Sarajevo and Mostar

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21 JULY 2009, TUESDAY

The rest of my room mates woke me up at 5am and 6am this morning thanks to what was obviously an early bus/ train. Made that much noise what with coming and going through the door constantly that I was about to scream!! By the time it got to 8am, I was up and showered. Left at around 8:45am and first stop was the office to pay for two nights accommodation. From there it was a bit of a walk to the west to visit a few museums. The first ‘sight’ outside of the Turkish old town though was the Holiday Inn, which was where journalists stayed during the shelling and fighting as it was essentially the only functioning hotel. That same street was known as sniper alley - I think you can guess why - and is the main street that leads in from the airport.

From there it was onto the National Museum where I walked in without paying, having been told by what I later discovered was the cleaner, just to go on in and pay later (the place didn’t open until 10am and I was there at about 9:30am!!). I wandered through several sections (non English translations) until the ticket person arrived and I paid, before then walking into the Botanical Garden and the remainder of the exhibition, again all of which was largely in Bosnian. There was a massive section designated to stuffed animals which was its usually disturbing exhibition.

From there I headed to the adjacent History Museum. As with Tito’s grave, it too had a large collection of batons in celebration of youth day. However, upstairs (which was essentially the reason I went) they displayed old photographs of Bosnia and Hercegovina and told about the fighting in the 1990s, There was a display of personal belongings and some personal accounts of people who witnessed some of the massacres, etc. Was quite well done.

From there I wandered back into town, past the eternal flame (in memory of WWII sarrifices), and past each of the various places of worship - mosques, synagogues, cathedrals and the Orthodox Church. The city hall was undergoing renovations which was a shame. Walked over the Latin Bridge which is where Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were killed and which sparked off a war by the Astro-Hungarians against Serbia, which through a series of European alliances, led to WWI. Also walked past the brewery and spent a good few hours wandering the areas around Bascarsija which is essentially the old Turkish quarter - now full of people selling souvenirs and tourist items. I even sat for a while at the Sebilj (a fountain in the central open space - often referred to as pigeon square) and watched people feed the pigeons. Braved the hill back to the hostel before realising I had to book an onward bus ticket, so wandered down again. On the way up, I went via what remains of Jajce Castle to get some great views over the town and of the surrounding hills. Back to the hostel where we chilled for the rest of the evening and had some local beers as the sun set over the hills and the prayer calls from the nearby mosque sounded.

22 JULY 2009, WEDNESDAY

Up at 6:30am this morning as I had purchased what I thought was a ticket to the 8am bus. Got a tram out and tried to get on the 8am bus to Mostar to get yelled at by the driver. After asking someone the translate it turned out that my ticket was for the 9am bus, so I got to sit at the bus station for an extra hour. The bus ride to Mostar was about three hours through the most spectacular scenery I have seen on this trip. As we were crossing the mountain ranges, the roads were winding up and down through valleys and through tunnels carved in mountains. At times the road ran alongside the river, at times it weaved its way from one side to the other. Little houses scattered the hills and valleys either side.

Arrived into Mostar at midday and as is the normal with a lot of these places, was greeting by a lot of little old women trying to get me to take a room off of them. I already had something organised though so I headed there, and got slightly lost along the way too as per usual.

After checking in I headed into town to do a DIY walking tour of the city. Mostar is just a gorgeous little town. It’s essentially named after the bridge which spans to Neretva River - Mostar means ‘keeper of the bridge.’ The original 16th century bridge was destroyed by Croat shelling in 1993, so the ‘new’ bridge was only reopened in 2004, but was built to the same specifications. The bridge cuts Mostar into half - Muslim and Croat sectors. On either side of the bridge (Stari Most - old bridge) there are two towers, one of which holds the ruins of older bridges and the Old Bridge Museum, which had some nice views out over the river and the old town. When I was standing on the bridge (which is 21 metres high) I saw a local dive off into the water below. Back in the day (before the war) there used to be an annual competition for young men to jump off - it is said that the certificates that were awarded were ‘brandished to impress friends and had a certain pulling power among the girls of the town’ (Lonely Planet). The cobbled old town stretches down both sides of the river and is predominantly filled with shops selling souvenirs, a large majority of them Turkish ones at that! Again, there were several mosques and I went into Koski Megmed Pasa Mosque, which is younger than Karadzozbeg Mosque which had the top of its minaret blown off and has been recently rebuilt. I also went for a walk along the former front line on the Croat side of the river. There remain some buildings that are still derelict and many more the still show the injuries of the fighting, namely damage to outside by bullets, etc. While I was wandering I grabbed some lunch at a local café - cavapcici again.

After that it was time to book an onward bus ticket to Dubrovnik for two days time and back to the hostel to chill until sunset, after which time I went out to get some night photos of the old town and have a wander around. Ended up chilling in the hostel that evening, which again seems to be overrun with Irish (have met about 15 other people staying here and 8 of them are from Republic of Ireland!!).

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