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Published: June 15th 2007
River running through Mostar
An amazing clear turquoise colour. It was onward from Dubrovnik and the first stop was a little medieval town called Mostar. It's claim to fame is it's bridge which was bombed during Slobodan Milosevic's Serbian invasion back in the early 90's, but has now been rebuilt, like the country, as a symbol of the country's reunification. The town itself was a cool little town, but there were still signs of the invasion, like gutted and bullet ridden buildings. Ironically enough, the 'Old City' looks the newest as it was around the bridge, and hence most of the tourist area.
Other than a bit of wandering, there wasn't alot else to see, so I moseyed my way up to Sarejevo. The bus ride there was one of the more scenic rides I have had on the trip and I saw truly beautiful parts of the country. But it's a shame that you really can't explore them because of the possility of unexploded mines in the hills.
But it was into Sarejevo and the hostel, where I had a bit of the local food which I couldn't pronounce. Not too bad at all, and spent the rest of the evening chatting to others staying as
Mostar Bridge
Was bombed to pieces by the Bosnian Croatians, but has been rebuilt and is now a symbol of the countries reunification. They also jump off it into the river. I was tempted as it was very hot, but alas, I didn't have my togs. well, including one group who had cycled from London to Istanbul and were now on there way back. Good effort!
The next day, I joined a tour of the city and first stop was the Sarejevo War Tunnel, where some selfless individuals had carved a 800m tunnel out of the city so that supplies could be ferried into the city and basically save them from starvation after the pathetic attempts of the UN, but I won't go into that. Just suffice to say, that alot of people around here don't have a very high opinion of them, and from the one side I have heard, justifiably so. Anyway, the city was surrounded and this was the only way to bring in supplies without being hit by the Serbian snipers in the hills, who did not discriminate between, men, women, or children. Also what I found ironic, the 2 main sniper nests were located in 1) a Jewish graveyard, and 2) a war memorial to those who lost there lives in the Nazi invasion in WW2.
Our last 2 stops were the aforementioned snipers nest at the War Memorial, where we could see down onto 'Sniper's Alley', and a
Dodgy Building
Check out the sign! There were quite a few bullet ridden buildings around. hill where we got fantastic views of the city. Our guide was also living in the city when the invasion occured (actually the longest siege in modern warfare - 1,451 days), so to hear first hand accounts was truly amazing. Then for the rest of the day, I had lunch with a really cool English girl, Karen aka Scrooge, who was doing a trip through Eastern Europe, including Bulgaria and Macedonia. She's a freelance writer and was doing some travel writing and apparently I was a muse for her writing ideas. Or at least that's the way she put it. What that really means, is that she's stealing my ideas! But I did convince her to head to Dubrovnik, which had her literally counting her pennies (hence Scrooge).
So that concludes my very brief trip through Bosnia and Herzegovina, and tonight it's a night train to another city synonymous with modern war, Belgrade.
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yoomster
non-member comment
in one word
Beautiful!