Trebinje, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Posted on July 27, 2023 • 9 minutes • 1783 words
After our late lunch in Pocitelj, the kids pretty much went right to bed once we checked into our apartment.
I made a quick run to the grocery store in the morning so we could do breakfast in, some school work and then head out to explore a bit. We were 2 blocks from the river and had lots of tree lined streets to walk down. We crossed a bridge and headed into the old town. It was small and looked like a picture-perfect movie set.
Lined with some coffee shops, arches to enter and stone buildings everywhere. What seemed to set this apart from a lot of other old towns was that there was no building over 2 stories. It just felt cozy…no looming buildings above.
We wandered as the kids explored up ahead, deciding where we went, and then found a coffee shop where we could see the kids across the way playing in an area against the city walls. It was already getting warm so we headed home for some work, school and AC.
We got through school, but the kids were bouncing off the walls. While the apartment was nice and in a great location, the kids need to run around every day. So when we thought it had cooled down a bit (it hadn’t) we went on a walk looking for a park. We found one with zero shade, but it didn’t matter. Dan and I sat on the ground against a building (we at least needed shade) while the kids played.
In Trebinje we found that there were little stalls selling fruits and vegetables everywhere. For dinner we decided to pick up a bunch of veggies for dinner, including the ‘giantist’ tomato (Max’s new favorite word) found by Sam and 5 peaches to eat on the walk home. We had our classic dinner of a tomato, pepper, cabbage, cheese and cucumber salad, salami and bread. Sam also ate 2 tomatoes on the side. Also tried some Montenegrin beer.
The next day after morning school, I took the kids to the Tvrdos Monastery while Dan stayed back to get some work done. I’m completely fascinated by the architecture of monasteries and love to visit them.
I love mosaics.
The Tvrdos Monastery was beautiful, set along the river with cellars below and as a bonus, they make their own wine. The cellar was legit built into the side of the hill below.
After answering so many questions the kids had, I felt I deserved to taste some wine.
They sat quietly for a total of 10 minutes (9 more than I was expecting) and I really wanted some chill time, so I pulled out the big guns and let them watch a documentary on the Serengeti I had previously downloaded. That bought me another 30 minutes easily. No idea what I tasted, but I asked the guy for local varieties and I tried 3 and bought 2.
We swung back to grab Dan and decided to go to another winery. We found a gem! The tasting area was the patio of the family’s house and because they had a 1 and 2 year old, there were trucks to play with, a kid wheelbarrow and a trampoline! I can’t express how magical the next hour was! When we had parked, gotten out and looked up, we saw hundreds of kiwi hanging above.
There were fig trees, vineyards and terraced gardens, all with a beautiful view of the town below. The daughter in law of the wine maker, sat with us, told us about the wines and we chatted about challenges of kids and places we have lived.
ALL without being bothered by the kids as they either jumped on the trampoline or were going back and forth with trucks in the wheelbarrow.
We tried 3 local grapes again and bought all three bottles.
And Sam made a friend. He had a phase a few years back of being afraid of dogs, but he is clearly over that and is loving all the cats and dogs everywhere in a lot of the places we are visiting. So gentle trying to get them to come to him.
We were enjoying it all so much, we thought we’d do lunch at another winery, but the one we planned for said you have to give a heads up for lunch so we headed back home for salad, cheese, etc.
We had some quiet afternoon time and wanted to check out a restaurant for dinner. We went to Market 99 and had amazing food. Thanks to google translate we 50% understoond the menu.
The kids love how the fish served everywhere here is the FULL fish! ‘I am not eating the teeth!” has become a favorite quote. After dinner we walked along the river to a park we had seen driving in 2 days before. It had a manufactured lake (diverted river water into a large concrete pool/beach) and some pretty sketchy playground equipment. It’s amazing in 30 minutes no child fell off the teeter totters.
The weather was perfect, and being a Friday it felt like the whole town was out for a stroll. On the walk home we found a guy selling popcorn on the sidewalk and couldn’t pass it up.
The next day, we realized was our last day and there were still a bunch of things we wanted to see. We started the day as early as we could without rushing to walk up to the Orthodox Church perched high on a hill overlooking the town….or should I say, climbed up a hill for a view of the town and there was a church up there. I really do appreciate the architecture of old churches, but you can only see so many.
Oddly I don’t feel this way about castles though. It was quite a climb, but the view was worth it! You could see the whole town and the mountains all around.
Thankfully there was a café up there as caffeine levels felt low and even better, there was a playground right beside it.
AND beyond that were some animals for the kids to check out. Donkey, peacocks and rabbits. We took our time with our cappuccinos and a Montenegrin cheese cake (kinda whipped cream base more than a dense cake like a New York one) and then found a better route down on a trail. Right off the trail we found a desert tortoise! It was so cool to see one in the wild.
It was getting hot, as usual, so back home for a lunch at home. Dan ran to the store and came back with a load!
We fondly named this “flower bread” and had to go back the next day for more for the car ride.
Sam loving his tomatoes.
Sam somehow has no shirts, really have no idea how this happened, so Max and I went out to get a couple while Dan and the 2 older boys did school. Max has taken to picking out his own muy fashion outfits!
We found none, but we did see a wedding going on in the park. Because it was just the 2 of us, it seemed easy to sit for a bit and get a cappuccino and orange juice together in the old town.
As we walked home, I spotted crepes for sale and we got 2 Nutella/banana crepes to bring back for everyone.
We walked in the door and Dan said it was time to head to a park to run off some energy. Back out we went (with the crepes) to the park by the old town.
So much green space, numerous playgrounds (all small, but spread out) and a monument that I couldn’t read what it was for. The kids friended a little boy and his dad and played a lot of soccer.
Max and the little boy didn’t get the rules so well and kept grabbing the ball and throwing it. We chatted with the dad for a bit and then he and Dan nerded out over programming, etc. That’s when I went to check out the monument and found an “I heart Trebinje” sign.
Because it was last day and we still hadn’t seen the bridge you have to see in town (see main photo), Dan walked that way with the kids and I ran back to get the car and a picnic dinner.
The Arslanagic Bridge was constructed in the 17th century and looks like a storybook picture spanning over crystal clear water with its multiple arches. Just beautiful.
Close up of the crystal clear water.
You could see a tower from our place and Dan had wanted to check it out. So from the bridge, we all got in the car and started the drive to the tower. The dirt road we thought we could dive on, we clearly couldn’t, so we parked and walked. There was defiantly some bush whacking once we turned off the road, but we were rewarded with a tower all to ourselves. We had a great picnic dinner.
The kids thought it was awesome that Dan bought butter, not spreadable cheese and asked for seconds of a ham, butter and cucumber sandwich.
I skipped it. :) Rounded it off with eating peppers and tomatoes like apples again and we felt pretty satisfied.
Sam, our little forager we have learned, found some wild garlic.
There was no way in, but Dan lifted Ben up so he could stand on his shoulders and peek in.
I passed my phone up so he could take pictures in. (Later Dan and I figured how to climb up, but Ben was pretty proud and excited to tell us all what it looked like inside)
Dan and I then figured out how to scramble up to peek inside too.
Found an easier walk back to the car (yes this happens a lot on the return trip) and then headed home for out last night in Trebinje.
Originally, we were only going to have lunch here and see the bridge when we had planned to have 4 nights in Dubrovnik, but being worried about crowds there, we canceled Dubrovnik and stayed 4 nights here. Dan kept asking, what’s there to do there and my response repeatedly was “there’s a bridge” as I hadn’t done any research with the late plan change. It became a joke because that was literally all I knew about this town. It was such a good choice to have the time here! No crowds, adorable old town (with no crowds!), a beautiful monastery, an awesome old bridge, playgrounds, ruins with zero other people…do I need to continue?