Four days in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina

Plus a house update

Hello ~ I’m Scott and welcome to your 5-Minute Vacation for Oct. 20th. I’ve been so focused on our new home (an update below) that it’s been a while since I’ve shown up in your inbox. After all the construction shenanigans of the past few months, I know I could use a vacation. Hopefully, you do, too. Please join me on a 5-Minute Vacation in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Croatia. Bosnia-Herzegovina. Two more places¹ I never thought we’d be able to visit.

If you’re like me, your knowledge of those two countries consists of not much more than 1) they used to be part of Yugoslavia and 2) they were part of the devastating war that engulfed the region when Yugoslavia fell apart. But as we learned during our visit, there’s much more to these two countries than that.

Our trip began in Split, Croatia. Founded in the 3rd or 2nd century BCE and staring across the Adriatic at Italy, it wasn’t surprising to see a Roman influence in the city. Perhaps “influence” is too mild a word because the Roman emperor Diocletian built his retirement palace here at the end of the 3rd c. AD. Perhaps “palace” is too mild a word because the structure is more like a small fortified town.

The past has not passed on in these lands. This 1929 statue of Grgur Ninski, the Catholic bishop who began using the Croatian language in religious services in 926 AD, was made by Ivan Meštrović, who was the first Croatian artist to exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and today the statue stands in front of one of the towers of Diocletian's Palace. Whew. There’s a lot of information packed into that sentence, That’s how Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are: so much packed into a (relatively) small part of the world. And we haven’t even mentioned Islam’s influence yet.

Diocletian’s Palace and the surrounding area are now filled with shops, eateries, and bars.

In the 6th century, a narrow corridor in the northern wall was converted into St. Martin’s Church. It’s one of the oldest churches in Split and one of the narrowest I’ve ever seen. It’s quite the contrast to a church like the cathedral in Cologne.

Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina

After two days in Split, we day-tripped into Bosnia-Herzegovina. After a brief stop in Počitelj, we continued to Mostar for lunch. Mostar is famous for its bridge (it was prominently featured in Rick Steves’ episode of the region) and for the vicious fighting during the war after Yugoslavia’s dissolution.

These days, the only fighting is over who can get the best deal in the shops.

Mostar’s famous bridge. Young local men will jump from the bridge into the Neretva River 78 feet below – once we tourists have added enough to their donation bucket to make it worth their while.

On our final day, we visited the Klis Fortress, known to fans of “Game of Thrones” as the city of Meereen. Perched on a hill near Split, this impressive fortress’ history is too much for a 5-Minute Vacation. However, this little church inside the fortress is just the right size for this postcard: it used to be a church before it was converted to a mosque before being converted again into a church. That’s a couple of hundred years of history in one sentence.

In addition to all the forts, ruins, great regional artists, shopping, and water sports, there’s also a lot of great food.

In Mostar, we enjoyed a lunch of Bosnian delicacies (see above photo).

In Split, we enjoyed local cheeses with local prosciutto, fig jam, olives, sun-dried tomatoes,

Viska Pogaca (tomatoes, garlic, salted sardines in a slightly thicker pastry or perhaps pizza crust), two flavored local versions of grappa (cherry and honeyed), seafood (cuttlefish risotto, Swiss chard with garlic and onion in a very thin pastry crust, mussels, shrimp), and local wines.

We ate well on this trip.

Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina: visit for the food, visit for the water sports, visit for the history. Whatever your interest(s), it’s a beautiful region so if you get the chance, visit.

Our Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina adventure was in October 2022. Our current adventure is in Texas:

Our finished house and our unfinished landscaping.

I’m happy to say that our house is finally finished. We moved in on August 15th and now have all of our stuff. After our first two months in our house, I’m happy (and relieved!) to say that it’s exactly what we wanted. We’ve settled into a routine of yard work in the morning, being inside in the afternoon, and finishing the day by sipping iced tea on the back porch while watching the birds, foxes, and deer. It’s good to be home.

Thanks for inviting me into your inbox. Until next time ~

Yeeeeeeeee-hawww!

PS ~ If you are new to my photography, you can see more at scottgilbertson.com.

1. The list of places we never thought we’d be able to visit also includes Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania. I think our time in Europe coincided with the end of a golden age of travel because the EU/Schengen Zone/Euro made it easy to travel within Europe. The Pandemic, Brexit, the war in Ukraine, and the ongoing immigration crisis have made it more difficult to cross borders as easily as in 2014 or even 2019.