Cardaklije – three nights on a farm, 53km on a bike and one waterfall

My final few days in Bosnia and Herzegovina were spent on Cardaklije, a little farm-cross-ecovillage on the edges of Una National Park. It’s a little bit touristy (a lot of tourists staying in Bihac drive here for lunch) but it has eight wonderfully glossy horses roaming free, along with some chickens, ducks and geese. Plus, most of the food – from the cheese to the raki to the vegetables to the prosciutto – is homemade on the farm.

I hired their bicycle on one of the days to cycle to Una’s most famous waterfall. I’m so pleased I did it as the waterfall was beautiful, but it was a hard going 53km.

The length was ok, the hills were manageable, but the quality of the “road” meant it felt more like off trail mountain biking at times. To give you an idea of how bumpy it was, today my arms hurt more than my quads…!

Tomorrow, I leave the farm and travel to Zagreb. I’m not spending long in Croatia, two brief nights before flying out.

TTFN, x

Jajce – two lakes and countless watermills

Jajce is an historic town just outside of Banja Luka known for its natural beauty. I chose to stay here for a day in order to break up my two stints in “rest and relaxation” places (my five nights on Jablanica’s lake and my upcoming stay on a farm). Even though it’s a quiet town, it’s nice to have a change.

5km away from the town centre are the delightful Pliva lakes and their watermills. The watermills are more apparent they are watermills(!) in the months outside summer, when there is more water, but they are all original and rather quaint. It’s a quiet place with local atmosphere to while away the hours – I counted two hog roasts and four barbeques whilst I was there.

Separately, the strays of Jajce made me chuckle. As like much of the Balkans, Bosnia has a significant number of stray dogs but the strays of Jajce are really something else. Adorable, confident and adorable in their confidentness!

Tomorrow I travel onto my farmstay in Una National Park, which will be my final location in Bosnia & Herzegovina. TTFN, x

Mostar day trip – Blagaj, Pocitelj and Kravica

I usually avoid taking tours. Partly because they feel quite awkward and inauthentic, partly because of the forced small talk, and partly because of the price.

Tourism is a very important industry for Bosnia & Herzegovina and the industry collectively have done what they can to protect its income streams.  In some areas, like Mostar, there are next to no public bus routes because it forces tourists to use tours instead. There is a bus to Blagaj and a bus to Medjugorje, but most notably not one to Kravica which is the biggest tourist attraction in the area.

I really wanted to see Kravica so I considered getting a bus to the nearest town and then walking (8km each way) or hiring a car (which was more expensive than online research had indicated). But I arrived in Mostar a little fatigued, so I relented and accepted the inevitable. Begrudgingly, I sought out a tour.

Let me preface this with my experience of a tour in Mostar was very different to the standard tour experience.

I opted against my hostel’s tour (as, at €35, it was €10 more than what I had been told was going rate) and went to a hostel (Mirror Hostel) which my hostel in Sarajevo (Hostel Tufna) had recommended. This was a stroke of luck as it was a family run hostel and my tour guide was the grandfather (rather than some cocky teenager).

The second lucky thing was that I was the only one of the tour, so I paid €30 rather than €25 but I was very glad to spend the extra €5 on having a private experience!

The final stroke of “luck” which made my experience unforgettable was that my guide, Adner, was a Colonel in the war. He started as a soldier during conscription, was promoted to Colonel, and by the end of the war he was responsible for 10,000 troops in the Mostar region. This made for fascinating and harrowing conversation. He took me through the roads of Mostar which were his front line, his bunkers, where his troops fought. He has a large scar on his elbow from a shotgun, a large would on his knee from a grenade, and a scar from a sniper on his back. Many of his formers soldiers now operate the service jobs in the tourism industry, such as fruit selling and parking attendants. He took my breath away with his anecdotes numerous times and I am so grateful that this was the tour experience I had.

Adner:

Blagaj

This is the first stop in any tour. It is a Dhermish Monastery and is considered the holiest place in Herzegovina. Adner and his friends used to swim in the river as teenagers, and he showed me a stream where we filled up my water canteens.

Pocitelj

This will be the second stop in any tour and it’s name literally means “stone village on the hill”. It’s very picturesque and quaint. All of the buildings are original or rebuilt using the original materials. Like Blagaj, it has Dhermish origins.

Kravica

Kravica, the reason I came. These waterfalls are comparable to the Plitvice Lakes in Croatia, but crucially you can go in the water here so it is a completely different atmosphere.

Some blogs say that these waterfalls are deserted and maybe that is true outside of the sunny months but it was 30 degrees when I went and well populated! That said, it is a distinctly local vibe and whilst there are tourists there, the overwhelming feel is that these are local residents having a day out and splashing around.

They are only 300 metres from the Croatian border (you can see the border control building from the entrance!) and cost 10 BAM in the summer months to enter.

The water was cold but in a very pleasant way! Make sure to bring some sea shoes (unless you are super confident in the water), as there are some slimy rocks and things on the bottom.

Make sure to pick up some of the roadside figs! I can honestly say they aren’t like any other fig I have eaten. They tasted like they’d had honey injected in.

Medjugorje

We stopped by Medjugorje on the way back to Mostar, only because it was on our route home. It’s bonkers. I won’t go into it, because it would be a religious and political mindfield, but the church is BIG business there. The confession booth set up alone is laughable. (I have never seen so many, nor seen them organised by language, nor with traffic light buttons to show whether they are in use.)

So, if you ever find yourself in hostel, head to Hostel Mirror and ask for their tour!

TTFN, x