Day 22 - June 6

Distance: 13.8 miles (22.2 km)

Another short morning run along the river (5 miles) and we were off on a day-tour of Herzegovina guided by the owner of the next door hostel who happens to be Deny's friend.  Along with us in the car were a few guys from the next door hostel: Robin, a journalist from Newcastle, England; Sergio, a young man from Sao Paulo, Brazil currently on a one-year adventure around the world; and Etienne, a young guy from Brest, France traveling the Balkans for a while.

Running on the River Neretva

Morning run in Mostar

Our first stop was Blagaj, where we ate some authentic Burek with yogurt along the river Buna and visited the famous Dervish house, a big pilgrimage site for Muslims located by the river's source where it springs from a cave under a huge cliff.  The house was mostly wrecked in the war, but it was rebuilt and reopened several years ago.

Dervish House and source of the River Buna

Inside the Dervish House

We then went to another pilgrimage site, Medugorje, the third most-visited pilgrimage site in Europe after Lourdes and Fatima. Here, some teenagers encountered the Virgin Mary while hiking. Since then, millions have visited the place where that encounter supposedly happened, and Medugorje went from being a small village to a city with accommodation for up to 50,000 visitors at a time!  The number of shops and souvenir stands selling vast quantities of religious trinkets was a tad nauseating.  The place has more the aura of an overcrowded tourist trap than a place of peace and devotion that one might look for in a pilgrimage sight.  I'm not sure what qualifies as a pilgirm, but busloads of camera-clad, flip-flop-wearing, sun-glassed tourists don't quite fit the definition in my book, and we didn't even see the place in high-season, when it's supposedly like a circus. 

Medugorje

Our next stop was much different.  We traveled to the Kravice Falls, the largest falls in Bosnia, and went for a swim.  Being about a month before the real high season starts, the area around the falls wasn't too crowded, and I got to crawl up on the rocks just below the falls in relative isolation.  I wish my iPhone was waterproof, because I never want to forget the view.  The falls are very cool from afar, but they are absolutely breathtaking when you're sitting on the green moss-covered rocks just below them.  When people think of Europe, they often think of art, architecture, and generally really old, man-made things.  Those things are all great and I happen to really like them, but we often forget about the continent's natural wonders - especially wonders like a waterfall in Herzegovina accessible by a one-lane road and named "Little Cow" (that's the English translation of Kravice). It's wonders like these that make some European countries worthwhile stops for the outdoorsy types.  I definitely recommend visiting the Balkans for anyone who likes mountains, adventure, and unbeatable hospitality!

Traditional Bosnian meats

After sharing a huge platter of various delicious traditionally prepared meats at the outdoor restaurant near the falls, we continued on to our next and final stop on the day-tour.  We went to the little village of Pocitelj, which clings to a steep hillside overlooking a long river valley. Pocitelj used to be a very strategically important town in the region and was much bigger than it is today.  It was a heavily fortified town whose fortifications and grandeur were augmented by each successive wave of invaders that managed to capture it.  The town spent many centuries under Turkish rule, to whom it owes its magnificent mosque.  During the war in the 1990s however, the town witnessed terrible devastation and most of its people were killed or forced out.  Today, only about 30 people live in Pocitelj, but it is a popular and worthwhile stop for people traveling through Herzegovina.  It's medieval citadel, 16th-century mosque, and well-preserved centuries-old houses make it an unforgettable sight that is fully worthy of its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Pocitelj

View of Pocitelj from the Citadel

The Citadel

After getting back to Mostar, I went for another run, heading along the west bank of the river through some residential areas and just a little way up a mountain road for a view over the city.  It was a great run, though my achilles started to hurt again on the way back down the hill.

Old Bridge in Mostar

Goats

View over Mostar

War-damaged building

Street of the Old Town

Old Bridge

That night, we went to the Black Dog Inn (an American-owned pub in the Old Town of Mostar) with the guys from the other hostel.  We all got ourselves into a reasonably drunken state on the pub's very own beer, which is really tasty and comes in 3 varieties (you HAVE to try them all), and continued our outing with an excursion to the newer part of town, where we picked up some pizza and a couple more drinks.  We swung through the park with the famous state of Bruce Lee.  If you're wondering why there's a statue of Bruce Lee in a town in southern Bosnia & Herzegovina, so am I.  Our hostel owner told us he was put there because he is a symbol of peace, but why Bruce Lee, specifically?  I will never know.  Anyway, it was a rather fun, late night of good friends and good conversation and I was more than ready for bed when we got back to the hostel.