Visiting Mostar and camping in camp Biokovo

ivona-stajduhar
20. kol 2016.
5 min čitanja

After we were stunned by the beauty of Velebit mountain tops and the hospitality of Camp Velebit, we decided we were going to continue with our trip. After climbing Velebit, we spent one more night in camp Velebit, which was rainy and we spent it talking to the Dutch couple we met and editing the scouts video for the lovely lady Marita. When the editing was done, we decided we would leave the camp after lunch. We ended up chatting to the owners for a few hours more, when our time to go came. We were sad for leaving this peacefull and home-like place but yet excited for where we were going to next, while actually having no idea what that place was going to be.

It was obvious to us that we had to sleep somewhere. One option was to sleep in the car, since we have a nice, big Volvo with a lot of space. Second option was to find a cheap camp site. We knew we wanted to go to Makarska riviera but the night was crawling in and we had to sleep over somewhere first. There wasn't many camps to choose from in-land but I thought of one I followed on Instagram way before and looked it up. We called the number and got ourselves a really nice deal. NOW we knew where we were going – camp Biokovo on the Biokovo mountain!

When we arrived at the camp, we were greeted by the camp owner. He immediately offered us his home-made liquer and we had no choice but to except the offer. Yeah right, ''NO choice''! Haha The least to say is it was excellent. The owner accompenied us and we had a really good talk with him. It was then when we realised we picked a good camp again! Hospitality is everything! Then he called his daughter to come meet us. We chatted until the daughter, Mirjana came, and we were blindsided by all the local food she braught. Again, we had ''no choice'' but to except! We were really delighted by this warm welcoming and thought about staying here for more than one night, which was our initial plan. After we ate, we accompanied the owner and his daughter in a nice little chat with a glass of a home-made wine. After we discussed some interesting topis, we put up the tent and went to sleep, our tummies full and our minds set on tomorrows plans!

As we woke up, we explored the camp site a little bit more. It turned out that the camp was opened just the past summer so keep in mind it is still in development and improving. But, the camp has the essentials you need which means: new bathrooms, new showers, new sinks and ofcourse WIFI is available.

We had breakfest and then set out to visit Mostar and Blagaj in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I was waiting for this roadtrip ever since Andrei told me about it, since he already visited it a few years before. I've never been to Bosnia before and this was my first time. We entered the country easily, with only our ID cards and found the road to Mostar. The one thing that caught my eye about Bosnia is that there's trash everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE. There are shoes, washing machines, broken car parts and much more on the rest stops along the road. It's really not pleasent to see. There are also plastic bottles everywhere since they don't buy them off like in Croatia. And also, there's rusted and forgotten cars along the road, while there are exetremely good cars ON the road. It's kind of confusing. But these facts aside, when we got to Mostar it wasn't our concern anymore. One tip when visiting Mostar: if you can, go on a sunday beacuse parking is free on Sundays in some parts of town and don't go park near the Old Bridge because they will ripp you off with cca 20€. Just because it's ''near'' to the center. We found a parking spot for free and had to walk less than 10 minutes to get to the center.

The old part of Mostar is just beautiful, the cobbled streets and all the little stands selling all kind of stuff; from purses and scarves to military objects.It's really interesting and colorfull! Prices range from 1-30€, depending on what you're looking at, but the pashminas are 5€, magnets come at around 0,50€ and so on. There are also ice-cream stands but prices range in where you're standing because they are only a few meters away from each other; some places it's for 0,50€ and some are 1€ for a ball of ice-cream. But I was kind of disappointed because there was a lot more tourists than I expected and the streets were really crowded and I had to pull my bag really tight so it doedn't get stolen. The crowd kind of took aways a littel of the experience but it was still really beautiful. There are various mosques and you can eneter most of them but for around 8-9 € which was alot for us so we didn't go in. But the Old Bridge is breathtaking. Only take caution when getting over it; it can be slippery because the stone is polished from all the people crossing over it. You can even get under the bridge and see it from another perspective. The bridge is 20 meters high. Imagine jumping off that. Well, there are people on the bridge, walking on the edge of it and collecting money for the next jumper to take a dive into the Neretva river that runs underneath. It's really amazing and scary to watch at the same time. After the bridge was renovated in 2004. it was listed on the UNESCO world heritage list.

After we shopped for souveneers ( for which you can pay either with euros, bosnian convertible marka or croatian kunas) and exploring a little bit more, we decided to head to Blagaj, which I was so excited about.

Blagaj is a town in the Mostar region, and it has a great restauran by the source of river Buna, which is coming from inside a cave. That's where we were heading next. We got there and decided we wanted to go inside the dervish house that is right across the restauran. You have to pay a 2€ entrance ticket. That we were willing to pay because we were really interested in seeing it from the inside. It has a little garden in front of it and there are many pipes with free refreshing cold water from the river source, which was very helpfull since it was really hot. There's also a little bawl from which you can drink right out of the river. And, don't worry, it's safe and clean. When you walk into the dervish house you have to take your shoes off and women get hijabs and skirts while men only get skirts unless their pants are underneath their knees. You have to respect this because it is a muslim house and there are people praying there. But, it felt really nice for me, because by respecting their rules of outwear you respect and get to know their culture and be a part of it.

Everything is Bosnia is cheaper than in Croatia, so we sat down in the restaurant by the river and enjoyed some traditional bosnian ''čevapi'', which we were told are the best. We ended our day there and headed back to camp where we had dinner, relaxed and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.