Day 3 – Fort Lovrijenac (St. Lawrence)
3rd Jan 2023
Having got milk for coffee in our grocery shopping yesterday, I have a morning routine now. The apartment had a coffee maker and proper (not instant) coffee, and single use filters.
Fort Lovrijenac (St. Lawrence) stands a bit apart from the wall, outside the Pile Gate, but it is also included in the ticket for the wall. A steep climb up many stairs to reach the fort entrance. Great views of the wall and city over the transparent blue sea. A well preserved fort, with solid stone walls, a few canons pointed strategically at targets. Now with pigeons roosting under the arches.
There are relatively few people at the fort this morning. We bump into the Asian duo of Lei and Kim and exchange greetings. Everyone visiting the city has a similar schedule of sight seeing it seems.
Plotting a Bosnian side trip
While walking around Fort Lovrijenac, my mind is on one of the possible day trips from Dubrovnik, in particular, the town of Mostar has captured my imagination with its arched old bridge. They make it look spectacular in the travel websites! I wanttt. B is a bit hesitant to go to Bosnia, pointing out that the (Dutch) travel advisory indicates orange (or was it yellow? The colors indicate risk levels – green is good and red is bad but the in-between colors, I don’t remember which is worse). The main risks of travel in Bosnia today seem to be if you wander into foresty areas, off-trail, or into unused buildings, you could step on landmines leftover from the war in the 90’s.
I’ve done some counter research, asked questions at the tourist information office, and it seems a touristy town like Mostar is quite safe. The tourist office helpfully gives us a few brochures of private tour operators. We walk to one of their offices, only to find it shut with a whatsapp number to get in touch with. B seems less against it now. I send off a whatsapp inquiry to the number, and to maximize our chance of a trip during off season, B asks our apartment host if a car can be arranged for a day trip. It is quickly and efficiently organized, and I am so thrilled that I do a little Mostar dance that B records for eternity on his phone.
Our secret pine park and cliff beach
After the fort, we walk uphill away from Pile Gate, to explore the not-old parts of the city. This is the same path we walked last night after dinner, but this time we can enjoy the great views in day light. The road and footpath keep to the top of a cliff which falls steeply off to the left. Quite close beyond it is the sea. At one point there is an ornate green railing along the footpath, and stairs leading down. We go down, to find a delightful little park one level below the road. It has park benches facing the sea, and is nicely shaded by pine trees, some of them tall, and others twisted into fantastic shapes by the wind and weather. After a while of quiet solitude, we walk to the far end of the park, and find a further hidden trail of stairs. We follow it down to a cozy little beach off the cliffside, with a few narrow cement terraces, and steps leading down to water.
I angle myself downwards awkwardly on knees and forearms to the edge of the bottom step, to touch the water without falling in, while the B watches in amusement. It is cold as expected. This tiny dip of my hands is my only direct contact with the Adriatic.
I lie back on the warm terrace, eyes closed, listening to the waves. A momentary peace stills my thoughts. Doesn’t last long though. It seems I am not made for quiet contemplation for too long. We reluctantly leave the spot and climb back up to the road.
Having seen Churros at the Winter Festival stalls, I have been hankering after them from day 1. We get them now. Must say it does not taste as good as I imagined. I am cured of the churro-fetish, at least for this season.
Dinner at the Taj
Next question: where to eat dinner? I make an effort to find some authentic local cuisine, rather than burgers and street food. I had read that Croatians do make good vegetarian meals, not as an after-thought. I am hopeful. We find an incongruously named Bosnian restaurant: the Taj Mahal! Even online, there are warnings that it is not an Indian restaurant. Tickled by the name’s Indian connection more than the actual menu, we decide upon it. Not knowing what real Bosnian cuisine is, our formula for evaluating the menu was simple:
not (burgers, pastas, pizza) === a good chance that it is authentic!
One of the off-season benefits is that we don’t have to reserve for dinner anywhere we go. It is a cozy restaurant with nice ambience, but super expensive. The meat items were good, says B. Not being a foodie, but happy to humor me, the B doesn’t mind my excruciating searches for authentic food – and luckily, in most European cuisines, there are usually excellent meat-based options, so he doesn’t suffer for my quirks.
The vegetarian food was disappointing though. Not because Bosnians don’t have vegetarian meals, more because half the items in the menu were not available! Apparently in Dubrovnik, they don’t get aubergine in winter. Nor other tasty vegetables. We start noticing this as a pattern now: at the burger-bar, they denied me the aubergine-based burger, and now here too! I end up with a cornmeal and cream starter whose taste I can’t quite get my tongue around, and a “main course” of grilled chunks of vegetables on sticks: onion, zucchini, red bell peppers… and pumpkin! Well. It tastes fine, as grilled vegetables go. And is healthy, that I can say for it.
I ask the waiter about the name “Taj Mahal”. He seems used to the question and ready for it: “No, nothing to do with India. It is just a catchy name we picked. In Bosnian too the word ‘mahal’ means street or neighbourhood” I later looked it up, and saw that some “Turkisms” – Turkish influences have crept into the languages of this region. So mahal is from mahala, which is muhalla in Hindi/Urdu having the same meaning.
I am cured of any snobbish ideas of finding authentic local cuisines for this trip. Not the time of year, and I suspect, Dubrovnik is too touristy to find anything truly local or authentic. Give me pizzas and fries!
Mostar’s claim to fame
I google Mostar a bit, and quickly stumble upon its biggest claim to fame in recent times: a sport of diving off the bridge into the waters of the Neretva river!
Cliff diving, I learn, is an extreme sport that is quite popular with its own circuits, competitions, and heroes. Red Bull organizes an annual series of competitions, and one of the stops is at Mostar! We binge-watch the YouTube video of the Mostar leg of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2022 – the competition restarted this year after a pause during Corona times.
At the cost of sleep, we watch spellbound, as these superb athletes, both men and women, dive into the freezing cold river from over 20 meters’ height. And learn a lot about the intricacies of cliff diving, through the two brilliant commentators.
Super thrilling, love watching people do daring and graceful diving stunts. I admit, I am a couch adventure junkie!
Not proud to admit though, that after this, I started wondering about something I had heard recently: suicides off Golden Gate Bridge. I had to know whether the GG was also a place for extreme sports: how high was it again?
Not hard to find the answers from your all-knowing friend, the internet. The GG is 240 meters at its highest, and the fall from its road level to the sea below is 76 meters. It takes 4 seconds for a falling body to hit the water below. Every two weeks someone attempts suicide there. Only 2 or 3 known suicide attempts have survived. I spiraled into reading about these cases – definitely does not make for a calming goodnight story. But morbidly, I could not seem to stop myself ☹ And no, the Golden Gate is not a site for extreme sports (27 meters is the highest from which men dive, and 21 meters is the limit set for women).
