This weekend Taiwan is hit by a strong Typhoon Champi. Even though people got a day-off on Friday, not being able to go out for 2 days in a row doesn’t make us happier (at least for me 🥲). Hope it stops raining soon, so I don’t have to eat what I cook…

Alright! Let’s get back to our trip! According to our tour guide, Bosnia is viewed as Europe’s Jerusalem. Historically, there have been many conflicts arising from religious differences in this area. For me, who comes from a totally different background, seeing a mosque and a church standing close to each other made me think about the value of diversity and tolerance.

Mostar is a UNESCO listed city of Bosnia and is 3h30m away from Dubrovnik by car. Its reputation and the closeness became 2 key factors for me to book a day tour there. Plus, I am always interested in Balkan countries so definitely take this chance to explore a bit. Here’s our itinerary for the day:

On the way to the waterfalls, our tour guide told us that Croatian and Bosnian are pretty much the same, so people from 2 countries can actually understand each other. The major difference is the pronunciation. This reminds me the similarity of Mandarin and Yunnan dialect. I used to work part-time at a restaurant ran by Chinese-Burmese who speak Yunnan dialect. Initially, I didn’t understand what they said, but over time, I surprisingly could understand it. I then realized it’s quite similar to Mandarine just with different pronunciation.

The waterfalls are in Bosnia’s natural preserve area. You’ll need to walk around 10 minutes to get there from the entrance. What’s special about it is its multi streams, which reminds me Shifan Waterfall in Taiwan ha. The landscape is different, but the concept is similar.

Around the parking lot, there’s a sign pointing you to a water fountain, which may not be easy to find. You’ll have to walk pass by a souvenir shop and find it located aside. Definitely seize the chance to fill in your water bottle cuz…who wants to buy water when you already have access to it 😗?

The bridge is built in 16th century by the Ottoman Empire but later destroyed because of Bosnia’s independent war in 1993. In 2001, people started to rebuild it and is listed as a UNESCO Heritage site later.

The bridge isn’t that wide so it was soon packed with tourists. To avoid the crowd, I took the opposite way and went down to the riverbank. Out of curiosity and the hot weather (our tour guide said because of the valley geography, it makes Mostar hotter than other places), I approached the river and touched the water: it was insanely cold! I almost had that kind of feeling closer to cold injury. I might get it if I stayed in the water long 🥶

On the bridge, a couple of young locals were asking donation for performing a stunt. What stunt? They first encouraged people to donate money. Once they collected the desirable amount, they jumped to the river from the bridge. Not sure if it’s for making a living or they really enjoy doing it. I hope at least it’s safe.

There are several souvenir shops in town to a degree that I felt like it’s too competitive. The town has an old market vibe that made me feel like I was in Middle Ages. That kind of scene in movies: women wearing aprons and male hunters wearing boots on streets immediately popped in my mind.

I feel like Počitelj is forcedly added to the itinerary by the company. At that point, people were quite satisfied and didn’t seem to expect to stop at this place. When we got off the bus, many of us were about to walk towards an “entrance” only to realize that our destination is a different direction.

After seeing many magnificent mosques in Istanbul and fortresses in Dubrovnik, I decided not to spend energy walking 60 m to the mosque. I saw people walk to it and get back in 5 minutes. Then you know what to expect. How about the fortress? We only had 20 minutes there. So Even if I was interested, the short stay wasn’t enough for climbing up.

Overall, I’d say the 1-day trip doesn’t feel particularly fulfilling, but it’s really a good chance to see another country besides Croatia. Dubrovnik fits people’s impression about Europe for sure. But if you want to seek those that are not featured in media, the 1-day trip to Bosnia is without a doubt a good start.