This is the second installment of Meaghan Marsh's fascinating and, often amusing, adventures around Europe with her 2 year old daughter, Anna. This leg of the trip finds them in Bosnia, Croatia, and Italy, discussing recent history and finding friendship despite a language barrier.
Bosnia was the country that I was most excited for. I love that it is off the beaten track. I love that it is not a popular tourist destination. I love the culture and I love the people. It did not disappoint. We stayed in Mostar, a small town in the southwest region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I was particularly interested in this town because of its recent war. Bosnia's population is divided between Muslims and Christians. Initially, the two groups fought against the Serbians in an effort to remove them from Bosnia. As the war continued, the two groups eventually turned on each other and a civil war broke out. Mostar was front and center in this war. The town is divided by a river, which almost perfectly divides the Muslims from the Christians. In the early 1990s, the Mostar Bridge became a figurative and literal connection between the two, and later, when it was destroyed in war, the divide. As a side note, this was also Anna's first melt down. Given that we were on day 12 of 10 hour days in 100+ degrees- it was a well-deserved melt down, however ill timed.
We stayed with a young family, the father doubled as a tour guide. We spent one day touring all of the highlights in the region, including the house and burial site for two very famous Dervishes, a river that had massive amounts of wild mint growing on its shores, creating an entire river of mint water, and several Roman Ruins. The father's stories of government corruption were sprinkled throughout the day. One of the most interesting stories was about the recent statue erected in the local park. He claims that the Muslim side of town felt that the government was favoring the Christians, and spending more funds on them. The government responded with a Bruce Lee statue. After all, who else could bridge the gap between a town divided. Our guide also commented on how, while on a daily basis the two groups get along and work together with little to no tension, there is still a very apparent social divide. Muslims and Christians do not inter-marry. He stated that his parents were an inter-religious marriage years ago. He feels that since he does not specifically belong to one group or the other, it was hard for him to find a wife. Families want their daughters to marry into the same religion. He reported that his sisters both encountered similar problems and both left the country to marry and raise a family without the social divide.
We stayed with a young family, the father doubled as a tour guide. We spent one day touring all of the highlights in the region, including the house and burial site for two very famous Dervishes, a river that had massive amounts of wild mint growing on its shores, creating an entire river of mint water, and several Roman Ruins. The father's stories of government corruption were sprinkled throughout the day. One of the most interesting stories was about the recent statue erected in the local park. He claims that the Muslim side of town felt that the government was favoring the Christians, and spending more funds on them. The government responded with a Bruce Lee statue. After all, who else could bridge the gap between a town divided. Our guide also commented on how, while on a daily basis the two groups get along and work together with little to no tension, there is still a very apparent social divide. Muslims and Christians do not inter-marry. He stated that his parents were an inter-religious marriage years ago. He feels that since he does not specifically belong to one group or the other, it was hard for him to find a wife. Families want their daughters to marry into the same religion. He reported that his sisters both encountered similar problems and both left the country to marry and raise a family without the social divide.
Anna and I spent the next two weeks driving up the Croatian coast! We hopped from one beach town to the next! Our route was based on the suggestions of the families we rented rooms or apartments from. Using Airbnb ended up being one of the best decisions I made. I was extremely cautious in this process and only used people who had 5 star ratings with 20 or more reviews, leaning towards renters with families. Many times, we became friends with the families which afforded us the opportunity to see “real life”. We were often invited for breakfast and dinner with the families. Once, Anna and one of the grandmothers had an instant connection. In fact, Anna began to call her “Croatian Gram”. Croatian Gram would style Anna’s hair each morning, and had a stash of Anna’s favorite candy on hand at all times, and one day she even hopped in car and without speaking a word of English and spent an awesome day with us at the beach.
The last leg of our trip involved taking an early morning ferry across the Adriatic Sea to Venice. Venice was as amazing as you imagine it is. It also proved to be a little more difficult to navigate than I anticipated. I did not consider the fact that every single of the over 400 bridges in the city includes stairs up and down. This is hard to do with a stroller and takes forever to do with a walking, talking, extra curious two year old. After the first night, I did some research on the topic, and in a travel thread found an Italian mom describing the perfect technique for carrying a toddler in a stroller over the bridges. This slight change in approach made the next few days much easier. We spent our time here wandering around. Anna joined other kids in street soccer games, we ate (a lot) and watched the boats go by. The Bienalle was well underway during our visit, so there were endless impromptu galleries and art festivals around town. This added such a great touch to our trip.
Some of highlights included seeing the Bridge of Sighs. This is the bridge that connects the court house to the jail. It was named this because the prisoners would often sigh as they looked through the bridges windows to see what would be their last view of the outside world after being convicted. We also took a ferry to the Island of Burano. This is a town with wildly colored houses. Home owners need to write to the local government before painting their house to find out which colors they were allowed to use. The legend of the town is that fishermen use to paint their houses bright colors so they were identifiable from a distance. This is highly disputed- either way, this was an amazing stop. It is impossible to be in a bad mood when every time you turn a corner there are more loud colors there to great you.
Some of highlights included seeing the Bridge of Sighs. This is the bridge that connects the court house to the jail. It was named this because the prisoners would often sigh as they looked through the bridges windows to see what would be their last view of the outside world after being convicted. We also took a ferry to the Island of Burano. This is a town with wildly colored houses. Home owners need to write to the local government before painting their house to find out which colors they were allowed to use. The legend of the town is that fishermen use to paint their houses bright colors so they were identifiable from a distance. This is highly disputed- either way, this was an amazing stop. It is impossible to be in a bad mood when every time you turn a corner there are more loud colors there to great you.
One of the greatest things about traveling is the interactions with other people. I can’t even begin to express how amazing it was to watch Anna learn to interact with other kids who did not speak English. While a majority of the adults we encountered spoke some Englsih, most the kids we met were not old enough to have had English lessons in school yet. Regardless, playgrounds offered common ground. I truly admired her willingness to hop into a game or a conversation that she had no idea about, or to begin using words she picked up in each country. The faces of the people around us when Anna would wave good bye and shout “Chow!!”, or Havla (Croatian for thank you) when someone would hand her something, were priceless. Although she is two, and will have no memory of this trip, it is these qualities that I hope will continue to form her personality and who is she as she becomes an adult.
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