On To Bosnia

Sunday, 22 May, 2016 – Trogir to Blagaj, Bosnia

We are to depart Croatia for a trip of three countries in 2 days, all through the former Yugoslavia. We tow our bags back through the cobblestone streets but this time are helped by the Hotel owner.

Waiting for Andrew to bring the van around

We drive to Bosnia. There is a long, slow queue at the border which we just have to put up with. Our first stop is the Brkic winery which is making biodynamic wines with the Bosnian grapes Blatina (red) and Zilavka (white). There we meet Alma, our guide, who acts as a translater for the Winery owner who conducts a small tour for us.

The owner, with translation from Alma, explains his theories of wine making which include bio dynamic growing and harvesting and the use of only Bosnia native grapes to be different from the rest. His most famous wine is called the Moonwalker, a white.

We go upstairs for a lunch, provided by Alma, and wine tasting.

The Owner's twin sons helped serve — The Owner’s twin sons helped serve

We tried 5 of his wines: (2) Greda (3) Moonwalker (4) Plava Greda (Red). After lunch we depart the winery with Alma.

We have to drive a fair way to get there. We serpentine down from a high plateau to the valley of the river Buna. We take a short cut that does not work out as there is a motor race on and at the road where one enters is a gridlock situation from all four directions. It is not helped by the van in front of us who insists to drive into the road when there is no possible way to get into it. Eventually, an attendant comes out does some arm waving to break up the jam. The Buna river is well up on its normal level and is quite fast running.

We drop off Alma at her home and then proceed into Blagaj. Again there are narrow streets, lots of people everywhere, there are market stalls all along the other side of the street. We set down and Hotel staff help bring the suitcases to the Hotel and then to our rooms. There is a loud prayer song outside at 5:00 PM, we are on the Muslim side of the river, the other side is Christian.

We are to have dinner at Alma’s house. Julie decides to walk there, of course. Some photos before we got there.

We are quite late in arriving because while all but one of us are waiting downstairs to take off, one of the guests could not find her key. We eventually take off but in the mean time Julie has seen the final preparation of the meal. It is lamb, but not done on the spit as it was not big enough.

We finally arrive and are greeted by Alma and her husband Ermin, who is also a guide and driver. The rest of the group take a tour down to the river in their back yard.

Looking down the back yard from the dining table

Ermin serves us some of his homemade fruit Brandy. There are two – Plum and Kumquat, I prefered the Plum. There is also wine and Boris and I each brought a bottle but we did not get around to opening either of them. Dinnaer is served.