Monday, 10th of February, 2020.
After about 45 minutes waiting, a car finally stops. Mohammed looks very happy to help. He is from Algeria and is a very friendly guy who is going directly to Mostar. Yay! We talk about loads of stuff in the way and once we arrive in Mostar, he buys me a coffee and a delicious type of three milks cake. Before going to his appointment, he drops me just a few hundred metres from the old bridge. Amazing!
The Tourist Info Centre of which I had the address is closed. According to some guys in a pub nearby they are closed all winter. Great! But since I tell them I just need a free map, they redirect me to another place, also nearby. There, I do not just get a free map but when I ask, I am very welcome to leave my backpack for a few hours during my walking. That is really great!
So free as a bird to “fly” around I go everywhere. Luckily I go down the bridge first for some nice photo because later on, when I am coming back around 2 p.m., the level of the river is pretty higher than before, not allowing you to go for a nice shot. So be aware of your timing!
Mostar it is a nice old town but I am sure that if you have more time to go over the limits, hiking the mountains and go for further places, I think you can enjoy even more. But is nice to be in a place which is so full of history.
After taking my bag back, I start slowly walking out of town to make my camp. I stop in a Supermarket for some fruits and yoghurt, and in a bakery for some burek. I take some nice rest and then carry on.
At the place where I can hitchhike next morning and do my camping, I get a little apprehensive about the camping. It is around a cemetery and some abandoned building (which is closed but still with the gates open). But slowly I realize that most of people leaving in the houses nearby are elderly people and I start to fear the place less. I honestly even thought about asking one of them to camp in their garden but I gave up.
It is almost dark when I finally start to make my camp. After half away on the tent I realize that my wallet is gone. I check my panties (where I was keeping it) lots of times, thinking that maybe it just fell a bit more but nothing. So after a few minutes of thinking, I know what I have to do: go back to town, through all the way I came, and hope I can find it. For that I hide my backpack in the bushes.
During the way back I am a bit nervous, of course, but I also tell myself that get desperate or sad it will not help in anything. But I do not know how to explain the feeling I had, kind of knowing for sure that I would find the wallet and because of that I was not desperate either. And I did. Back to the coffee shop where I asked to use the toilet, as soon as I started to explain to the guy at the bar, he opens a little door at a cupboard and gives me my wallet. Unbelievable! This is for all the people who think that this only happens in Europe.
Next morning when I am hitchhiking, an old man who passed thought me with his dog last afternoon, wave and with mimics ask if I camp over there. I believe it was him with his dog that I heard that morning, so I just smile and confirm.