Getting stuck in Sarajevo....

Well I got to Sarajevo OK. I spent the first day in museums. 3 to be exact. First the history museum, where there were a lot of photo's of the Siege of Sarajevo. There was also a small mock-up of a house and how they had to live during the war. It was quite unreal, especially when you realise that the people I meet have lived in this way in thier lifetime. Then after that I wnet to the tunnel museum, where you can see how the people built a tunnel under the airport to the part of Sarajevo that is free. It was quite fascinating. They built this 800m tunnel, that allowed, citizens to get out, and supplies to get in. Nedzla, who is the daughter of the household that runs this hostel, was born in 1994, in the heart of the war, and was taken as a baby to through the tunnel to the safer area. I foudn my way back to the city centre, and went to the national museum. It was quite a nice building, somehow not wrecked by the war, but still felt very young. they did have the sacred book for Jews, the Sarajevo Haggadah from 1350. They also had the botanical gardens within the courtyard of the museum. As you can imagine, that is rather small. But it was lovely. There was also a ballet lesson, in the centre of the gardens. I relaxed that night at the hostel, and the next day I wondered about the old town. I found the spot where Franz Ferdinand was assasinated, triggering WWI. I had the best Burek yet for lunch that day, and then I headed back to the hostel. I got geared up, because there is a traditional village in the mountains surrounding Sarajevo. It was a beautiful ride, gorgeous curvy roads. The thing that made it different to other sceneries, is that there were 'Danger Mines' signs along the road. I couldn't help but think that if you were unlucky enough to come off the bike, and survive the fall and miss the trees, what are the chances of when you get up and walk to the road, will you stand on a land-mine? Morbid I know, but it adds another element to the unknown. I saw remnants of the 1984 Winter Olympics, the long ski jump, which is massive! I rode around for a while, trying to find that village, but after a while, I had no luck, so I turned  back. I really should have left in the morning, but had wanted to do those other things in the morning. But I wasn't too dissapointed. the mountains were beautiful, and I learnt later that it was a 2 and a half hour drive to that village, and some of that was on bad dirt road. 

Then it all turned to pot. I was coming back in to Sarajevo, just a few kilometres out, when I was in a line of traffic. The lead car was a bit on the slow side, so I had a couple of people over take me. This was nothing new though. Then I had a car suddenly next to me, and she was pulling over into the gap that I was still occupying. I tried to apply the brakes, and also veer to the side, but it was no use. She bumped me with her back rear side and I bounced off and hit the ground. I slid on my back for a while, long enough for me to change the position of how I was sliding, and think about how the bike wasslidig behind me, and that it may catch up with me. I also thought about the other cars, hoping that they would be able to stop. By the amount that I had thought, I had thought I had slid about 20m, but I later found out it was 41m! I think that is quite impressive. I came to a stop, the motorbike did give me a little bump on the back of the head as it came to a stop, but only a little. When I stopped I was shaking, as would be expected I guess. I then realised my knee knee really hurt. I dragged myself off the road, and then there were people all around me. Some left when they saw I was alive and talking, but one specific guy was lovely. He called the ambulance and police. And the girl who caused it all was a wreck herself. I ended up consoling her! I thought that was amusing. She was only young, 21, and had only been driving a short while. My bike was lifted and taken to the side of the road by a couple of guys, and then the ambulance came. I was surprised that one of the people with the ambulance was  Australian! He was doing work experience. It was nice to speak to someone in English. He couldn't speak the local language, though some of the people could speak a little. The police arrived and started doing their thing. I left in the ambulance, leaving the police with my bike and drivers licence. I spent a while in the hospital, had an x-ray, minor surgery under local aneasthetic (when I peeked, she had her finger inside my knee), and then a tetanus injection. I was sent home with a drain and a bandage around my knee. Luckily it was only a flesh wound and nothing as broken. The police man took me back to the hostel, and breath-tested me. I passed! 0.00%, which is the legal limit. 

I have since spent the last week  going to the hospital every morning for a dressing change, hobbling around on crutches, and catching up with the police things. The police stuff took a good 4 days, and still isn't quite complete. The insurance people have yet to come and look at the bike, and hopefully that will be done soon. The stitches will be out this week sometime, and hopefully I can start walking again soon. I've been spending my days bumming around in the hostel. The crutches hurt my hands, and the hostel is on a mighty hill, so going far is not an option. Ah well. Hopefully next time I blog I will have some progress news. oh, and to top it off, I havebroken my laptop screen, so I need to replace that as well as everything else!!

Bosnia and Herzegovina...

The island with the monastry.

I left Dubrovnik hoping to get that ferry, but it turns out that is only a passenger ferry. So I had to ride 50km back up the coast to get the vehicle ferry. It was a nice ride at least. I found accommodation in Sobra on Mljet, where the ferry landed. There were no tourists that I could see. The campsites were all shut. I had a dalmatian steak for dinner, and that was so good! They soak it in wine overnight I believe. The next day I went to the National park at the other end. It is a national park mainly because of the 2 lakes, which are technically bays, because they are tidal with an outlet to the sea, but they are beautiful. The water is so clear! Far too cold to swim though. It was 24 degrees, but still too cold. I got the boat out to the monastery on the island. It was overgrown, and there were skinks running about in the sun everwhere. It added to the charm of it being old and out use. I had to get back to Sobra for the ferry, so I didn't stay as long as I might have liked. But I was heading for Bosnia and Herzegovina! I was very excited about that. There is a small section of Bosnia that gets to the ocean, so people driving split to Dubrovnik need to pass a checkpoint. I needed to go through there myself. But the Sat Nav took me around to a locals only border point. So they turned me around and made me go to the main one by the sea. I knew I shouldn't have listened to it! I got through the border without even showing my passport! He just looked at me and waved me on. It was almost too easy. I had to then ride half an hour into Croatia again, before I got to the Bosnian border proper.

The Bosnian border. Don't think I was supposed to take a photo. Whoops.

The Croatian lady looked at my passport and waved me on, and there was a slight line for the Bosnian side. While I was in line, a motorcyclist pulled up next to me. He started to chat. Told me Mostar was straight ahead, 40km. Nice. The Bosnian border guy didn't look at my passport either! I had wanted a stamp! It's like their not taking me seriously. Should I be annoyed that they don't seem to care enough to stamp me into their country? I don't know. I pulled over straight away, the weather was getting nasty so I needed my jacket lining. While I was there, some guys in a car honked at me as the pulled away from the border. I headed up the road, it was a major road, but only one lane, and quite a slow sped limit. I had only gone 500m round the corner when the guys in that car were beside the road. They gave me a thumbs up and a honk, and then pulled out behind me. I was watching them carefully in case they did anything stupid, but they behaved and followed for a while. They were gone soon enough. It was amusing. I got to Mostar and it turns out that the Sat Nav only has the 2 main roads, none others. So I had to call the hostel, and they came and picked me up. It's run by a lovely family, and I will be here 4 nights tonight. Every morning their mum cooks me breakfast, always something different and local. Always delicious. I say she cooks me something, because, 2 out of 3 mornings, I have been the only one there. I am in the outlier hostel as the main one is full. On the first day here I wondered about the old town looking at the bridge for which Mostar is famous, some old Ottoman period houses that somehow survived the war and just looked around. 

The old town is a captivating place.

On the second day I did a tour with the brother of the household. He gave a harrowing account of his own experience of the war, and explained the tensions that still continue today. It is not easy to be Bosnian. The Croats and Serbs have it a lot easier, and they still shun the Bosnians. It is evident even within the town itself. Structurally. The Croat side is mostly rebuilt, and many shopping centres are newly built. But the Bosnian side has still many ruins. There is no physical border, and people come and go wherever they want, but mentally within the people there is still a massive fence. We got out of the city and went to Medugorje which is a catholic pilgrimage site, then to the Kravice waterfalls, then to an Ottoman medieval town, and then to a Muslim site.

This is the statue of Jesus that split at the knee, and now weeps tears. Apparently...

The Kravice Waterfalls. A mini Niagara. Some people swam, but they were blue when they came out. I did not.

The Medieval Ottoman town. Destroyed in the war, so now only partly inhabited.

The Dervish house. That river comes out of a cave in the cliff base.

It was a very long, informative day. A 14 hour tour. An amazing day. Today I had meant to leave Mostar, but as we didn't get back till 11 last night, I decided to stay, relax and do some things I needed catching up on. I also went up a sniper tower, that is now an abandoned building. It's a 9 story concrete building, with only the concrete left. The glass is shattered, and anything else worth taking has been looted. I climbed the stairs to the top and went on the roof. Amazing views of the city, and you can see why they snipered from it. There are still a lot of shell casing in amongst the rubble, and also on the office floor, papers, receipts, and office furniture. It was all very surreal. It's not a tourist site, but there us nothing stopping you from going in, so I did.

This is the building that was the snipers nest.

If you look carefully in the rubbish you can see bullet casings.

The rubish left behind. Left to rot.

I am ready to go tomorrow to Jajce. Up in the mountains somewhere in the north west of Bosnia, then I’ll head to Sarajevo.

And on to Dubrovnik

I left Split finally, and headed south. I spent a night on Korcula, an beautiful island. I ended up at a campsite, that was run by an elderly couple. I am sure they were about 90  They very nice but we couldn't communicate. With 4 languages between us, we had to rely on hand signals and guessing. It made for an interesting conversation. I was the only person there, and it was more like I was camping in theor backyard. But what a beautiful setting, as you can see from the photo I put up yesterday. The next day I went to Dubrovnik. On the way I ended up going through the town of Ston, where there is the second largest stone wall in the worls, second only to the Great Wall of China.Not bad. It was awesome, and it encircled a hill top. You can walk around it, but it was too late in the day for me to stop that long. It looked like hard work too. I got to Dubrovnik and was welcomed to the hostel by the family that runs the place with a nice glass of grape brandy with honey. Yum. My plan was to go to the island of Mljet which is 3/4 National Park, but because it isn't high season, the ferry doesn't do a return trip. Bugger. So I spent the day looking at Dubrovnik again, which wasn't too hard a task. The weather was gorgeous, and there weren't millions of tourists. I relaxed the afternoon away on a nearby uninhabited island, laying in the sun, and reading. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon! Today I will go to Mljet, spend the night there, then head on to Bosnia tomorrow. I have spent 2 weeks in Croatia, and it has been a fantastic time, but I am ready to move on... I'll write when I get internet next, but I'm sure Bosnia is not that backwards to not have the net. So I'll write soon!  

Photo's finally uploaded

Beautiful Lipizzaner horses...

The view from the seafood restaurant on the first night in Croatia. Not bad eh?

Easter eggs. I wish they were real!

Plitvice lakes. Not the best representation, just imagine a hundred of these....

Old town of Zadar. Roman ruins in the middle of town!

Bikers in Split, Velimir and his lovely wife.

Looking out toward the islands of Korcula.

This is my view for my camping in Korcula. Not bad eh?!

Lots of sheds in fields made entirely of stone. Even the roof!

Dubrovnik. What more can I say?

A gorgeous sunset...

So there you are all caught up on photo's! Will write about the last couple of days tomorrow... Getting late. Need to go to bed. Good night!

Split, Split and more Split

I have spent the last week in Split wasting time, waiting for my bike to be fixed. And the day has come that picked I her up, and she purrs!! The last few days have been spent hanging out, watching movies, reading and I did a day trip to nearby Krka NP yesterday. The weather hasn't been fantastic everyday, so some days I just sat around indoors everyday. But it can now be said I am definately ready to get back on the road. I didn't go to that biker party, cause it was raining. Shame too. Was looking forward to doing something new!! As for the bike, turns out the gasket needed replacement in the carb, and one of the spark plugs wasn't working. and considering the amount of an hours they put into it, Velimir only charged me 80 Euro's or so! That's about 1/5 of what I would have been charged in London, maybe less!! All cause he didn't put many hours down! What a legend! But now she runs sweet, and I'm gonna hit the road to Korcula today. An island of olive groves and vineyards. Looking forward to it! 
Photo's still won't upload, so I'll try again in a couple of days when I get to Dubrovnik.