bosnia: blagaj, pocitelj, and kravica waterfall

Several years ago I went to Israel and Palestine for my New Year's holidays. While there, I met a Polish blogger, we've followed each other on social media ever since. When Bo and I were trying to figure out where we should go in Bosnia we ended up reading several blog posts written by Kami, and ended up choosing to visit several of the locations she had written about. So many options!

This post is about the day we did a road trip around Mostar, using the car to drive to three different places.

As expected, the hardest part of the day was simply in figuring out how to get out of Mostar. Bo doesn't like listening to the voice on google maps, he wanted to read the map himself. This was all well and good until I had to make fast turns or lane changes. I much prefer having plenty of notice, so I know what I'm looking for, and don't risk life and limb to get to where we want to go.

Our first stop was a small place called Blagaj. Wikipedia tells me the name Blagaj probably came from the Bosnian word blaga, which means mild. Apparently Blagaj has very mild weather; it was fantastic weather while we were there. 

Not surprisingly, the original name wasn't Blagaj, the first written name was Bona, (which is Latin for good, fine,) going all the way back to the Byzantine Empire.

The town has never been big, as the location simply hasn't attracted a trade route which is what often caused town growth back in the day. There is a fort up on the ridge overlooking the area, the fort has been there since the very beginning. You can hike up to the fort, but we chose not to do so, though I'm not sure why. Maybe I'll go back?

The main thing we wanted to see is sometimes called the Dervish House. It's the prayer house at the mouth of a spring that comes out of the bottom of the mountain. If I understand correcly, the house goes all the way back to the mid 17^th century, without any major renovation.

There was an entrance fee, of course. Sigh. As the house is still an active Muslim prayer area, women are required to wear a head covering, and they wanted me to wear a wraparound skirt as well. There were separate prayer rooms for men and women, the women's room was a bit smaller, but not too much.

There was a room where you can wash your hands and feet, in order to pray properly. This room had a small skylight of sorts, pretty impressive.

The best part of the house was its setting. You can hear the constant flow of water, and nothing but the occasional sounds of people talking. It's a really quiet, peaceful place. Unfortunately, it has become a place tourist buses come, because the walkway close to the entrance is lined with tourist stalls, and the other side of the water is lined with cafes. Argh.

After our quick walk around we walked back up the walkway, turning down a random road just because we could. There was an abandoned building, with a gate that wasn't completely locked. I wanted to go in, and convinced Bo we could open the gate and walk right in.

As we walked through, we didn't know what we were seeing, but I did appreciate how old it was, and we did make sure to avoid the holes in the floor that opened to the water flowing underneath the building. We took a peek out the other side of the buiding, it was just open land.

As we were about to leave a couple came into the building, looking at us in surprise. 

I was nervous we were going to get into trouble for going into an abandoned building, but it didn't happen.

I tried speaking a little Russian, it didn't work. Bo figured out the lady spoke some German, which was a relief. It turned out the building we were in was an abandoned mill, over 300 years old. This couple owned the mill and the land it was on, because her husband's family had owned it back when this area was part of the Ottoman Empire. They were essentially using the mill as a gate to their property, until deciding to do something else with it. 

The lady indicated that we should follow her, so we did. She showed us to a house she and her husband were renovating in the style of the Ottoman Empire. It was GORGEOUS. The main 'living room' had a natural system of air conditioning, as there was a door in the floor that could be opened to let the breeze in, which came from the water flowing under the house.

The house had plenty of intricate wood carving, and coffee sets, and lounging areas. I would've happily spent the rest of our day there, if I'd had a book. It was just one of those places that was incredibly comfortable. When this couple opens the house for business I'd love to stay there for a couple days to relax.

After that unintended tour, we went back to the car and drove to our next spot, a town called Pocitelj. Getting there was tough, as Bo wanted to use the GPS on his tablet, which seemed to keep directing us onto nonexistent roads. I finally turned on my phone, which got us where we wanted to go.

Pocitelj has written history going back to the 15^th century, but probably predates that time. It's a walled city, it must've been quite the feat to build the walls around the city. As the city was built during Ottoman rule, the houses are still mostly in that style. Since Bo and I had visited the judge's house in Mostar, we didn't feel the need to visit any homes in Pocitelj.

Pocitelj is built on the steep side of a hill, visiting it means you're getting a step workout whether you want one or not. We parked in a big platz at the bottom, I assume this is where tour buses park. It was free, so I didn't care.

Our walk through the town involved a few breaks so I could catch my breath. Neverending steps and heat did not make me feel good, hee hee. The views from all over were amazing. We found a crumbling tower at one corner of the walls, and were even able to climb up to the top. Looking out over the whole area was incredible.

We visited one of the mosques in Pocitelj, thankfully it wasn't prayer time. 

The builders had found a way to put small pieces of coloured glass in the walls, so the interior was really colourful and really light, I loved it. The women's section was a balcony on a level overlooking the main floor, not nearly equal to the men's section in size.

Pocitelj isn't big, so it didn't take all that long for us to wander all over. We didn't find main roads going through, so I'm not sure we saw everything. Instead we were climbing up various stairs between buildings, then on narrow streets for a short while, then more stairs. Half the fun was figuring out how to get back down the hill to our car!

I should mention that Bo was basically over being in photos by the time we left Pocitelj. I love taking 'team' photos when I travel, you have to be okay with those for us to travel well together. I don't blame Bo, since I'd probably asked for at least 6 by that point in the day, hee hee.

It was easy to get to our last sight for the day, the roads weren't too confusing, and the signage was really obvious. Kravica waterfall isn't just one waterfall, it's a series of them.

We probably should've visited the waterfalls first, since the sun was backlighting everything by the time we arrived, argh. It's a beautiful area, really easy to reach from the parkplatz where both a parking fee and entry fee are assessed.

The walk to the waterfalls from the parkplatz is only five minutes, down a specially constructed pavement. If you can walk with a railing, then you need no other physical skills to visit this waterfall. There were lots of groups taking photos, I didn't blame them but I did get impatient after waiting through a couple amateur photo shoots.

There is a rope blocking off the pool at the bottom of the falls, but you can get into that area by hiring a small boat for a quick tour that gets you up close to the falls. The water wasn't warm since we were there near the end of October, but I bet its a great place to have a swim in the middle of summer. There also looked to be a camping area nearby, which would also be awesome in summer, depending on how many people are there with you.

After a while we decided we'd had enough, and drove back to Mostar. There are so many small but amazing places to visit in Bosnia!

usa: road trip from Columbus, IN to Charlotte, NC

The original plan was for John to pick me up on Thursday morning, then we'd take our time driving back to Charlotte. That plan was delayed by a little over two days, but such is life. John picked me up after lunchtime on Saturday, and we started driving.

Our first stop was in Columbus, Indiana, for lunch. The pizza was good, and I saw a business with my last name :) I've done a day trip to Columbus previously, but didn't get to see everything. This quick stop reminded me that I want to come back and see more.

We kept going until we got to Cincinnati, Ohio. I got to drive much of the way, which was fun. Though the U.S. doesn't have a good public transport system, it does have a good network of highways. (Notice that I didn't say that all this infrastructure is in good shape, because it isn't.)

Cincinnati is a city of almost 300,000 people, founded in the late 18^th century. Wikipedia tells me it sits at the confluence of the Licking and Ohio Rivers, I only knew it was on the Ohio River. Clearly I need to go back and make sure I see the Licking River, just because it has a fun name.

I grew up going to Cincinnati every summer to watch the Cincinnati Reds play at Riverfront Stadium. The stadium has a different name now, but it will always be Riverfront to me. We parked the car near the riverfront walkway developed by the city, and started walking. We didn't get far before deciding to cross Roebling suspension bridge. Crossing the bridge took us over the state line into Kentucky, a state in which we had zero desire to spend any time.

The water of the Ohio River was not particularly good looking, it was a shade of brown as far as I could see. Yuck. Somehow I doubt it ever looks all that great.

Just after coming off the bridge I realized I was rather dehydrated, and needed water quickly. I'd heard about an ice cream place called Graeter's that was originally from Cincinnati. It has now spread to other cities/states, but the fact that it was originally from Cincinnati made it okay for me. (My general rule being to avoid national chain restaurants.)

I drank a bottle of water really fast, then enjoyed two scoops of black raspberry chocolate chip ice cream. I would most definitely go back for me the next time I'm in Cincinnati.

From there we wandered around a little bit of the city center, enjoying the architecture of the sky scrapers. We didn't wander far, heading back to the car soon enough. I've since checked a couple travel apps and found plenty of things to do and places to see in Cincinnati, I'd like to go back. (With plenty of water.)

We started driving with no end point in mind for the evening. We pulled into a hotel parkplatz a little before midnight, after having crossed state lines into Knoxville, Tennessee.

The next morning we decided to explore a bit of Knoxville, just because we could. I'd been there once before, when I was 18 years old and trying to decide where I would go to university. I don't remember much about that trip, it was nice to go back and basically see the city from scratch.

We found a free parkplatz downtown, near a pedestrian street. The street was nice looking, everything had been developed nicely. This pedestrian street was mostly lined with cafes and restaurants, nothing too extraordinary.

We walked to the end of the street, circling around a few streets down there. One of the buildings we saw was the old county courthouse, it still has a war memorial on the lawn. Another building we saw was one of the most boring government buildings I've ever seen. We also saw a church or two. As it was the middle of summer, flowers were blooming, and everything looked lovely.

Finally we saw something we'd seen while driving into the city center: the tower of the convention center. There is a gold ball at the top of the tower, the whole thing is really eye catching. The rest of the convention center wasn't anything great, which wasn't much of a surprise.

The bottom of the tower was near a small body of water, which had also been redeveloped nicely. There was a splash pad, steps by the water, etc... Not too far away we found a war memorial for the soldiers of east Tennessee. Very nicely done, with maintenance done regularly.

Around that point I realized that yet again I'd let myself get dehydrated. We walked back to the pedestrian street and found a local cafe. The server brought water, which I drank immediately. We asked for a full pitcher of water, she brought another glass for each of us. I drank that fast as well, finally feeling closer to normal again. When she saw how fast I was drinking she realized I had asked for the pitcher of water for a reason, and finally brought it. Our food was fine, and the air conditioning felt good :)

Before leaving town John found a cigar shop to visit, but didn't buy anything because he didn't want to spend that much on rolled up tobacco leaves. I had no idea cigars can cost more than $100!!!

From there we went back to the car and got back on the highway. Our next stop was Asheville, North Carolina, because I was craving ice cream. I found a place listed on a travel app, it was okay, but not as amazing as I wanted it to be.

From there we drove to Charlotte. I'd never been there before, it was completely new to me.

I would definitely return to Columbus, Cincinnati, and Knoxville, as there is always more to see and do :) Road trips are the best.

the States: midwest: chicago to kokomo to bloomington

As usual, when I came back to the States, my first stop was Chicago, or rather a suburb of the Windy City. Kelley and Jon have been a refuge for going back years and years. They recognize that coming back to the States is often overwhelming for me, so they let me adjust at my own pace, which is a relief.

We didn't stay there long, the next afternoon we started driving east, toward Kokomo, Indiana. We made it there in a bit over four hours, after a stop at Portillo's for dinner. I'm not usually a fan of chain restaurants, but for Portillo's I'll make an exception.

That first night in Kokomo we stayed up later than we should've chatting and catching up. I've known Rhonda and Chip for over 20 years, they've been part of my chosen family the whole time. It took me a few more days to get onto the local time zone, which means getting really sleepy at strange times, and being wide awake at strange times. Being in Rhonda and Chip's house is another perfect place to decompress, we never have a schedule to keep.

The only thing of note I did while in Kokomo was go to Mom's Homemade Pies, to buy three pies. This might sound excessive to everyone but me, but I love pie, and this place has the best pies. Lots and lots of fruit in the middle, and the perfect ratio of fruit to crust. It's good and bad that I don't have access to this place more often.

It wasn't easy to find an affordable way to get from Kokomo to Bloomington. My original idea was to rent a car, but picking it up in one town and returning in another town was out of my budget. I ended up booking bus tickets, much to the horror of pretty much anyone I told.

Unlike the countries in which I've lived for the past 17 years, there isn't a good system of public transport in most cities of the U.S. Argh. To get from one city to the next, I had to book bus tickets with a layover in the middle.

Kelley and Jon drove me to the pick up spot in Kokomo, which was a petrol station. Yes, it was a bit scary. As I boarded the bus I took one of the seats near the front, as I'm less likely to get motion sickness that way. Just before taking off the bus driver made an announcement that he was watching specific passengers, he expected them to follow the rules. Apparently they hadn't done so on previous rides, and he wasn't going to deal with it.

The bus ride itself was fine, arriving on time in Indianapolis. While I was in the bus station in Indy I spent most of my time on my phone. Kelley and Jon and John were freaked out that I was there for hours in the middle of the night, they didn't want me to sleep. I must admit, the variety of people I saw in the bus station was amazing.

Thankfully, my bus left Indianapolis on time, and arrived in Bloomington on time. Since it was still rather early, (before sunrise, at 5 something or 6 something in the morning,) the bus station in Bloomington wasn't open yet. I ended up sitting on a bench and waiting for a couple hours. I did get to see a pretty sunrise, and reflect on the fact that this was the first time I've ever arrived in my hometown by bus.

After a couple hours I walked from the bus station to the car hire place. It was warm and humid, I'm pretty sure I was drenched in sweat by the time I walked into the office. They didn't open until 0900, which is why I had to wait at the bus station. Picking up the car was easy enough, and made my life a lot easier.

Over the next week I didn't do much of anything of note. I went to a park I've never visited, I spent time with family members, and I did exactly one athletic thing. Jumping on a trampoline for nearly an hour is definitely a workout! It reminded me that I'm not anywhere close to as fit as I once was, sigh. 
I also did 'chores' like apply for a new drivers license, only to find out I didn't have the right documentation. That meant I had to apply for the right documentation, and wait. Bureaucracy is not fun.
It was a very low key visit to my hometown, the whole point was just to spend time with family.

the states: indiana: a family gathering in bloomington

Unfortunately, this trip was due to a death in the family. Since my family wanted to have as many of us at the memorial as possible, it was scheduled several months later. 

I started with a loooong day of traveling. Three flights to get to Bloomington, Indiana; from Kyiv to Amsterdam, then to Detroit, then to Indianapolis. The last flight was slightly delayed, but not nearly as much as it might've been. 

My uncle (whom I hadn't seen since fall 2012,) met me at the airport, and we picked up his rental car. From there we drove to Bloomington, only having to turn around twice. Whoops! Even though the airport in Indianapolis is probably 10 years old, I've only gone from it to Bloomington one other time. Most of the time I fly into Chicago. 

Anywho, we arrived at home safe and sound, then immediately turned around and went out to dinner. I love steak, I was happy :) 

By the time we got home from dinner my body was completely confused as to what time it was, but I stayed awake chatting until after midnight. Ooops. That didn't help with jet lag. 

I was wide awake the next morning at 0630, argh. It wasn't light outside and no one else was awake. I putzed around and found cereal for breakfast, cheerios for the win!!

Eventually everyone else was awake, and dad went to pick up a couple more arrivals. They came back to Bloomington, and we all said our hellos. I hadn't seen one cousin since January 2014, and an aunt since fall 2000. Clearly my family is not so good about getting together regularly. 

Dad had something else to do, so I took an uncle, an aunt, and a cousin to see one of the more unique sights in Bloomington. (One the way we stopped at a bookstore so I could buy a guidebook.)

Most people don't know that the brother of the Dalai Lama lived in Bloomington for many years, until he died in ........ During his years in the city he taught at Indiana university (I will usually refer to it as IU) and established the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center. 

This temple and complex is in southeastern Bloomington, and you feel as though you're in a totally different place. We walked around the prayer wheels and looked at the sand mandala inside one of the stupas. We looked inside the temple, noticing the religious books of several other faiths. It's a very calming place to spend time. 

From there they dropped me off at my sister's house, where I got to meet my nephew for the first time. Since he was just short of four months old, of course he won't remember me the next time I get to see him. It was nice to spend a couple hours with my sister and catch up with her. I held my new nephew a few times, but he always started crying within a minute, argh. 

I went back to Dad's house for dinner, pizza was ordered. That's the biggest family dinner any of us remember for quite a while. 

After dinner I went with Dad and my uncle to round 3 of the women's national invitational tournament, usually called the WNIT. Dad had scored courtside seats for us, which was awesome. I've never been that close to the action, it was a whole new perspective. IU won, which made it even better. 

When I got home I watched the last few minutes of a men's NCAA game, the University of Oregon beat the University of Michigan. My family is sports obsessed, yay!

I tried to stay up for another basketball game, but didn't succeed. 

Even though I fell asleep at a decent time, I still woke up super early, thanks jet lag. 

Since I was up so early I was able to convince Dad to let me use his car to go to Needmore Coffee Roasters. I've known the owner for a long time, I was thrilled to support a local business. She has been roasting coffee wholesale for several years, having a coffee shop was quite new. All of her coffee beans are ethically sourced from fair trade farms in Central America. I'm not a coffee drinker, but all of her other products for sale in the shop are locally sourced. 

She has found a great chai for use in a chai latte, which made me happy. I want to have more the next time I visit.

I picked up coffee to go for a couple cousins as well. 

Not long after I got home, two cousins showed up, along with my sister and nephew. We had arranged to do a day long road trip, yay. At some point when I'd been looking at a map of the state I noticed there were a number of towns with names of countries. I thought it would be fun to visit a couple of them. 

My sister drove, and since she knew where she was going, we weren't worried about getting lost on the back roads. 

Our first stop was Cataract Falls State Recreation Area. From the name I suppose this makes it a step down from a state park, but I don't know what the difference actually is. Right near the first parkplatz is a red covered bridge, you can't help but see it. 

As we started to walk through the bridge we saw it was filled with picnic tables, I assume they are put out during summer. We took group photos, thank goodness for time delay options on cameras :) 

On the other side of the bridge was a small path down to the water. Not a big path, I got the impression there aren't heaps of people who visit this area. Or maybe we were just early visitors in the season. 

We got down to the water, each of us taking our own photos. My cousins and I travel semi regularly, and I love their photos. When I saw photos of this trip later on I was surprised by the differences, despite all of us being in the same place. Awesome.

The rec area has two sets of falls, upper and lower. The falls by the covered bridge are the upper falls, and according to the sign they are some of the biggest in the state. I had to climb down in a couple places, of course I ended up with bruises from falling against the rocks. 

We viewed the upper falls from the viewing 'platform' on the parkplatz side of everything as well. It's a nice view. We could see the area is capable of having much more water, I wonder what the falls look like after a big rain. 

We walked along the road to lower falls instead of driving. Another thing my family has in common is a love of walking. On both sides of the road were woods, I figured there must be hiking trails in the area. 

The lower falls weren't as impressive as the upper falls, but I'm still glad we saw them. I saw a couple people with big cameras setting up for shots, so maybe they saw something I didn't? 

We drove to Poland, IN and went to a local diner for lunch. I'm a huge fan of diners, and the characters you see in them; I was thrilled when I'd found this place listed on a travel app. 

The food was okay, not wonderful not awful, the pie wasn't nearly as good as I wanted. We all snickered to ourselves when we saw a man stand up wear leather motorcycle pants with suspenders. We overheard part of the conversation from a table on the other side of the room, they were talking about Trump. Given that this was small town Indiana, they were probably supporters. 

There isn't much to the town of Poland, IN, it's really small. The church was quite picturesque though. 

We next drove to our last stop: Brazil, IN. The seat of the county, and the birthplace of legendary union leader Jimmy Hoffa. While we were there we looked for him (or his body, as neither has been seen in a looong time,) but they were nowhere to be found. 

Brazil isn't terribly exciting, with very little listed on travel apps. I liked the look of the county courthouse, which is quite grand. On the side of another building I saw a giant mural, but we didn't stop to see it.

We drove to a coffee shop, I learned what a French ice drink is. I liked my snicker doodle cookie best of all. 

After the coffee shop I convinced everyone else to stop for a few minutes in front of the courthouse. On one side of the front lawn was a plane, my guess is it was from WW2, the tail said FU-434. There was also a memorial to soldiers from a different era. 

After this stop we drove back to Bloomington, my sister knew exactly where to go. Yay. 

That night everyone had dinner at Dad's house, (two more family members had arrived,) then we watched another basketball game. As I said earlier, my family is sports obsessed. 

The next morning was Saturday. Some folks went to the church to deal with technical issues, I went with the cousins to see a little of IU's campus. It's a gorgeous campus, consistently named as one of the most beautiful in the country. 

The technical issues folks joined us fairly quickly, Dad and I showed them around a small part of the campus, and told a bit of the history. In addition to loving sports, we all enjoy history as well. 

That afternoon everyone gathered at the church for Grandma's memorial service. It was emotional, to say the least. Afterward we had a small reception, Dad and my uncle had put together photos of Grandma's life. I'd never seen many of them so it was fun to watch. 

Toward the end of the reception we got someone to take photos of the entire group, which was awesome. For my family it's incredibly rare for a gathering like this to happen. 

Afterward everyone went out to dinner together. Again, a nice gathering, with time to chat with each other. 

I went back to Dad's house and packed up my stuff, then hopped in Mom's car and went with her to her flat.

On the way we stopped at a supermarket to pick up food for me, as I was determined to enjoy some foods I don't get to have very often. 

The next morning the whole group went to church. For once, my family sat at the very front of the sanctuary, something else we rarely do. During the service my sister baptized her son, I was so proud. (My sister is an ordained minister, she has baptized several children.) I was happy to see her present her son to the congregation. 

After the service we all went to lunch at a local restaurant. It was my first time there but everyone else seemed to know it, or had at least been there once before. Yum. 

After eating I drove Mom back to her flat. She let me borrow her car to do some shopping around town, then I went over to my sister's house again. Since we don't get much sister time I wanted to take advantage while I could. 

When I got back to Mom's flat I showed her my new 'toys' and we chatted for a while. I wish she still lived in Prague. 

The next morning was the end of the trip. As usual I woke up early, so I took time to start packing. I'd come to the states with empty space in my pack, knowing I was going to shop. 

I drove (in Mom's car,) to Dad's house where we picked up one of my aunts, then we drove to Indianapolis International Airport. 

It was hard to say goodbye, and the trip was too short, but I'm glad it happened.