Day 23 - Mostar

Early start again today (6:30am departure) with our day trip to Mostar. We had a lovely 2.5 hour train journey through the beautiful Bosnia and Herzegovina mountains.
Upon arriving in Mostar, Daniel gave us the short history of Mostar before heading into the old town area which has now almost been fully restored since the end of the shelling in 1993. UNESCO assisted with funding the rebuilding and the bridge was reconstructed using the traditional methods when the bridge was first built.
After finishing our orientation walk we sat down for a coffee by the river. We could have almost sat there all day, but we thought we should go and see some of the sites. We walked back to the bridge the tower one side has a war photography exhibition by a New Zealand photographer on he other side we checked out a photo exhibition and a short film which shows the shelling and collapse of the bridge in 1993. We then got lunch down beside the river where I just ordered a burger after lunch we went into the tower on the other side for a museum dedicated to the history of the bridge and Mostar and contains artifacts found on the site, including things like wooden pipe and a wooden knife.
We then wandered back through the old town for a bit of souvenir shopping. We then went into an old style turkish house that was built in the traditional ottoman style. We then headed for the bus station with some haste as our bus was departing at 3pm to take us back to Sarajevo.
We got back to Sarajevo and our accommodation in time our cooking class at 6:30pm we made dolma which is basically spiced minced beef stuffed in vegetables (capsicum, zucchini, onions, etc) or wrapped in vine leaves.
It was great as they had prepared ones earlier so we got to eat straightaway (we didn't have to wait for ours to cook). :-) After dolma and salad we had coffee and baklava. It was nice to do a spot of cooking as I haven't done any for about 3 weeks now. Free day in Sarajevo tomorrow. Going to take it easy after a couple of busy days and we have another big travel day the following day.

Day 22 - Sarajevo

Early start this morning departed the hotel at 5:45am to catch a bus to Sarajevo. We arrived in Sarajevo at about 2pm and then hopped on a trolley bus into town to our accommodation. We had about an hour to relax before our orientation walk followed by a local guided walking tour of the city.
The city has incredibly lively vibe for a city that has been devastated by so many wars. The most interesting part of the tour was the site of the assassination of Franz Joseph and his wife that sparked the first world war.
We met back up with our tour leader at the end if the your and headed out to dinner. We had sampled the delicious local food banquet style along with some domestically brued flavoured brandy and beer.
Early-ish start tomorrow for a day trip to Mostar (6:30am).

Day 21 - Belgrade

Free day in Belgrade, only thing I have planned is the Nikola Tesla Museum tour at midday. So I had a bit of a sleep in, had breakfast and caught up with the girls (Mel & Jane) we went to the public square for a coffee and a spot of people watching before going to the Nikola Tesla Museum. After the museum I was planning on going on a bicycle tour of the city, but decided to be lazy and have lunch with the girls. We had to fend off a stray cat while we ate.
After lunch we went for a walk through the other part of the fortress and sat on the wall overlooking the Danube and Sava rivers. We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.
We went to the Bohemian Quarter for dinner. We went to a really nice grill where I had the nicest steak since leaving Australia and it was huge. We walked back up to the public square for a drink before heading back to our hotel for the earliest start of the tour 5:40am for a 7(+) bus trip to Sarajevo.

Day 20 - Novi Sad & Belgrade

This morning I had a bit of sleep in trying to get over the end of my cold. After breakfast I headed back across the river to walk around the fortress in the daylight. After walking around the fortress I headed back onto town to walk around the main pedestrian mall, before settling in at a cafe for a drink and a banana split along with some all important people watching of course.
A quick stop at a bakery to get some snacks for the train journey to Belgrade, I then headed back to the hotel to meet the rest of the group to get the train to Belgrade.
Once in Belgrade we got settled in our hotel rooms and then went on an orientation walk up to the town square to meet our local guide (Bojana) at 5pm. We got a lot of history about Belgrade, it has seen approximately 140 wars has been destroyed and rebuilt about 60 times most recently 1999 after the NATO bombing. People have been living in the Belgrade area for 6500 years (it dates back to the stone age). It is where the Danube and Sava rivers meet.
We had dinner in the oldest building in Belgrade called ? (No I didn't forget it's name it us called ?). The building dates back to the 19th century (which is an achievement in Belgrade). We then went for a drink in silicone valley before making our way home via the Bohemian Quarter.

Day 19 - Vukovar & Novi Sad

We left Osijek straight after work breakfast and started making our way to Novi Sad via private transfer. We first went to Vukovar and stopped at the museum in the hospital basement which documents the terrible genocide and bombings that took place there in the 90's during the war between Serbia and Croatia. Afterwards we walked around and up the Danube to look at the castle before we got some more borek and cup of coffee. We then stopped at a memorial where the patients and hospital staff were taken and killed in an old barn. After a heavy morning we lightened the mood by going to a winery before crossing the border into Serbia.
We arrived in Novi Sad just after 3pm and we are only here for one night. Once settled Daniel gave us a quick orientation walk around the city. Afterwards we got a cab to a honey museum where we learnt about the origins of modern day bee keeping and we got to try some more wines and then some honey.
We then got back into our cabs and went up to the fortress for dinner. The view over the city was spectacular. We had a good discussion about the wars in the area over dinner. We then started to walk back to our hotel after a wrong turn (buy our tour leader) we got some directions from a local and we back on the bridge making our way to the hotel again.
We have a free morning tomorrow morning in Novi Sad before getting a train to Belgrade.

Day 18 - Osijek

Today we went out of town for a day trip. First we went to a training facility for the lipzana horses. We got to see their new facilities for training and eventually shows similar to that in Vienna with dancing horses.
After the horses we went to the cathedral in the town and we were invited down to the basement/crypt to see the tomb of a Saint and other important people to he town. The cathedral is decorated extensively with paintings of biblical scenes from the new and old testament and inscriptions have been written in croatian which is not very common.
We had a coffee and a beurek and a little break before heading to a park. There was a run down villa in the park where Tito. There is also a run down hunting lodge near the villa that would have been used for Tito's guests.
We then went for a drive through the wetlands however it is still to early for bird watching. We saw one flock of ducks. We then made our way to an eco farm for lunch where we had goose goulash with home made pasta, mulberry wine, white wine, apple wine, elderflower water followed by pancakes with jam.
Needless to say after a late lunch like that with so much wine I needed an afternoon nap.
We went out for dinner at the old bridge pub and then out for a couple of drinks.

Day 17 - Osijek

We got up and took about a 5 hour train journey to Osijek. After we crossed the border into Croatia a young Croatian girl approached us to practice her English. She was in high school and on her way home. We arrived in Osijek where we were greeted by the owner of the guest house at the train station who then drove us to our accommodation. We are staying in the old town area. The building we are in dates back to the 17th/18th century. We went for a short walk to get some money and others got some food.
We had arranged a walking tour at 4:30pm with a local guide Igor. He is finishing his studies to become a lawyer. He remembers some of the war from when he was a child (10/11 years old). His school was evacuated during one of the bombings to Slovenia. You can still see evidence of the bombings on the buildings baring the scars from shrapnel and some direct hits.
We walked back along the river with our ice creams and Igor told us a bit more about life in Osijek and it's history.
We had dinner at a local restaurant in the old town where we shared two stews one catfish and one venison with a cheese pasta side and some salad.
I called it early night to rest up to see if I can hit this cold I have on the head.