Bosnia and Herzegovina
On our last full day in Croatia, we took a day trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Our first stop was in Ston, where we saw the second longest wall in the world (after the Great Wall of China). We had coffee in a small café, then visited a salt farm. I had no idea how salt was made, so this was my favorite part of the trip. They explained that they covered the bottom of an open shallow area with granite to help warm up the water, then flooded ocean water into the square. They waited for the water to evaporate, and then raked up the salt. They also explained that there is a type of salt called flower salt, which is fancier and more expensive because it comes from the top of the water. The most interesting thing we learned is that they have been cultivating salt the same way since medieval times, and even today in 2017 they still have not modified the way that they farm the salt.
The next city we visited was Mostar, which is where a lot of the civil war occurred. We learned that Muslims and Catholics are still living completely separately, and that they have two bus stations, two hospitals, two schools, and two neighborhoods so that they do not have to interact with each other in daily life. We learned that there were many buildings destroyed by grenades during the war, but that there is no money to repair them because Muslim people continue building mosques and Catholic people continue building churches, which are very elaborate in order to show which religion is “better.”
In Old Town, we learned about the way that leather used to be made. There was a pool filled with urine, and leather was thrown into the pool to soak in order to make it soft. That same pool is now used as a swimming pool in the summers, for people to come and get a break from the heat.
On our way home, we stopped at Medjugorie, which is a holy mountain (though not recognized by the Pope) where several people claim to have seen Mary appear. The coolest thing that we saw was a statue of Jesus that had water droplets dripping off of it at some points throughout the day. The tour guide explained that there are three explanations that people have for this: 1) that the water is a miracle, and people come to pray and put water on places that need healing, 2) that the artist put a pipe in the statue when it was built, so that water could drip out at certain times, and 3) that because the statue is made of copper, changes in temperature cause water droplets to condensate on the exterior of the statue. We also hiked up a small mountain to the place where people claimed to have seen Mary, and on the way down three dogs walked with us (which scared me at first, but luckily they were friendly). It was pitch black by the time we started the hike, so we were stepping over rocks and jumping over logs by the light of our iPhone flashlights – luckily no one got hurt, and we all made it back to Croatia safely!
