Sarajevo was interesting with bullet holes still visible in some buildings. We weren't here long as we flew in late at night and left at midday the following day. Really only enough time to walk around the old town and find some breakfast.
On the bus trip to Mostar we saw some beautiful scenery - lots of lakes where people were swimming and holidaying. Anna was certain the accommodation was 1km from the bus station so in the middle of the day with travel packs on and 37 degree's we decided to walk. After an hour of walking we were not so sure of Anna's 1km and wished we had taxied. Upon arrival the host laughed at us and said they do a free pick up from the bus station as it's so far away! Borrie and I shot Anna a few death stares at this point. The big attraction in Mostar is the old bridge that people jump off (after they have collected enough money from tourists!). The bridge was totally destroyed in the 1990s conflict and rebuilt in the exact same style and is now UNSECO protected.
Our next bus trip was the bus from hell. It is a very short distance from Mostar to Kotor so we naively thought the bus trip would be 3 hours max. A little research on the internet the night before informed us there was only one bus departing at 7am and the journey would take 8 hours. This is impossible we thought. Turns out there are 5 boarder crossings (Bosnia-Croatia-Bosnia-Croatia-Montenegro) and at each boarder crossing we had to wait roughly an hour, although crossing into Montenegro we waited 2 hours. There were no toilet stops or food breaks along the way so this definitely was a Nazi bus trip. Also, we had to literally change buses 4 times, having to shift our own luggage from one bus to the next. Arriving in Kotor was relief at finally being off the bus. Kotor is surrounded by city walls and we had to find an opening to walk through to get to the city - very cool. Medieval styles. This is a UNESCO protected city that was fun to explore, lots of narrow alley ways that open up into large plazas. We took a boat trip to an Island Monastery and also another small town called Perast. We didn't see much of Perast as it was so hot the unanimous decision was to have a beer stop and cool down rather than explore the town. We spent the afternoon at the beach swimming and relaxing.
Our bus trip from Kotor to Sveti Stefan was a breeze - only an hour and before we knew it we were at the beach swimming and enjoying the beach bar. This was the extent of our stay in Sveti Stefan. Sleep in and head to the beach.
The next leg of our journey was a ferry from Bar in Montenegro to Bari in Italy. It was an 8 hour journey and 2 hours in we thought we would hit the restaurant but alas it was closed, and would remain closed for the journey. Just as well Anna and I had foresight to buy pringles, oreo's and milky way at duty free - as these got us through our starvation. The ferry was deserted and was kind of creepy, the perfect set-up for a horror movie.
From Bari we bused to Naples which is the shittiest city in Italy, and definitely worth avoiding. Unfortunately we had two night here! We did a day trip to Pompeii and drew out our time here to avoid spending too much time in Naples. We were up early the next morning to get our train to Sorrento which was beautiful and a stark contrast to Naples.
We took a bus out to the beach and after doing a spot of rock climbing we eventually found some where to swim. The following day we took a ferry to Capri and spent the day marvelling out how expensive everything was. We took a chair lift up from Ana Capri and had amazing views looking down on Capri. This was our last day with Anna and Borrie. From here they continued down the Amalfi coast, and then were getting a flight to Sicily. From Sorrento Nath & I caught a train back to Naples to get our 15 hour night ferry to Sardinia.
In Sardinia we stayed with Zane in an area called Costa Rei, and met our 7 month old nephew Kai for the first time. Here we went to the beach in the morning, arrived back at the house for lunch, then went to another beach in the afternoon. It was fun, but pretty full on, staying in a house with 8 adults and 4 children! We were glad to have the weekend in Cagliari with just the two of us. We had a big sleep in, watched the All Blacks smash Australia and went to the beach. A really nice way to end a long holiday on the road.
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