Not a very interesting day again. I checked out of the hotel in the morning, hoping to catch an early ride to Mostar on a carpooling app I've heard about. Unfortunately, the only guy driving that route never responded to my request, so I was left with no option but the bus that left at 5:30. I filled the day exploring the less touristy areas of Split. For the most part, it's obvious why they aren't touristy - much of the city is a port and rather unattractively industrial. I found a giant Confederate flag mural on someone's house, though, so it was all worth it. I've been grateful to be overseas for the election. As much as I'm sick of having other people ask me about it, I still find it easier to put it out of my mind than I would had I been domestic. I ate a little today but still not much, just some fruit. Azjel in Budapest put me onto persimmons so I had a few of those and caused a minor stir in the grocery store since nobody could figure out how to bill me for them.

The bus to Mostar was a slow and rather queazy experience. The narrow, winding roads along the Dalmatian coastline would probably have been incredible had I a) not been driving them at night and b) not had a still rather upset stomach. I didn't throw up but I couldn't look at my phone or kindle for more than a couple minutes at a time without coming close. The only major excitement was border control. Since Bosnia isn't EU or Schengen, they had a full customs check. We were told multiple times that if we had anything contraband we would immediately be taken to jail and I suddenly found myself wishing I'd done more research on Bosnian border policy. Obviously I didn't have anything that should have been an issue, but it was hard not to worry that maybe flashlights or something are extremely illegal in Bosnia. They took our passports and rounded up all the men born outside Europe (another American woman was spared, as was the sister of an Argentinian guy despite them having otherwise identical passports) and made us answer additional questions alongside a complete search of our luggage. I made the mistake of admitting to cannabis chocolate use (well over a year ago at this point), which got me the rather bizarre follow up question "And where is cannabis chocolate now!?" Like, I dunno dude, go check Deer Island in Winthrop. Rather than using an x-ray or metal detector as the airport would, they emptied our bags and manually searched all the pockets. It was a slow and stupid process.

"Oh, what's this...?"

"Um... Earplugs..."

"I see... But what about this!?"

"Uh... Also earplugs..."

I don't know, maybe there's a lot of drug trafficking done by hiding pills in earplugs or something, but it's not like they would've caught me even if there was. They had no dogs or any other means of detecting hidden drugs besides opening every little compartment and item in my backpack. They continually looked surprised to discover that my deck of cards or headlamp battery pack was not, in fact, secreting a large supply of fentanyl. Not wanting to go through this whole process again with my large bag, I straight up told them not to bother searching it since it was all just clothes anyway... and somehow it worked. For all the pomp and circumstance of this border control, it seems rather flawed.

We got into Mostar over an hour late, and I then had to walk another 20 minutes to the hostel with all my bags. The hostel owner had actually warned me that the bus ETA of 9 PM was certain to be inaccurate, but he still seemed really annoyed with me when I showed up later than my initial prediction. It wasn't even after reception hours ended, and there was another guy from the same bus who got there just a couple minutes before me by sprinting unencumbered with bags as I was. I ran into the Australian guy I got kebab with the first night in Split - he was just getting back from having more kebab - and we talked for a few minutes. He filled me in on some of the local attractions, including the iconic bridge that people love to jump off. Apparently it's still super easy to hurt yourself and the general consensus is that it's just not worth it. I went back to the room, managed to get down the whole other half of last night's sandwich without much difficulty, and went to bed.

Mostar seems really beautiful, from the little of it I saw. It's definitely not a wealthy town, but the setting is impeccable and the illuminated minarets flaring up from the valley are super cool by night. Really looking forward to seeing things by day. Probably just one full day here since it's not a very large city, and then onto Sarajevo.