FitDoc Travel Diary #2 - Visiting central Bosnia

Forgotten home

Hello everyone, nice to see you back. Let me introduce myself. I'm a doctor from Croatia and I decided to visit my grandfather who lives in a small village in central Bosnia. I visit him every once in a while because it's only about 4 hours drive from where I live. He's 89 years old and lives by himself. I often ask him if he get lonely but he says he likes it this way even though he has an option to come life with my parents in capital of Croatia.
Funny thing is he's the eldest person in this small village.

He's spent almost his last 30 years here. He lived in Dusseldorf in Germany before he decided to retire and come back to his birthplace to spend his last years where he spend his youth.

My grandpa

He's pretty vital. The rural life keeps him active because he has to clean, cook, go buy groceries all by himself. Not to mention that he also chops his own firewood. Pretty impressive for an old man like him. He also has his own garden where he grows vegetables and a small orchard .I hope I got those genetics so I can remain active and healthy well into old age.

Grandfather's orchard

I'm sure the location of the village helps my grandpas health. It's about 900m above the sea level with hot summers and pretty harsh winters with heavy snowfall. You wouldn't believe how fresh and revitalizing the air is. Just breathing this nice clean mountainous air makes you feel healthy. There are no big towns nearby so there's literally no pollution. You could walk up to the stream and just drink straight from it with no problem. I did it. I lived.
It's population relies heavily on sheep and cows and pretty much every household has few.

Sadly, I wasn't able to get the shot of the most amazing thing in this area. Wild horses. Yes, wild horses that were once domesticated, but after WWII they scattered in these highlands and remained wild. I never saw them in person, but the next time I go there I won't leave until I get a shot on them.

The view from my grandfathers porch

After I had spent some time with my grandpa I decided to saunter through the village to see if there's anything interesting to shoot. And there was. I like the rural feel of this place. It would feel like it got stuck in the mid 19 century if it weren't for those telephone poles.
My attention was first grabbed by this little flower with this insects on it. I like it because it showed this brightly colloured flower and the nice vista behind it. I also I have to say that I was impressed with the performance of my Samsung S7.

I decided to descend back into the village. There, I've encountered some old people that actually knew me. I guess the word of someones grandchild visiting gets pretty quick around here. It was fun to talk to them and even more fun to peek inside of their head. They lead this slow, very slow life that is preoccupied mostly with day-to-day tasks such as getting the animals to the pastures and preparing for winter. It does sound dull, but there's some kind of peace and serenity about it. I definitely wouldn't mind spending month here. I guess it would feel like a meditation to my hyperactive brain which is always trying to figure out stuff.
Then I stumbled upon a fresh water stream. It was summer while I was visiting and the air was very dry and incredibly hot. The fresh and cool air that emanated from the stream felt like a pleasant cool shower. I spent some time there among these picturesque homes and clear stream.

It's so clear and healthy that even freshwater trout lives in it.

Most people have very little to no money here. But they seem content. Who wouldn't with these serene environment?

I continued down the main road with my car. About 10 miles away from the village I began to ascend higher and higher and the great view on a valley broke out. I had to pull over and just admire the view. Ten, fifteen minutes passed by with me just enjoy the view. It was getting dark so decided to take the couple of shots.

Cows grazing by the river

It was peaceful to watch them. Specks of brown, white and black moving on the green background with the wind gently blowing and creating weaves on the grass. It felt like my mind ran away from all those big city problems and settled on this peaceful plane of simple existence.

I returned back to my grandpas place and went back home the next day. It was reviving experience to escape for a bit and I plan to return soon. Maybe to see those wild horses.

Thank you for the support
All pictures are my own and every word is original content

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Cheers and have a nice day,
Matt