Stari Most & Mostar - The Bridge Town

---

When Bosnia is mentioned, a lot of people normally think of war and death, but when I found out about their famous 15th century bridge, I am sure it would be amazing to see how Bosnia had recovered from pains and wounds.

Time flies quickly in Montenegro and I left Kotor at 7:00am and had a long day of bus travel. It was 3 hours journey to Dubrovnik in Croatia, spent my quick lunch right opposite of the bus station, and another 3 more hours to Mostar, in Bosnia. And I was so happy to eventually arrived and double happiness for the personal pick up from the bus station by the hostel guy.

I had a very mixed feeling and felt really strange before I stepping into this country, as I knew all about the country was the sad war that I had watched on the television when I was young.

Although it has been more than 15 years ago and today, Bosnia is still slowly recovering from wounds, but they are likely to make Bosnia on the tourist map, while it still carries the scars and wounds of its past once a beautiful country.

Mostar was heavily damaged by the war, especially its landmark - The Stari Most, was blown up by the Serbs so the Muslim on the other side could not access to the opposite side and get their foods and needs, but The Bosnian Government has done a great job of reconstruction. Mostar is known for its bridge. On the other hand, Mostar also had huge influences of the Ottomans and nowdays you still can see Turkish styled architectures, mosques, shops, even foods, desserts and coffees, more or less the same as what you can find in Turkey.

The city is not big, and most parts of the city is full of blown up ruins of buildings, many of these buildings are with warning signs, to warn people not to enter, while hidden bombs are still everywhere unknown. As said, the landmark that everyone has to see in Mostar or perhaps in Bosnia, it must to be the 23 meters tall - Stari Bridge aka The Old Bridge, sits on the emrald green Nevetva River, which was completed around 15th century and was half blown up during the war with Serbia and recontructed in recent years.

I picked the quiet time of the day, walked across this marble made bridge, the steps were quite slippery and steep, and at the same time I feel the marble steps, that have been steeped by hundreds of years of foot under my feet, and the steps that have been stepped by thousands of troops, the feeling was really complicated and bad.

---