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Showing posts with the label Bosnia

Croatia and a couple of balkans, Day 4 a Dervish monastery

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After lunch we moved from the Republic Srpska into the Hercegovine area where the road became higher with views sweeping across to a distant castle. Rubbish removal did not seem to be high on the list of priorities here and we found a small herd of goats dining from a tip on the side of the road. I played around with 'perfect goat placement' for a picture and thought that they looked quite biblical. Coming downhill a sign appeared to Blagaj and its monastery so we followed it. We passed a Muslim graveyard on the way with its curiously shaped headstones. And also some historical stone buildings. The Dervish monastery or tekke, which is still used for prayer, was built under a cliff by the source of the River Buna in around 1520 and is a national monument. There was a cafè on the bank where we had a cup of rather disgusting raspberry tea before we commenced our tour. A Dervish is a member of a Sufi Muslim sect known for it's po

Croatia and a couple of Balkans, Day 4, into Bosnia

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We said goodbye to Slavko, our host in Dubrovnik and took the time to walk down to the base of the concrete steps that led from our apartment to the shore. I took a couple of photos, not that it was particularly pretty, but as a record. Anne had booked us into a pension in Mostar for the night so the only thing to do was to decide how to get there. Her guide book (Rick Steves) suggested 3 routes. We chose the longest and most remote, mainly because it went past a rather spectacular lake, or so it looked on the map. We crossed the border (no stamp this time) and drove to Trebinje a small town were we could find a cash point and get some Bosnian Marks. Some of the town looked quite eastern European but there was a great market which we had a walk round. The scenery was of rocky hills with sparse vegetation, quite Mediterranean.We came to the lake which was really a reservoir, Bileçko Jezero and stopped where it met the road. Here were the ruins of a rat