Heading home

Last day in berlin was brutal: 97 degrees! They don't have aircon anywhere, so we had to suffer through it. It was also a Sunday and the city shuts down except for a few corner stores. We found one with cold drinks, parked ourselves on a bench outside, and spent the day reading and trying to beat the heat. Its hot in turkey too. Gezi park is free of protests, so we've been relaxing there and doing a little last min shopping. For stirring up so much drama, the park is surprisingly small and uneventful, mostly children playing and people taking naps.  No pics, it's been hot, so I've been leaving my camera bag at the hostel.

We fly home in the morning. According to Sunni's fuel band we walked at least 240 miles this trip, and I read 8 books! Another great summer in the bag.

Berlin atonal

Because I am lucky, there is a giant atonal music festival being held inside a MASSIVE defunct powerplant. Its like something out of a sci-fi dream. I went two nights in a row and got to see: Glenn branca, Juan Atkins, vladslav delay, john Hassel and some other ambient/noise acts who I'm not fimailar with, but still were great. Pictures don't even begin to show how massive and cavernous this place is.

Back in Berlin!?

Currently in Berlin. We intially wanted to head to Budapest, but time and cost shot that down. No cheap flight and bus or train would have eaten up a few days. Turned out Berlin and split are well connected by air, as is Berlin and Istanbul. We both adore Berlin, so we jumped on some cheap flights and have been chilling here for the past few days.

Split

Split is just beautiful as Dubrovnik, but with a little more grit and a lot more history. We stayed inside emperor Diocletian's retirement palace! The local orchestra and ballet practice in the middle of old town at night.  Great places to swim on both sides of the old town, so I swam twice a day. Turned out Roger Waters was I'm town so i got to see the wall live!!! Giant puppets, huge flying pig and a massive multimedia wall. I can check that off my bucket list.

Dubrovnik

Getting a bed in Croatia turned out to be very difficulty. I knew that it would be a little more expensive here, but I didn't account for $60 a bed hostels and 8 dollar beers! We ended up lucking out and after a few days of searching finding sobe (kinda of like an apartment or guest house) out side of Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik gets endless hype in travel guides for being fairytale beautiful. It is, it is also expensive and a little bland. Everything had been immaculately restored and filled with high end shopping and restaurants. The whole area felt like beverly hills inside a castle. I can see why the rich and famous vacation here. My favorite part of the city was a small tunnel in the wall that leads out to the sea. Swimming next to a giant white fortress is the best.

Our sobe had an outdoor kitchen on the terrace, so I cooked dinner for sunni (with fresh herbs from the owners garden) and we ate looking out over Adriatic. Just about as romantic as I can get.

Second day we took a ferry to a nearby island and swam in the sea all day. The island had giant cactus fields and an incredible contemporary light installation in the middle of nowhere.

Mostar day trip

Went on the hostel owners day trip. We started out climbing to the top of a 7 story bombed out shell of a building, covered in graffiti, with a great view of the city. He explained all about the war in 93 and told stories about having to fetch water under sniper fire, and the Bosnains having to pay the serbs to bomb the Croats. crazy stuff. Everyone over 30 in this town has been through hell and back.

Next stop huge waterfalls! I climbed and swam until my feet went numb!

We went to big Ottoman castle and dervish house. The last stop was a massive, abandoned airplane bunker. We walked through the entire pitch black tunnel with only a few cellphone lights!

Mostar

The trip from Sereivo to mostrar is amazing. Two hours of picture perfect mountains, lakes, and villages. We only planned to stay for a few hours, see the famous bridge and be on our way. We ended up staying 3 days. It's just too laid back and beautiful here. We had a small stoney beach to our selves, so we spent loads of time playing in the freezing water and reading in the hot sun.

Just a block out of the main strip you can see evidence of the war everywhere. Bomb scared buildings and cemeteries where EVERYONE died in 1993. A very strange contrast

Bosnia

Got back to the hostel from exit fest at around 8am. Got an hour of sleep on the back from novi sad and 2 more at the hostel before catching our bus to Bosnia. In theory this should be look a two hour trip (only 200 km away), but it took 8 hours! One lane roads through the mountains, stopping for cows and  tractors (and for driver smoke breaks, and to pick up/ drop off his friends...). It was beautiful view the entire ride and I needed the rest.

That city is small, pretty, and easy to navigate, but not too much to do. Just like in Serbia almost all the museums are closed due to lack of funds/corruption. We did get into the war museum. Falling apart and fairly amateur, but full of interesting artifacts, photos, and stories from their war with Serbia. The city was a disaster 20 years, and even though it still needs some work, it's come along way (I overheard a guide saying a child was killed a week ago by a landmine!).  We also found a fantastic private photo gallery that told the story of the genocide that happened during 94. Very arresting photos of a bleak time in history.

Went to the ONLY vegi restaurant in Bosnia, run by the chef/author of the ONLY vegi cookbook in Bosnia. He is also the waiter! It takes about 2 hours to order and get your food and theirs I only 4 tables, but we brought cards and the food was great.