Neum, Bosnia - tire puncture and ferry fiasco
August 25th
As we were driving from Mostar, I hit a pot hole on the right side of the road while trying to avoid zooming cars on the narrow road coming at me. I went over a pothole which popped both passenger tires. So, so sad. We limped up to a place with a shoulder and parked. Luckily, my phone was working and I was able to contact the Renault road service. They were so much more helpful than I was expecting! We waited 2.5 hours for someone to pick us up, but they did! They drove us 1.5 hours away to Neum, Bosnia. The driver picked us up with his son who could speak English. That son jumped out as they passed the top of lane where they lived and another, older son got in. He also spoke English and was very nice. The ride was during the sunset and we were driving up and over mountains. It was such a beautiful ride! I felt lucky we got to see it. The driver dropped us off at a mechanic shop where the mechanic was waiting. While Dan discussed/pantomimed what happened and what we needed, I went with the kids to a grocery store about a kilometer away up a huge hill and down the other side. We got to the store 10 minutes before they closed! They had no fruits or vegetables, but we got some pasta, pasta sauce, crackers and yogurt.
Renault paid for our lodging that the mechanic hooked us up with. It's two bedrooms with a private bathroom and a kitchen outside. Not bad. Our host gave us a sack full of grapes from her vines.
However, I was really looking forward to seeing Montenegro!!! We were going to stay in this swank apartment with all the amenities and I was so looking forward to seeing Kotor and Perast. Alas, no Montenegro. I'm so bummed!!! And it's all my fault!!!
The kids handled all the waiting well. Dan has been very forgiving as well. We were lucky to be by an abandoned road they could explore for a while and stay off the busy main road. They haven't minded Neum. There's absolutely nothing to do here except the beach which is about 500 stair steps (literally) down from where we're at. No pictures for this post.
Oh, yeah, except this video. Sunday was Lady of our Health (Mary) feast day. These guys sang for hours!
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| baby pigs roasting for the feast |
We didn't know when the car would be ready, but were hoping to make it to our ferry in Bar at 8pm (but we had to check in at 6) that night, 3 hours away. In the meantime, I hoped to help the kids pass the time happily. Dan stayed at the apartment to do homework while we walked the 500 steps down to the beach.
The kids really wanted to jump so they got to jump for 10 minutes for a dollar or two. Allison, Talmage and Spencer all brought swim suits to swim. They were having such a great time on the rocky beach, Brianna wanted to swim. But she didn't want to get her clothes wet so she stripped down to her skivvies and jumped in. There were 3 or 4 year olds in their underwear so she kind of fit in. So surprising she's ok doing that at almost 11 years old!
I let the kids all pick out a toy - less than 10 hrk (5E) and we ate some yummy ice cream. Then I let them rent some motorized cars/trucks for 10 minutes. It was pretty lame, but cheap and they thought it was fun for a little bit. It was fun to feel like we could afford all the things we normally think are too expensive.
The mechanic finally drove by at 2:30pm, checking the new tires out. We were so relieved!!! So we hurriedly brought all our stuff down while Dan was checking out at the mechanic shop. He drove up, we got everything loaded and off we tore down the road around 3pm. We got behind a few slow cars, but the real problem was not having a green insurance card that we were supposedly given by Renault. Montenegro wouldn't let us in without it and Renault was closed by this time and after-hours guy couldn't do anything. So we were turned around and sent back to Bosnia. Bosnia said we couldn't come in their country either! We said, "But we just left your country and we came in a few days ago with no problem!" They couldn't believe it. We waited for a half hour. A lady came to sell us a green car insurance card, but we didn't have any cash on us so we couldn't buy it. She sped away. We were left wondering what in the world we were going to do, stuck between two countries that wouldn't let us in. Eventually, the Bosnian lady came back to us and said we should drive to another border crossing where we could leave Bosnia and enter Dubrovnik, Croatia where the insurance card wasn't needed. As we approached the Bosnian exit crossing, our kids were audibly worried we wouldn't cross (so were we!). This time it was a guy and he was not kind. He asked how we got into Bosnia without a stamp. We remembered giving all 6 passports at the Bosnian border a few days ago - they took them all and disappeared for a few minutes. But I guess stamping 6 was too hard. We were as baffled as he was! He insisted we were illegal immigrants. We told him we were leaving Bosnia. He told us to "go away forever" and we were not welcome again in his country. It was really weird.
We were trying to decide what to do - drive up the Adriatic Sea and down to Naples, Italy (18 hours)? Stay in Dubrovnik a few days and see if we could switch our ferry tickets? Go hang out in dolomite country in northern Italy? We decided to get an Airbnb in Dubrovnik, which, luckily there was a beautiful and cheap apartment available that night and try to catch the Wednesday ferry. We cancelled the nice apartment we had reserved in Naples where we were going to see Pompeii.:(
DUBROVNIK
Our accommodations: This apartment was big and beautiful. The highlight for me was a normal toaster!! I'd really been missing toast and we hadn't had a toaster for weeks. The host was so nice and sympathetic. There was a washer we could use, separate rooms, 2 bathrooms, ah, it was heavenly.
The next morning, Dan drove into Dubrovnik to get our tickets changed. There were no available spots on the Wednesday ferry. We could leave on the Friday night ferry or take the ferry from Split (3 hours away) that night. Dan had already bought the tickets but wanted me to come to the same realization. So we checked out early, losing our money for the second night in Dubrovnik.
We drove into Dubrovnik, parked (10E/hour!) and walked around. It was a really cool city and we enjoyed the sights on our leisurely stroll. We made it to Split by 6pm and so had 2 hours until we needed to check in. We parked on a sidewalk with other cars and found a nice restaurant to eat at. When we returned an hour later, our whole van was gone!!! Luckily, there was a guy who just happened to know where our car was taken and was ready to take us to get it picked up. Apparently, we parked in a handicap parking spot. What handicap person can park on a sidewalk against a wall and get out ok? There were no handicap signs that we could remember. Anyway, he drove us the 7km where it was impounded. We had to pay the equivalent of 60E to get it out and the guy wanted 20E, but we didn't have it. We gave him what we had and zoomed as fast as possible to the ferry.
The ferry we had tickets for was at 8pm, not 10pm like the cashier had told Dan. It was written on our tickets that we never bothered to check. We were thinking, 'What else could possibly go wrong??' There was another ferry leaving at 10pm. We ran to that counter - they were boarding then - and they had space for us and our car! They even had a cabin for us to sleep in! We felt like we had won the lottery or escaped from prison - we were leaving Croatia! We were paying 460E (latter ferry)+374E (ferry we missed) +100E (apartment in Dubrovnik) for our tiny 4 bunk bed cabin, but we were leaving- with our car. I was pleasantly surprised to see that our cabin included it's own tiny bathroom! Dan and I shared a single bed as did the girls. The kids thought the ferry was so exciting. They absolutely loved running all over the huge boat - inside and out on the deck. Dan bought lots of treats we don't normally buy like Snickers and Oreos so I guess that added to the excitement. The next morning we were tired and travel-worn, but we were in Italy!!
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