Mostar

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We had planned to catch the train from Sarajevo to Mostar, but the train was not due to leave until after 6:00pm and we were not able to leave our bags at the place where we stayed in Sarajevo. As we were confronted with another very hot day and neither of us were still feeling the best and also there was also no place to leave our bags at the train station, we thought we would opt for a bus instead. (Buses departed more regularly and earlier.)

The person from the place we stayed kindly offered to give us a lift to the station. On the way he told us how Australia's soccer team was in trouble as it was getting too old and there were no up and comers to replace Kewell and Viduka when they retired. We were quite surprised at hs good knowledge of our team. This was exactly what Ross had just been reading in Les Murray's autobiograghy which he had been reading throughout this trip.

The bus ride to Mostar was probably the lowlight of the trip so far. It seemed to take forever, with the bus stopping multiple times before we left Sarajevo. Neither of us like buses particularly and as we were not feeling so good it was not the most pleasant experience. To make matters worse before we boarded the bus Ross was looking for a toilet but all they seemed to have was these ones with holes in the ground where you are supposed to squat or something. Ross didn't need to go that badly!

When we arrived in Mostar we had a long walk in the heat to the place where we were staying. It wans't really that far but it felt like it was. After we checked in we had an afternoon nap in air conditioned comfort.

That evening we went for a walk around the town and checked out the Mostar bridge which is Mostar's most famous attraction. The bridge was totally destroyed in the recent war but has now been rebuilt and looks as good as old. There was even a guy there asking for money so he could jump off it. (Apparently that was once a common passtime to impress the local girls.) We had some icecreams and went to a cafe to have plates of salad for dinner. (cabbage plus a slice of tomato - Ross really must have been sick if all he wanted was salad!)

Mostar was similar to Sarajevo in that it had a large number of shot out and abandonned buildings (probably a greater proportion in fact) however everything in Mostar was on a much smaller scale, even the old Turkish quarter. The only thing that was definitely more impressive (apart from the bridge) was the river which had a much greater and cleaner flow.

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