After our long day on Tuesday, Wednesday was pretty quiet.  We stayed in most of the day and did some logistical planning for our next few days and sorted out the ton of pictures we took the previous day.  Then we headed out to buy a few souvenirs and sat for some drinks and people-watching along the Stradun, the main street in the Old Town.  Then we went up for dinner at a little spot called Moskar Street Food, which isn't actually street food, but looked like it had pretty authentic cuisine, which it did.  We shared a Dubrovnik Pašticada with Gnocchi and a Macaroni Dubrovnik Style and both were excellent.  Then, a pretty early night, as one of the things that we got sorted out during the morning was that it was going to rain all day Friday, so we had to move our day-trip to Mostar up to Thursday, which meant that it was going to be another early morning.

Thursday, we were down at the bottom of the 200+ steps again for a 6:45 pick-up time.  This time things weren't quite as smooth at pickup, but we were in an 18-seat van and not a big bus, so we got moving in a reasonable time.  (Once again, we snagged the front seats for better views and less motion sickness for Carol!)  After heading briefly along the coast we headed inland and took a route full of little back roads into Bosnia and Herzegovina towards Mostar (which means "bridge keeper").  Even though where we were travelling was actually in the Herzegovina part of the country, I am going to call it "Bosnia" for short.  It was very small border crossing and I guess the guards were bored so we all had to get out and present our passports individually.  Anyway, after a very scenic drive we made it to Mostar.  The main attraction in Mostar is the Stari Most or "Old Bridge", a rebuilt 16th-century Ottoman bridge, spanning the Neretva River, which stood for 427 years before being destroyed in 1993 during the war that tore apart Yugoslavia.  The bridge was a marvel of architecture when it was built, because it is a single span stone bridge and was the largest of this construction in the Ottoman Empire.  Locals jump off the bridge (for money) sometimes to entertain the tourists, throngs of whom crowd the structure most days. Besides the bridge, the Old Town in Mostar features leather and copper and silver works by local craftsmen.  We also went to see an old traditional "Turkish house" just outside the Old Town.  The Turkish influence is very strong in the area.  Then we had a wonderful lunch of traditional Bosnian dishes at a restaurant called Šadrvan.  We shared dolmas, klepe and pljeskavica.  These 3 items are somewhat analogous to cabbage rolls, perogies and gyros--but they are also unique.  All were very, very good but it was a big lunch.  (Our dinner later that night was toast with Nutella!)

Then back to find our bus by the Franciscan Bell Tower (tallest structure in the city) and off to visit the Kravica Waterfalls.  The falls are very interesting because they cover such a wide area and have all kinds of different shapes and are flowing through and over all kinds of different vegetation.  The site was very busy, but not a complete zoo--I can't imagine it in July or August!

Then back on the bus and headed home, this time through Neum, the only Bosnian port, in the "Neum Corridor" which is a somewhat artificial border construction which allows Bosnia to have access to the coast and splits Croatia in two.  The border crossing from the Corridor was much busier and took a while to get through, but we were back in Dubrovnik just after 7pm,  unfortunately right in the middle of rush hour so it took a while to get down to the Pile Gate.  And, also because of the traffic, we couldn't stop to get off as we went right past our apartment, meaning we had to walk up the 200+ steps.  Again, can't win 'em all!