The sun peaked out on our way back to Dubrovnik, and I now saw the Bay in quite a different light. It was much brighter and my phone didn't catch the contrasts at all. It had actually been prettier in the grey, dramatic light the day before.
My American friend had written to me on Facebook the evening before that his bus had been stopped on the way back to go through all the bags so the poor guy had waited another two hours on the way back. Luckily, we didn't have to do that and the trip went pretty smoothly. We reached Dubrovnik at 11.05 and I hurried to the ticket sales to ask if the 11 o'clock bus for Split had left yet.
"What bus?" the ticket woman asked. She was neither very friendly nor welcoming. Basically, because of Easter, the next bus to Split wouldn't leave until 5PM… And today it was also supposed to rain. It wasn't pouring, and the sky was bluer than it had been but there was still a light shower.
So I started wandering into town with the aim of going to two churches my friend in Mostar had recommended. They were at quite opposite ends but I had 6 hours… I also kept an eye open for any place that'd sell food in whatever form, since I figured that'd be scarce on Easter day. I did in fact walk past a bakery that looked open and another women headed up the stairs to it, but when we approached, a gut inside waved with his finger that it was closed. I had finished all my lovely corn snack from Sarajevo and my emergency chocolate bar so I literally had nothing except for a bottle of water.
So I walked a bit further, and then miraculously saw an open takeaway only place that was open. I wasn't hungry get, but I got some cevapi to go for whenever I'd need it, which was lucky, because I didn't pass any other open place for the remaining time in Dubrovnik. Cevapi, because it was cheaper than all the other things on the menu. But I also thought that a corner shop cevapi would be a lot better than a Croation cornershop pizza...
I walked on to some very non-touristic areas of the city. In fact there were hardly any people there at all. Again, it may just have been because it was Easter, but it generally felt like it wasn't a very busy road. I ended up at a hostel, where Google said one of the churches was...but it turned out (I think) that the name of the Hospital was the same as that of the church. At least I didn't see any church around. So I sort of just dismissed it and headed onwards in a different direction, now to the second church - which I later realized wasn't a church. You could take a cable car up there - but you could also walk, which I of course did, and basically it was a viewing point of the city. Google maps said it'd take me 1h30 to get up there. But I had the time.
After having mounted the residential area, I reached something that was almost like a highway; no pavement, high speed limit. The map showed I'd be able to walk there, and eventually reach a small path, but I was thinking of turning around at one point. But just past the worst point, I saw the little opening in the forest that led to the little path. It started out like a path through the forest. Then the forest cleared and you started to get a better view of the city and the islands, but at the same time the path got rockier and more uneven. I had turned my Runkeeper on so that I'd be able to see my stats afterwards, and it showed like...3 km/h. What?! Well, that should say a bit about how hard I found it to climb the rocky terrain, because it definitely wasn't the elevation that was causing the problem (especially not at that speed!)
The path zig-zagged all the way up, and at almost every 'ziggy' turn, you ended up stopping to take pictures because it was just so lovely! The sun was out by now and the showers had stopped. I even video called both my grandparents and my parents (who had friends over) just to show them the view. Wishing them a Happy Easter was almost just like the by-purpose.
I reached the top, which, as I said, didn't turn out to be a church either, but a castle ish. Strangely enough, the castle had a worse view than from the path, despite being higher up. But from up there, you didn't see out as well, and the cable from the cable car was in the way, or lots of other obstacles.
I didn't stay up there for very long. Partially because the view wasn't amazing anyway, there wasn't much to do, and the bus was in two hours (or so I thought), so I needed to get back. My plan was to sit at one of the benches or walls on my way down while enjoying the view, but with only two hours left, and not being that hungry anyway, I decided to head straight to the bus station. That's when mum video called (she had hung up on when I had called on my way up - twice), and I realized that in fact I had two and a half hours, so now I could easily sit down and eat and enjoy the view for a bit more.
It was quite a surprise when I opened the rather big foam box that there was no bread there. Just lettuce, onion, ajvar that had partially leaked out, and the 6 cevapi I had ordered. Is that why it was so cheap? She had just given me cevapi - no bread? That's like a given; you get bread with cevapi - always! And with no bread, it became quite messy to eat it just with your fingers. Thankfully, I had sanitizer in my bag but that couldn't cure the orange colour stuck on my fingers from the ajvar.
After that, I headed straight back to the bus station. I got there about half an hour early which felt like good time to go to the bathroom and retrieve my luggage. Having a 4-5 hour journey ahead of me and having finished every single snack I had, I also meant to buy something at the station's shop. I figured that that one should be open when, and since there are buses operating - but it wasn't. There were plenty of shops and bakeries close by but the problem was that I had no idea how far away (or close) the nearest open one was. I definitely didn't have time to go search for food; The bus even left on time and I got a seat to myself - of course on the right side again to guarantee ocean view.
We had to cross those 21 km of Bosnian coastline again, but it was even smoother than last time. They didn't even take our passports; we just showed it while sitting on the bus. But it was nevertheless a long ride. When I messaged my Couchsurfing host that Google Maps said I'd be there in one and a half hour, we didn't actually arrive until like 2 1/2 or even 3 hours later. I did find an open shop at one of the stations though, and was allowed to jump off the bus while they boarded some new passengers to get something. They didn't have any interesting snacks but I had been craving lemon schweppes for like five hours, so I got one of those. The first and only on this trip. I rarely crave sodas, so this craving certainly came out of nowhere. It was nice to get something to drink as well, since I had finished my water walking up to Srd (the viewing point).
I think it was around 9 or 10PM when we got to Split. I had written down in my travel notes (I've been unusually organized for this trip...) that it would take around 4 hours by bus so it wasn't far off I suppose, even though it was slower than Google maps. My host had sent me the location of a bus stop where I was to ask to get out that was close to his house, and then he'd come pick me up from there. So I went to the driver, or actually a colleague of his (I think...or just a very chatty man) and asked if they could stop at something I tried to pronounce.
'Yes, yes, we go to bus station in Split.'
'Yeah, I know, but can you stop here?' I asked and pointed on the map.
'Yes, don't worry. We will stop in Split!' he said happily.
'But...can you stop right here?' I repeated and zoomed in on the map to show him. He put his glasses on. I don't remember what he replied but I seemed satisfied enough and went to sit down again.
When on the street I was meant to get off, a man asked to get off at another stop. I knew, and have seen that people can ask to be dropped off anywhere on the route while travelling around since last year. I thought of doing it in Tivat, as it could have saved me those 5€, but we had already left the bus station so I couldn't message them to change the plan. So I put my jacket on, and my bag, and got ready to remind them to stop for me.
'Can you stop there?' I asked, seeing the bus stop in front of us. Thankfully, the lights turned red, so I had the time to argue a bit. I'm fairly sure they would have just driven past otherwise, no kidding…
'We will go to bus station,' he said quite happily. He wasn't annoyed at my request, he just didn't understand it.
'But can you stop right there, please?'
'There?'
'Yes.'
'You want to get off here?'
'Yes, please.'
He seemed quite confused but said something to the driver in Croatian, and once the lights turned green, I was quite relieved that he pulled over, and stopped. I thanked them, and got off.
As I looked around a bit, keeping an eye out for my host, who clearly wasn't there yet, I noticed a man walk into a shop a bit from the stop. Finally some food, I thought, and headed there. But despite it being a decently sized corner shop, they had very little of interest. A few cereal bars, crisps, ice cream and drinks. No sandwiches, no cevapi, no…whatever. After thinking it over for a while, I decided to get a small bag of paprika crisps. It would have to do. My Easter dinner.
I went outside and had only just arrived back to the bus stop when I heard my name called out. I'm not entirely sure how he could see it was me in the dark, of if he figured based on my bag and the few people around, or he just called my name to easily find me by seeing who'd react to the call. We got into his old, white, two-door car and only drove like 3 minutes ish before driving into a big underground garage.
He offered to take my big bag despite how light I said it was, as we took the elevator up to the second floor. It was a big apartment building with…a lot of apartments per floor and he lived at the very end of the corridor. It was a very nicely sized flat for one person though; one bedroom and bathroom, living room and small kitchen and a nice balcony. He also offered to make pizza despite the hour, but I said I could do with something easier. So we had a more proper meal than the crisps at least, with some bread and both soft and hard cheese, salami and milk! Oh my God, I hadn't had milk for a week. Despite it being the crappy milk that you can keep in room temperature before opening, it was still so good to get milk again. Maybe, and especially, since I had lived off of 6 cevapi and 1/4 of a lemon schweppes bottle during the day.
We talked a bit more; ended up talking about and showing each other weird Balkan music. I had already seen some extremely weird things on a music channel on the TV at the Airbnb in Dubrovnik, which I described to him, and he just laughed, said that 'yeah, we have some weird stuff'. He showed me some even weirder things that…well, take a look for yourself. And yes, the song is about what you think it is. I applaud you if you can watch it without laughing.
| I also mentioned some of the music my students had played in Macedonia last year; Severina and some other music that turned out to be Albanian. I tried to remember the name of a really weird song (and a band) that my colleagues and I heard at the festival we went to last year in Macedonia. It was a warm up band to a really famous Balkan 80's rock band (Riblja Corba I think it's spelled) that played a song that goes 'monkeys on the mountain…' and then the most of the rest of the song is in Serbo-Croatian. But when this is the only line you remember from the song… |
Anyway. That was all for day 9. Next off is a mini-journey to Trogir and a day in Split!