Mostar

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We had an extra day in Split and thought why not do a day trip to Mostar in Bosnia & Hercegovina – a historic old town that was caught in the middle of the early 1990’s war with Croatia that saw its historic Stari Most (old bridge in English) destroyed. However from 1998 to 2004, the locals recovered the bridge rubble from the river below and rebuilt the magnificent bridge. The town is now a living triumph of peace in the region, with the city containing approximately 50%!B(MISSING)osnian muslims and 50%!C(MISSING)hristians, meaning it is scattered with a mix of impressive mosques and churches. It is in the Hercegovina region of Bosnia & Hercegovina, our guide informs us that there are clear borders between the two regions, but believes that they would never be allowed to split into 2 countries because Bosnia would be a solely Muslim country in the middle of Europe which would never be allowed. I thought this was an interesting perspective, but there are other countries that have thrived despite having two clearly distinctive and different regions, such as Belgium or even Canada.

Mostar is situated in a valley, surrounded by huge mountains which provide the water that flows through the town, the very green looking Neretva river which the Stari Most is built over. Being East of Dubrovnik, the climate is very Mediterranean and we are stifled by the heat in the town and the glare from the limestone buildings and cobbled streets is bright even with sunglasses on. The old town streets contain many touristy shops, as well as much needed gelati shops. However, what really catches our eye is the guy sitting just off the Stari Most who is hand painting on large rocks images of the bridge. He tells us that the rocks are from the river below and he dries them out and draws on them and then paints them. We are impressed with his painting and buy one off him.

Our walking tour of the town took us from the west side of town, where we visited a small mosque, across the Stari Most to the east side of town, where we visited an old Ottoman house (Biscevica Cosak) that is 350 years old and preserved old furniture and wooden carvings. We get told stories about how the Ottomans used Turkish coffee signals when people visited their house, for example if you wanted someone to leave your house, you would give them cold Turkish coffee instead of hot, and if a girl liked a guy, she would put salt instead of sugar in his Turkish coffee. Of course I have no idea if she is just telling stories, seeing what she can get tourists to believe.

All along our walking tour we see buildings with some fairly impressive shrapnel holes, as well as some signs of bigger damage that have been patched up cheaply. It is amazing to think that 15 years ago, this quaint little city was a war zone.

We had lunch overlooking the Stari Most, sampling the Cevapi sausages that the region is famous for, before heading to the old bridge museum which depicts photos of the Stari Most before the war, during the war, and after the war. The museum has a 15 minute video showing the destruction and the restoration which is brilliantly done.

Interestingly, Bosnia & Hercegovina accept 3 currencies, their own (Konvertible Marks), Croatia’s (Kuna) and the Euro. I find this strange considering the volatility of currency markets, surely someone is making or losing a packet from pricing arbitrage. These are the kind of side thoughts I have as I wander through the oppressively hot cobbled streets of what is a very different town to the Adriatic towns we have been visiting in the last week. A very eye-opening day trip that was well worth the effort of the 6 hours in the bus!

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