After our time in Plitvice Lakes, we headed back to Split for a couple weeks.
We celebrated another Thanksgiving internationally and also celebrated my birthday.
In addition to the Advent Christmas houses and decorations, this year Split added an outdoor ice skating rink which the kids really enjoyed.
A fuzzy photo of a night spent out with good friends and family at Mandrill’s BrewPub and Kitchen.
Dan got approved for his second year of Croatian residency. Now we wait for his new ID card to arrive and he’s also now allowed to leave the country since the approval wait period is over. Perfect timing too because we need to drive the van out of the EU to comply with its temporary import which states we need to exit every 6 month to reset it.
We took a ferry to Hvar Island in order to pick up our van and say good-bye to our favorite village dog, Rio.
He took his time snuggling with each and every one of us.
And begging for leftovers.
One last belly rub at the stone house before we walk to the van.
Oh, and we grabbed two bottles of olive oil that we harvested too.
And of course, Rio followed us to the van. One last photo together for now.
Last year when we left, he chased us down the road and it broke our hearts. This year he hung out. When we started our van, he got up and went off exploring as he usually does. Guess he knows we will back next fall.
Caught the shorter (and cheaper ferry) off of the island in Sućuraj.
And then we made it to our 25th European country in the van…. BOSNIA! Crossing the border took about 3 minutes but getting insurance took about 20 minutes. The office was closed so the border agent had to call someone to come to the border. We ended up paying 240 kuna ($35.95) for a 3-day insurance policy.
Our plan is to stay one night in Mostar. As soon as we arrived we wished we could spend more time here. It’s beautiful.
It’s also heartbreaking because of the amount of destroyed and bullet riddled buildings still visible from the war.
Dinner shenanigans.
After dinner, we ended up going for a walk to scope out a better parking spot for the evening.
While walking around, this little lost puppy found us. She continued to walk with us while looking around every corner for her owner. After almost getting hit by a car, we put a rope around her collar and gave her some water and dog food.
Since we don’t have any cell data in Bosnia, we stopped at a cafe for internet and to ping some local FaceBook groups regarding this lost puppy. She is just a few months old and is wearing a new yellow collar. After no luck, we decided it was time to head back to the van. We were all cold and needed to warm up.
The puppy made herself at home pretty quickly. She slept for a good couple hours before waking up again. We were scared she was going to pee, poo or eat our stuff while we slept.
But nope. She slept through the night. Didn’t make a peep and caused no damage. Tomorrow we will go back to the cafe to check our FB messages to see if anyone knows her owner. (Spoiler alert: it has a happy ending!)
Here’s a little Instagram story from our day:
And here is Dan’s video of my birthday in Split. Enjoy!
Thanks for following along,
Marlene
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