Dobar dan!

We have finally recovered from our wonderful trip to Dubrovnik with Richie and Stefanie!  We loved every single minute of it, but we kept a pretty packed schedule so by the time we returned home we were tired.  Dubrovnik is on the southern tip of Croatia, so it is a pretty long drive for us to get there.  Although we enter Croatia in about 3 hours after leaving Budapest, it takes about 11 hours to get to Dubrovnik.  On our way there, we decided to take a scenic route so that we could see Plitvice Lakes National Park as well.  It was a couple of hours out of the way, but we were so glad we did it.  It was breathtaking! 

The water was the prettiest color!  Oh, and Phillip is wearing his Hungarian Wine Festival t-shirt :)  

Everywhere you  looked, there was another amazing view.

Then, we travelled another 3 or so hours and stopped for lunch in Split, Croatia.  We walked around in the old town of Split for just a few minutes before getting back on the road.  Stefanie and I were very amused by this statue. We have no idea who it is, but he sure does look funny.

We finally made it to Dubrovnik, and it was amazing!  This is a picture of the view from the balcony of our room.  It overlooked the Adriatic Sea and the old town.  It couldn't have been better.

This is the harbor next to the old town.

A view of the old town from the top of the city walls.

Watching the sunset at Cafe Buza.

Our favorite dinner!  The boys chose this place, and they did so well!

Another one of our favorite parts of this vacation was our day trip into Mostar, Bosnia.  I was a little  nervous to go to Bosnia at first, but I am so glad I did.  The history there is fascinating, and the fact that there was so much tragedy there in such recent times is unbelievable.  After the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia, when Bosnia formed its own country, there were additional wars in parts of the country like in Mostar (where we were) where Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks (all with different cultures, religions, and languages) mixed.  This mix led to continuous fighting among these ethnic groups within their own country.  Mostar was damaged very badly by this war, and the signs are still so evident.  Many of the buildings in town are scarred from bullets or other devices.  Here is an example.

 

Despite all of this, the city is still so beautiful.  It is really interesting to be in a city where one side of the river is full of Catholic churches and the other side is full of mosques.  It is a bit hard to tell in this picture, but the left side of the river is the Catholic side and the right side is the Muslim side.

I love this view of the Stari Most (Old Bridge) in Mostar.

We were so sad to see the Auters go back to Texas!!  It was so wonderful having them here, and we loved getting to share this trip with great friends :)