Sarajevo – Mostar – Trogir (Croatia)

29th September 2014       5-26℃        358km
Sarajevo – Mostar – Trogir (Croatia)

I set out from Sarajevo early, in the cool mist air, riding past the many bullet holed buildings, including the Holiday Inn, which looked to be in very rough shape.
I reached Mostar just before lunch, and enjoyed walking around the old town, although it was fairly busy with tourists and crappy souvenir shops, the great cobbled streets, stone bridge and towers were exceptionally impressive.

After a quick lunch, I rode along the river to reach the border between Bosnia & Croatia.   On the Bosnian side, my passport was scanned and checked, then I proceeded to the Croatian side, where I handed my passport to the girl, she just said “Ok” and handed it back to me, without even opening it.   I wasn’t sure if we had some misunderstanding, so I asked “its ok? Can I go?”.   To which she said, somewhat impatiently “Ok! Go, go”

Fair enough, I thought, and powered up and into Croatia.  I wanted to cover some extra kilometres before it was dark, so I headed onto the freeway, a brilliant piece of engineering, smooth, fast and wide.  And cruised like this for 2hrs, turning off near Trogir where the road winds down to the Adriatic Sea.  I looked for a room to rent, but the first two places I checked didn’t have anyone near to ask availability.  The third one, was a really nice room, but right next to a busy road, and the price seemed way too high.
I had spotted a campsite about 2km back along the road, right beside the sea, and turned back there to investigate.  It looked to be a great spot, right beside the sea, and with Wi-Fi coverage in the tent, basically making it lux.
I setup my tent, and walked down along the sea to the first seafood restaurant I saw, ordered a beer and a plate of grilled scampi.  Fresh, grilled scampi is for me the quintessential Croatian dish.  They just do them so well here, fresh, lightly grilled and a tiny touch of lemon and olive oil.   Just brilliant.

Now that the sun has gone down, it has become cool, that transition period in autumn, between summer and winter when the days can still be hot, but the nights cold.   I’ll be wrapped up in the tent tonight.