Split with a side of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Split with a side of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Greetings friends, family, and fellow travelers,

We are writing from Rovinj, where we just arrived after a week in Split and a night by the Plitvice Lakes National Park. Words just can’t do the extraordinary park justice, so we will send out a photo gallery alongside our next newsletter. For now — reflections on our time in Split (as well as Sarajevo and Mostar).

Sara’s Thoughts:

During one of our final therapy sessions, one of my dearest long-time clients gifted me a bracelet with a charm that said, “Zen.” “You’ll need it!” she remarked. I laughed; she knows me well. One of the three foundational pillars of dialectical behavior therapy, Zen allows us to focus on one thing in the moment, non-judgmentally, from a place of total and radical acceptance of what is.

We knew that traveling with two neurodivergent children and a spirited preschooler would challenge us. At home, we juggle three different schools, work, appointments, play dates, and activities. It seems like we are constantly being pulled in a thousand directions, always with less time for meaningful connection than we would like. I thrive on planning and organization, often thinking several steps ahead. My brain is a map of complicated details and occasionally useless trivia. All in all, I would generally not describe myself as a very “Zen” type of person.

And yet, it is precisely what is needed to undertake a trip of this magnitude. After months of planning, I’ve been thus far pleased with our pace and balance of activities. Overall, everyone is happy and engaged. At the same time, I am trying to slow down and go with the flow; wander the streets aimlessly with no clear goal or outcome in mind. I am taking a breath before responding when one child’s quirks threaten to destabilize another. I am trying not to police every rude comment, and let the kids work out their problems on their own. I am attempting to be responsive to each child’s individual needs and carve out 1:1 time as much as possible. This is both challenging and exhilarating. As I try to shift my mindset from “two week vacation,” to “long-term travel,” I am trying to be more mindful about what I need in order to most effectively thrive as a parent. Last week, I treated myself to a 90-minute Thai oil massage. It was other worldly and a much needed reset. Justin and I plan to figure out how to keep building in these mini breaks so that we can be wholly and fully present with one another and with our children in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

In service of strengthening our individual relationships with each child, while the others remained in Split, I took Simon to Bosnia and Herzegovina for two days. I love traveling solo with him! With his siblings, Simon falls into middle child land, clamoring for our attention. Simon is at ease, charming, and pretty much up for anything. Hop on cable cars and go for a hike after a 4.5 hour car ride to Sarajevo and a 2.5 hour walking tour of the city? Sure! Sarajevo was such a pleasant surprise. We were picked up at 8am, and driven across the border. After checking into our hotel around 1pm we picked up a quick lunch of cheese and meat burek before meeting our tour guide. We learned more about the history of the city, which has both Eastern and Western influences, and visited several religious sites, including two mosques and an orthodox church. I asked if we could make a stop at the Muzej Jevreja, the local Jewish Museum. It was small, but we learned about the history of Jews in Sarajevo, as well as the experience of Jews living there during WWII. I had anticipated learning more about the Siege of Sarajevo, but ultimately was pleased that the tour was not overly focused on this. That said, we did see some memorials to those killed. Simon paid careful attention and asked respectful questions.

After our tour, we walked to the cable cars and rode to the top. Sarajevo hosted the Winter Olympics in 1984, and our tour guide suggested going to the abandoned bobsled track. We assumed this meant a short hike to look at an abandoned bobsled track, but in fact, the hike was the abandoned bobsled track! It was a really unique trail, and covered with gorgeous graffiti. It was hot and Simon was getting hungry (again!) so we turned around, took the cable cars back down, and set off in search of dinner. We wanted to have cevapi, which is a traditional Bosnian dish of sausage-style meat, pita, onions, and cream. We found a place recommended by a local and were very happy with our choice. I was stuffed, but not to be deterred, Simon and I set off in search of the Turkish ice cream place we’d stumbled upon earlier in the evening. We returned to our hotel around 8:30pm, logging approximately 20,000 steps in the process.

In the morning, our lovely driver, Frane, picked us back up and drove us to Mostar. We took a tour of the city, as well as rode on a small speedboat. We also visited Coppersmith Street, where Simon tried his hand at hammering copper and I bought a necklace and earrings. (Simon wanted to buy a giant copper cannon, which I nixed due to luggage constraints). Simon will describe watching people jump off Stari Most (the Old Bridge), a thing you could not pay me enough to do. We also visited Kravica Waterfalls, which was pretty but very crowded.

Going backwards in time, we arrived in Split on July 16^th. Our Airbnb is cute and charming; we are in a small house with a fig tree and lots of stairs. The following day, we met a guide for a tour of Diocletian's Palace and Jewish Heritage. It was about 96 degrees out, and the kids were total troopers. We visited the only temple in Split. There are only about 100 Jewish people living here, as many of them have moved and/or married outside the faith. The man who maintains the temple said there has only been one Bat Mitzvah and one wedding since the 1940's! Our tour of Diocletian’s Palace was good, albeit anachronistic. It feels a bit like a mini mall. There are stores and cafes everywhere, despite the solid preservation of the original Roman tiles and architecture. I suppose this is the impact of tourism over the years.

The following day, we took a full day boat tour to the Blue Cave and the islands of Vis and Hvar. The kids enjoyed more beach time, and the boat was an adventure in and of itself! (I had to lie down to avoid whiplash.)

Our final two days in Split were relatively uneventful, activity-wise. When Simon and I returned home from Bosnia and Herzegovinian, Calla’s right eye was swollen and puffy. The following day, it looked worse so she and I went to the pharmacy, where we were pointed in the direction of the Tourist Medical Clinic. The doctor there promptly diagnosed her with both an infection and an allergic reaction – (she also had rashes from mosquito bites). So, back to the pharmacy we went with two prescriptions in hand. Thankfully we had nothing major planned, and her eye is already looking much better.

We finished our time in Split with a walk around Marjan Park and some delicious pizza. Following our stay in Istria, we will be driving north to Slovenia!

Sara’s Stats:

Flights: 2

Busses & boats: I’ve lost count

Accommodations: 4

Countries: 2

Books read: 3

Gelatos: 5 (top spot still goes to Peppino’s in Dubrovnik)

Justin’s Thoughts:

In Split we were able to have some more relaxed days and settle in to a more roomy AirBnB. It was nice to be able to use a kitchen and have some more separate space for ourselves. But we still kept up a good pace of seeing impressive sights around the city, most notably Diocletian's palace and a fantastic boat tour to some surrounding islands.

While Sara and Simon were in Bosnia for an overnight, I took Jonah and Calla to the fortress of Klis. This was one of those fortresses where you didn’t need to be some kind of military mind to understand why they built it where they did. It’s on an extremely steep shark’s fin of a hill, guarding the passes down from the larger mountains behind it to the valley below leading towards Split. This was also yet another Game of Thrones filming location (the steps of Mereen, outside the “Great Pyramid” for those taking notes). The view from up here was well worth the trek.

We stayed in a very quant little townhouse just inside the old city off a quiet street. There was a fig tree in the fenced-in entry area from which we enjoyed a few fruits, and there were some fine looking cats that hung out around the fence each morning that the kids enjoyed observing. When we turned on to the street to walk to town we’d go down a series of large flat steps through a beautiful, old and twisting stone street that led right down to the harbor and riviera. The location was a real gem that felt both cozy and still in the middle of the city. I’m sorry to have left it!

Split is a larger city than Dubrovnik, with a genuine metro area surrounding the tourist-laden old city. This allowed us to become just a little more intertwined with local life here, going to the supermarket, doing some regular cooking ourselves, going to the bank, etc. One afternoon I took Calla on a long walk to find a playground and we hung out there for a while before walking back. Working some more "regular life" back into the routine here was a welcome thing, as we continue to work on striking the balance between being tourists and guest residents.

There was however one topic of interest where I unashamedly let my wannabee-history-geek-tourist freak flag fly, and that was all things Emperor Diocletian. Now I know very little about ancient history, and probably 90% of what I know about ancient Rome comes from Mike Duncan's "History of Rome" podcast (which I highly recommend for anyone interested in a breezy overview of the entirety of Roman History), but always stuck out for me as a figure of particular interest. While not quite as famous as the rock star historical like Julius Caesar or Hadrian or Marcus Aurelius, he ruled Rome for around 25 years at a fairly unique point in its history; after it had already gone into notable decline but was still immensely more powerful than anyone around it. His legacy was stitching back together an empire that was doomed and giving it another century or so of life before the real end. He also was the only emperor in Roman history to voluntarily retire from the throne while he was still alive, choosing to retire to his giant palace here in Split and grow cabbages. A fitting parallel to the recent White House news, though I don't know if Biden has much of a green thumb.

One detail I'm compelled to mention about the tour we took of Diocletian's Palace (built around 325 AD) is that there's a Sphinx from Egypt which was imported as part of the original palace design. The sphinx itself is dated to around 1,400 BC, so it was of course considered to be an ancient relic at the time of Diocletian. I thought this was interesting to think about, but I also have to say that they're letting people have way too much get-close-and-touch access to these extremely old works!

Jonah’s Musings:

Jonah’s Musings:

July 18^th, 2024: Today we woke up at 6:00 and went on a boat tour. We were going to spend the entire day traveling to different islands with some other people and guides. I was really excited to see all the different places we were going. Our first ride was an hour and a half, (I ended up falling asleep). We arrived at our first island where we explored a cave that had water that was glowing. The reason was because of some reflection from the sun, which I thought was really cool. We went to a second island where we went swimming and had lunch.

On our last island we just wandered around and got some more food. On our way back we stopped at another place to swim. We then arrived back on the island with our hotel and got off the boat and went back to the hotel.

July 19^th, 2024: Today we woke up and my Mom and brother went to Bosnia for a few days and me, my dad, and sister went to a fort. We learned about how it was used to defend against enemy attacks and looked at ancient tools and weapons. We then went shopping and back to the hotel.

So far this trip has been quite fun and interesting. I love trying all the new foods and relaxing at hotels. This trip has been quite fun and I can’t wait to see all the new places we will be going. I think that some ancient history we are learning is sometimes a bit boring and sometimes fun. I also enjoyed watching Gladiator with my dad, which was really nice. The movie was great and it kind of taught me a bit of Roman history, even though we aren't going to Rome. This trip has been really great so far and I can't wait to see what happens next on our trip.

Simon’s Rflection:

My blog post is about the trip I took with my Mommy to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

When we got to Sarajevo, we walked around for a little bit and found burek. It was close to our hotel and cheap. We also went on a tour, and we went to a Jewish History Museum. I enjoyed walking around at night. It was crowded. It took like one hour to find this ice cream we were looking for. We didn’t have the right kind of money (Bosnian KM), but someone traded us 10 KM for 5 Euro and I got my ice cream. I felt happy.

In the car we talked about old family stories.

[In Mostar,] We went on a fast boat, and there was a bridge with people who would collect money and jump off of it. It was about 25 meters tall. There was also a smaller diving board that was maybe 8 feet tall that people were diving from. We saw someone dive in and I’m surprised he didn’t break any bones. The water was really deep and cold there. Close enough to freeze you, and the currents would probably push you if you were not a good swimmer into the rocks.

After the boat while we were getting off guess what mom slipped on? The teeniest little pebble. [Editor’s Note: False. I slipped on a steep step walking down to the waterfall - SCS] But I grabbed her and she didn’t fall.

Calla’s Corner:

I liked going on the boat. [On the Blue Cave] We went in a boat and it was very blue-y. I just love my family.

As always, please keep in touch! We miss you all.

Sara, Justin, Jonah, Simon, & Calla

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