Tom`s travels: Neum (12-13/07/2025)

For the weekend, we decided to head to Neum, Bosnia's only town by the sea. As we had seen, buses took quite a long time to get there, so we arranged a transfer with a local company, hoping to get there fast without traffic. For the way back, we were told we would then be given a ticket for the bus so that we could leave later instead of in the morning. Once we got picked up, the driver said we had to pick up another couple, but didn't seem to know the correct address, as we first stopped on the wrong side of town before eventually driving to the correct location. Just like that, we had lost over half an hour. Then we had to drive to another place to get the bus tickets for the return, from a random man, and then had to stop at a convenience store to get cigarettes for the other passengers. Eventually, after leaving the city and quite some driving, we reached the seaside, nearly one hour later than expected. Once there, we were able to check into our accommodation already and then decided to look for a place to eat as it was already lunchtime. We opted for the Restaurant Laguna, where I had a mixed fish platter, with mussels, fried fish, anchovies, octopus salad, and crab paste, while Ania had a shopska salata. After lunch, we headed down towards the waterfront, characterized by a rocky coast filled with apartments on the eastern side and some stone beaches here and there on the western side. We opted to walk along the pavement of the waterfront and found a tiny shaded spot on a low wall with some grass to lie on. We stayed there for most of the afternoon, reading a book, taking a nap, and then having a few swims in between. After quite some time there, we then got up, left the place, and walked a bit along the waterfront, before then heading uphill back to our accommodation. We took a shower, changed clothes, and then, after enjoying the nice sunset view from the terrace, headed out for dinner. We opted for the Humska kuća restaurant, where we shared a huge fish platter with gilt-head breams, mussels, scampi, and squid with the addition of potatoes and spinach. I had additionally ordered a busara risotto with scampi together with the other platter, which turned out to be too much, so I just ate the fish and left most of the risotto. After dinner, we had a stroll through town, on the lower part, at the waterfront, and the place was packed with people, especially families and young ones. We got a Nutella crepe as dessert from one of the stands and then walked along the shore, admiring the nice view of the bright lights reflecting on the water. At one point, a beautiful full moon started rising from behind the hilltops covered in buildings, and we stayed to admire it for a bit.

The next morning, we woke up early and, after checking out, decided to head to the western part of town. We had spotted a nice spot along the waterfront the night before, and once there, asked for the price of two sunbeds and an umbrella. It turned out to be less than 10 euros, and we spent the rest of the day there, on a stone platform right by the water. Once in a while, with just a few steps, we were swimming in the nice, clear waters. After some relaxing, reading, and swimming, we decided to grab something for lunch. We opted for a restaurant just next to where we were staying, called Kouzina, where I had black ravioli with fish filling. After lunch, we went back to our sunbeds to relax some more and continue reading. I also took a few swims here and there and enjoyed our last hours at the beach. When it was time to go, we got our stuff and headed uphill to reach the bus station. We waited for the bus to arrive and then got on, took our seats, and journeyed back to Sarajevo. We stopped a couple of times along the way, but the journey did not take longer than the transfer on the way there, so we were happy about that.