Bosnia And Herzegovina

Just got off of the phone with Mateja. Looks like we've set our dates more firmly for Bosnia/Croatia. I'll be arriving in Beograd the evening of July 2 from Vienna, Austria and then we'll be setting off for Sarajevo the next morning.

The plan:

Sarajevo - July 3 & 4
Mostar - July 5
Dubrovnik - July 6 & 7

Then we're going to catch a ride down south into Montenegro in order to hop a night train to Nis on the 8th.

We haven't yet figured out how large our group is going to be. So far we have Mateja, Andreja, one of Mateja's friends and me. Andreja's girlfriend might come along. And then there's always the possibility that we'd increase our size by one more though that could start to get somewhat unruly when booking hostel rooms... Once Mateja lets me know the size of the group I'll be making the various bookings. I found some killer locations and I hope the rooms are still available in the next week or two when Mateja gets back to me.

I'm really interested to find out what the experience will be like for a group of Serbs traveling through Bosnia and Croatia. Since the hostilities of the 1990s are still fresh on some people's minds it might get uncomfortable from time to time but I would imagine it's a pretty important experience. After all, Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia were at one point located in the same country - Yugoslavia. Mateja's best guess is that Serbs traveling with an American will be safe from any sort of aggressive Bosniaks/Croats and an American traveling with a group of Serbs will be safe from any aggressive Serbs. Not that I ever really worry about people assaulting me but it's nice to think that such diplomatic immunity might play into it.

This particular leg of my trip is really psyching my out. When I went through Sarajevo and Mostar in 2005 the weather was terrible and my traveling companions had hit the doldrums so it wasn't the most exciting time to be there. All that despite the fact that I was there researching the effects that the wars of the 1990s had on ethnic relations and Sarajevo was pretty much ground zero for the worst of the fighting. So, I'll be making up for that missed opportunity - especially neat because Mateja's friend has a Bosniak friend who's going to be showing us around.

Dubrovnik was also a major disappointment in 2005 because I had one of the worst migraines of my life. Not sure what brought it on but I ended up having to sleep for 80% of our time there. Again, I'm looking forward to rectifying that disastrous visit. Dubrovnik is well on its way to becoming one of the hottest tourist locations in the world and I'd rather see it before it's basically impossible to enjoy. Though with it's prominent feature on the Travel Channel it might already be too late. Not to enjoy but you understand what I'm saying... It might be crammed with tourists. Screw it, it'll be beautiful anyway.

I'm off to bed now. Laura's coming home from New York tomorrow and I have to pick her up in the evening. I'm looking forward to seeing her even though I'll only have her for the duration of the ride home - she's got to go to bed and work in the morning.