A Local Traveler - #79HT

It was such a pleasant night in my instant family. After our first hours, eating, drinking an exchanging experiences, we went out to pick up their backpacker in the Train Station, once they didn't want to carry it when they were walking in the city before meeting us. Afterwards we just ended up in local bar.

This kind of place that as a tourist you couldn't have the chance to crush there. This is the way that I see how amazing my trips are. Before and after learning how to travel and really getting know. But I'm not expert, I'm still learning it.

When you, English speaker, go to a foreign country and be in a place that was built for tourists, people that don't speak the local language they don't know how to cook a delicious local dish and don't understand the local culture. People like me, like you, like everyone.

When I arrive in a country that I don't speak the local language, like Bosnian, everything is new for me. I didn't know the local food that they have, I didn't know how their culture were. Truly I didn't know anything before arriving there. Maybe my experiences before in Croatian or someone from there that I met before, but alive experiences are something completely different.

When we decide to leave from the tourist city and check the real city that we are, wherever it is we are going to have the chance to have a different view than in the place fabricated to make money out of travelers. You're going to have the chance to really know the truth face of the place that we were. Not what people talk about or what's written in the news.

An example that would match well is Napoli. Before arriving there I heard so many things about this city that means: Do not go there. Because "Napoli is disorganized city in Italy, dirty, full of homeless, people in the street begging for money, trying to steal you. It's a dangerous and violent city that you should think twice before going there." 

You know, what I wrote above is the summary of negative things that I heard about Napoli. A lot of Italians contributed in this preconception of Napoli. I was curious to go anyway because despite the negative aspects, I also heard a lot of good ones. When I arrived in the city, my first hour was enough to understand how Napoli became one of the best places that I ever been in my life. As I wrote before, it's in my top 5 in Europe. 

Napoli is charming and old city in Italy with a South American soul. Full of friendly people, amazing food and cheap (the best pizza that I ever tried in my life paying 3 euros) and music been played in every corner. I felt in love with Napoli instantaneity and I don't really know what kind of experience some travelers had there but mine was remarkable. Like in Mostar, place that I'll be in love permanently, these experiences that I had made me feel so connected with the entire atmosphere that was around me.

In this night I learned the most "complicated" sentence that I know in Croatian/Bosnian: "daj mi pivo" that means: Give me a beer. I still remember few words in Croatian/Bosnian from this trip like:

• Good morning: Dobro jutro
• Good day/afternoon: Dobar dan
• Good night: Laku noc
• Thanks: Hvala
• Cheers: Živeli
• Yes: Da
• No: Ne
• Beer: Pivo
• Good: Dobro
• Water: Voda.

That's what I remember now, but I still believe that the most complicated expression that I learnt was "daj mi pivo". 

Expression that I could say when I was in this local bar with my instant family. I just arrived in the bar and asked for a beer in Bosnian/Croatian and the guy just gave me my beer saying the price that I of course couldn't understand, but afterwards counting the coins I saw that It cost me around 1 euro.

This is one of the reasons that I feel in love in Mostar and Bosnia, not just the price of beer ;) but the moments that lived there that I could felt as a local. I felt like someone that was born there, at least for few moments. This emphatic moment that you're traveling inside the brain of local, not just the place, you can learn so much about them that overtime if you really understand them, there is none strong ice that cannot be broken.

About Balkans, the ones that I could meet well, I've got so many great experiences, connections and vibrations that made me give part of my heart to some of them and their countries. This is a completely feeling than a regular traveler can have. These moments that I felt like a local, it's like being abroad having instant feelings of homesick from a place that you're not from and maybe you never lived there, like me, you just spent few days. 

Again, everything is about intensity. I could maybe have lived in Mostar for 1 year and depending of my way of living, I couldn't ever have the experiences that I had. The instant feeling of being a Bosnian.