Day Twentyseven - Jun 24, 2017

Mostar, Bosnia to Split, Croatia

High Point: The Riva at blue hour, palms and harbor lights

Low Point: The Mostar–Split coach. Hot, slow, and hot and slow

Miles By Automobile: 113

Miles By Foot: 7

Today's Antiquities: Diocletian's Palace, the Peristyle, the Cathedral bell tower, the statue of Gregory of Nin

Today's Weather: Hot, hot, hot on the bus. 90º in Split, but with an ocean breeze

Tonight's Lodging: Emilija's 3 story flat in old town

Touristic Events: A last walk through Mostar, the bus south to Ploče and down the Dalmatian coast, a Pomaburger at the Split bus station, the Peristyle, a Riva walk at dusk

Travel Tip: The bus south from Mostar goes south first, via the delta, not over the mountain

Daily Didactic

Today was a moving day, Mostar to Split, and the kind that is mostly about a bus seat. We packed up Emilija's flat after one last coffee on the terrace, the Neretva running its impossible green behind Theresa, and took a final amble through town. We walked past the war murals, the "Don't Forget '93" café, and the old Sniper Tower with its bullet-pocked concrete and the graffiti at its feet. Then the station, and a Eurotour coach that read 90 in the heat (we Googled 38 celsius later just to confirm we weren't being dramatic; we were not). The bus went south first, down through the Neretva delta and across into Croatia near Ploče, then onto the Dalmatian coast, which is the part where you forgive the bus. Turquoise water, white rock, mountains falling into the sea. Theresa kept her humor through all of it, which is its own small miracle on a 113-mile day in that heat. We rolled into Split mid afternoon and the welcoming committee was a line of riot police standing around outside an optician called Optika Anda, the reason for which we did not investigate. We dropped our packs, ate a Pomaburger at the bus station like the romantics we are, and walked into Diocletian's Palace, which makes everything else we've seen feel recent. We wandered the Peristyle, climbed the steps past the bronze of Gregory of Nin, watched the Cathedral bell tower go gold, and finished on the Riva at blue hour with the palms and the harbor lights. Seven miles on foot after a bus day. High point: the Riva at dusk. Low point: the bus, hot, hot, hot, as advertised.