Balkans September 17, 2018 Kotor, Montenegro

5:45 pm.  What an amazing place is Kotor!  The ride coming into Kotor Bay was out of this world.  Sooz was able to capture a couple of shots from the back seat coming down from the surrounding mountains. The road was twisty with some traffic so I had to foucus on driving but Sooz got a few nice pictures.

I got stung by a bee on my neck riding today.  That woke me up.  Luckily I  didn't have any kind of reaction other than pain.

We decided to take inland roads instead of following the coast.  It has been in the 90s and the heat combined with lots of tourists and traffic along the coast made us decide to take 2 lane country roads with very little traffic. It reminded us a little of Arizona, dry with lots of rock outcroppings.  We had a half mile stretch of dirt road in a construction area but other than that the roads were pretty good.  Montenegro seems to have better roads than Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina.

Aunt Thelma, we're not going to make it to walk the walls of Dubrovnik. Next time!

We are renting a small apartment with a stupendous view of the bay for only  $60 US a night. 

Balkans September 16, 2018 Mostar, Bosnia Herzegovina

8:45 pm.  Kind of a low key day.  Walked old town, visited a mosque and climbed to the top of the minaret, ate 2 dishes of gelato and planned our next couple of days.

I also had a fun conversation with Sinead who works in a nice leather shop.  He is 22 years old, a Muslim and works 3 jobs.  We covered politics, economics, religion and marriage,  among other topics.  He kind of likes Trump, but shrugs his shoulders and thinks we make too big a deal of him.  He says they have had many politicians much worse than Trump.  He's in no rush to get married either.  He has a good, dry sense of humor which I appreciate.

Our waiter for dinner is also a hard worker, a bit leary about people who only want to make money and is very disappointed in LeBron for moving to LA.  He and his wife have the NBA Prime Time channel and watch all of the games.

We are off to Kotor, Montenegro tomorrow for 3 nights and hope to ride some nice mountain roads.

Balkans September 15, 2018 Mostar, Bosnia Herzegovina

8:45 pm.  Left Plitvice this morning and drove 210 miles to Mostar.  It felt like a long drive to me, but took only about 5 hours.  Crossing the border was no big deal, we are out of the EU but border crossings seem more of a formality than anything meaningful, and of course a new currency.

We had a nice conversation this morning at breakfast with a woman traveling with her Dad, both Croatian.  They were vacationing to visit Plitvice Lakes National Park. She brought up politics this time, not me.  She spoke very good English and was well aware of American politics.  What shocked me most was when she said that Putin seems the lesser of two evils when compared to Trump.

Coming into Mostar we hit a little rain so we stopped to put on rain gear and of course it never rained again; it's a universal law that if you want the weather to clear up just put on rain gear.

Mostar is best known for its Old Bridge which was originally built to link the two sides of town, one side being primarily Muslim and the other side Orthodox Christian. During the war of the 1990s the bridge was destroyed and then rebuilt and is now a big tourist destination. It is shown below.

I also took a picture of a bombed out building in the middle of a very touristy area giving a glimpse of damage done during the war. 

The cobblestone streets of the tourist area remind us of a middle eastern bizarre with shops selling all kinds of jewelry, fabrics and tourist stuff. 

Balkans September 14, 2018 Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

2:30 pm.  Just got back from hiking about 100 miles through the park.   Maybe it was closer to 3 or 4 miles, but it felt like 100.  The park is pretty amazing with miles of elevated wooden walkways and well maintained paths. 

The highlights are the waterfalls which are everywhere. Of course, waterfalls require elevation changes which mean lots and lots of uphill and downhill hiking with many steps as well.  We also took a ferry across one of the largest lakes.

Luckily we were advised to get an early start because the crowds get bad so we got going a little after 8am.  We did not have to wait in any lines for the ferry, but by the time we hiked back it was crowded.  I have never seen so many selfie sticks, they were everywhere.  We saw a lot of Asians and sat next to a young couple from Romania on our first ferry ride.  Both spoke very good English and said they learned it mainly from movies and cartoons on TV.

Balkans September 13, 2018 Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

8:00 pm.  Sitting in our room in a large mountain home in the middle of Plitvice Lakes National Park. It was about a 200 mile ride from Piran on the sea.  Roads were about half 4 lane highway and 2 lane country roads, some in pretty rough shape.  Once in the Park the road got more narrow.

One picture below is of Sooz and Stella owner and next door resident of where we stayed in Piran.  She was a sweetheart and spoke about as much English as I do Slovenian, but we got by.  She has lived in that location 55 years.

I have a picture below of the 6 currencies we have used so far; Romania, Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Euro and U.S.

I also have a picture from where we had lunch of stuffed local animals mounted on the wall.  Pretty impressive.

Balkans September 12, 2018 Piran, Slovenia

9:00 pm.  Another good day on the Adriatic coast.  Slept in late and then walked up to 7th century old town walls that are still standing.  More steps to climb but some pretty stunning views of Piran and the sea.

We got lost walking to the old walls.  There are lots and lots of tiny alleys and cobblestone walkways and we hit a couple of deadends.  But it was fun seeing this part of the town. All of a sudden you would come across some tables and chairs set up in an alley where they were serving drinks and food.  I guess they can make it work.

We went swimming again and saw lots and lots of families with small kids.  It seems like a very family friendly place for local Europeans to vacation.  It's still very rare to hear an American speaking English.

The local cat took a liking to our motorcycle.