Mostar - in search of Herzegovinian relatives

We take the night bus from Vinkovci to Mostar. We are a little sad to leave our bikes in Croatia and now rely on public transportation. We sleep well on the bus and as the sun rises in the morning and we look out the window at the landscape of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we realize how much we missed the mountains. Mostar is a beautifully situated city, which is separated by a shimmering green river and is known for the rebuilt bridge Stari Most. Mostar is surrounded by mountains, which we hike up to. From the top, we have a great view.

After visiting many Croatian relatives of Jakob in Ceric, we set out in Mostar in search of Jakob's Herzegovinian family roots. Jakob's maternal grandmother lived in Polog, a small village 10km from Mostar, in her early childhood before the family moved to Croatia. She told us that two sisters of her mother still live in Polog and we want to visit them. We take the bus to the small village and since we don't have an address, we ask people on the street for 'Danica Zavar'. This leads to funny encounters and some detective work is necessary, but everyone knows them and describes their house to us, which we finally find after some back and forth. We enter the property hesitantly and ring the doorbell. It takes a while until an old and small woman, leaning on her cane, opens the door for us. Jakob explains in a prepared Croatian sentence that he is the grandson of his grandmother, who is the daughter of her sister. This is not easy to understand. Fortunately, her son is still at home, who understands the connections a little better, because the woman is 91 years old and hasn't seen her relatives from Croatia in a long time. We have a glass of water with the two, talk as best we can, and show pictures of the relatives in Croatia. Finally, we set out to find the second sister, 'Cvita Cvitanovic', in Polog. We find her faster and she invites us in: we have coffee, cola, juice, and a shot to drink, and plenty to eat. Together with her daughter, we sit in the living room and communicate as best we can (we understood most things, some not at all). We hitchhike back to Mostar and a 'Lawyer' takes us in his Mercedes.

Another time we want to go hiking, but the hiking trails here are not very well developed, so we have to walk a long stretch along the road before we reach the hiking trail. Therefore, on the way back, we try hitchhiking again and the first car immediately picks us up. The man drives us back to Mostar and afterward invites us for a coffee (we actually want to pay, but he insists on treating us). In the evening, we meet a new roommate from Italy in our age at our Airbnb, with whom we have dinner and drink beer together. Tomorrow morning, we continue to Sarajevo by train...