed dirty but with clean clothes for the morning.

Bridges

Day 554
Up early again I got a ride to the bus station and headed to Mostar, in Bosnia Herzegovina. I slept thru most of the ride but managed to wake up when we entered the town. The buildings were still bullet riddled.

At the bus station I was met by the mother daughter team that ran the hostel. A free ride is always nice. I was lucky enough to get my own room again.

Once my things were put down I headed to Stari Most, the old bridge and most important site in Mostar. The bridge had been built by the Turks in the 16th century and the destroyed in 1993 by the Bosnian Croats despite UNESCO protection. Most of the town was also destroyed.

Even though the city still bore deep wounds, the bridge and old cobble stoned streets had been meticulously restored. Interestingly most of the stones in the bridge are original; they were brought up from the bottom of the river. It was really beautiful, but totally over crowded, even worse than Dubrovnik. The touristy area was much smaller though.

After about two hours of crowd fighting I bought my bus ticket and then went back to the hostel to lie down.

I didn’t venture out again until after dinner. The crowds were gone and the streets pleasant. Despite my nap I was still exhausted when I got back I quickly fell asleep.