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Under Mostar’s Old Bridge, with some water splashing around me.
This was me and Masayo’s first full day in Mostar, and indeed in the Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mostar is in the Herzegovina part of the country; Bosnia elsewhere, and the Republic of Srpska is still further. I hope to see them all.
At 8:30, I checked and found that my BG had held from last night: it was 176. I’d call that some pretty smooth sailing through the turbulent waters of pizza.
#bgnow 176 in the morning. Not yet awake, but after the unknown pizza for dinner, I was happy to see something below 200.
Our breakfast was made by the owners of the apartment we were staying at; they arrived about 9 am to give it to us. We had opted for a traditional Bosnian breakfast, and we enjoyed the mixed types of stuffed pitas called burek, with yogurt. We had some left over so we put it with the pizza from last night.
The burek that the apartment owners brought us for breakfast (for a fee). It was excellent, and there were leftovers for dinner too.
Mostar.
Then we walked around town some more, and saw the Old Bridge in the daylight finally. We took lots of photos, including from roughly the same spot where Michael Palin had filmed from in 2007 during his New Europe series. I checked my BG there; it was 158.
#bgnow 158 at Mostar’s Old Bridge.
Masayo causing trouble again, on the Mostar Old Bridge.
Cats and girls roam in pairs in Mostar.
We looked at the courtyard of one of the many mosques in town, and also a cemetery full of new headstones of people who had died in 1993-5 during the war. We walked up a hill on the edge of town to get a lookout, then went back to the touristy Old Town section for some food at Konoba Šadrvan.
Burned-out church with bullet holes still in the walls. A common site in Mostar, which still hasn’t rebuilt much of its eastern bank.
In a Muslim cemetery next to a mosque, where the headstones all are dated 1992-5.
A headstone in the Muslim cemetery.
Kids setting off cherry bombs in front of a big yellow building in the hills overlooking the river in Mostar.
Sorry, Mr. Lennon.
A piece of the original Old Bridge, which was destroyed during the war and rebuilt in the 1990s.
A sculpture in Mostar. Damaged during the war and since restored.
New yellow gymnasium building. Mostar is full of buildings like this alongside the burned and pockmarked shells of other structures.
This apartment building was mostly rebuilt smoothly, except this one wall which is still covered in bullet holes.
I ordered japrak, which is meat in cabbage with potatoes, fruit tea, and a baklava to split with Masayo. My BG had by now come down to 79, so I waited a little while to take my Humalog, but I didn’t want to underdo it so I took ten units. The baklava and potatoes seemed pretty thick with carbs.
#bgnow 79 just before lunch. I’d have to eat most of the lunch before I felt comfortable shooting up for it.
Humalog vs. baklava: who will win?
We went grocery shopping, then back to the apartment to relax. Only an hour after lunch, I felt low, and sure enough I was 61. I had a bottle of juice, but was careful not to overdo it.
#bgnow 61 rather soon after lunch. Oops! I had a juice.
Three hours later, at 6 pm, I still felt low, though I didn’t think I could possibly be. Well, I was: 69. I had a Twix as I wondered how I could be trending so low after all that baklava and potatoes.
#bgnow 69, with the face of a surprised ‘betic. That japrak and baklava must have been much less dense in carbs than they seemed.
Dinner was the leftover pizza and breakfast pitas, plus a couple beers. I took what I thought was a sensible shot for it, but my luck ran out: at 10 pm I was 304. And I felt it too. So, today was dominated by a low spell followed by springing back to a high. I took some Humalog.
#bgnow 304. All that juice and Twix must have hit me at once. I wish blood would just take the sugar as I ate it, not wait dramatically for some point in the future.
I tend to get paranoid about dropping low suddenly, and the worst thing that frightens me is that one day I’ll be low and then take a too-large Humalog shot for a meal on top of it. It sends shivers down my spine. Well, today I basically did that, and it was no big deal: I caught it, had some juice and chocolate, and then it righted itself. It was a big experience for me, to kind of face my deepest fears and realize it was all in my head.
I didn’t care for the 304 but that’s a separate problem!
Tomorrow we are going to take a tour offered by the apartment owners in their car of some nearby towns, which should be fun.
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