Parking on the wrong side of town in Mostar, Bosnia

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Today while many of our friends were writing an exam, we took off with our friend Mary (who's husband was writing the exam back at the house), and headed to Bosnia for the day. We left midway through the morning and thought that the drive would be two hours, but we drove along the Croatian coastal route and it took closer to four and a half (also we were behind a slow caravan part of the way). But the drive was absolutely beautiful, driving along the water and through the little towns. It was mostly a sunny day so that added to the beauty. The drive back was under 3 hours, but we took the inland route through the mountains, which was also beautiful. The border didn't give us too much trouble either, they kind of waved us through when they realized we couldn't understand a word they said.

The town we visited in Bosnia was called Mostar. In general, we were surprised how relatively good the roads in were. We passed a few old towns, and we noticed as we approached Mostar that there were many buildings (abandoned as well ons still being used , like apartment complexes) with bullet holes in the walls. That's not something you see everyday that's for sure! It definitely made us feel that we were in somewhere different.

Mostar was greatly damaged during the Balkan war in the 1990s (specifically the war broke out in this area in 1993). This is why we saw many abandoned and structurally damaged buildings (some buildings have been rebuilt) and lots of buildings with bullet holes.

One of the greatest attractions to this small city is the old bridge, which too had been shelled and bombed during the war. The bridge spans a very blue river and connects two sides of the town: the Croat side and the Serbian side. Today the bridge has been rebuilt and is as good as new. The old town surrounding it had also been badly damaged and rebuilt. Some things definitely look very new.

When we arrived in town, we found a parking spot and decided to walk to the bridge from there. When we got out of the car, we were approached by a seemingly friendly man who spoke English and who wore a fake-looking tourism badge. We were really suspicious of his intentions and were at first skeptical when he told us that the parking was free but we should give his friend some money to watch our car while we were looking around. He said if not, some locals might come looking around the windows and smash them in. We didn't understand this at the time, and since we were afraid that not paying him might mean he would smash our windows, we just gave him the 10 Kunas for parking (only 1.5 euro so we didn't care to argue with him). Later we figured that we had parked on the Serbian Side of town. During the conflict, the Serbian side had been fighting the Croat side of town. To this day, apparently the Serbs on the Serbian side hold some resentment towards the Croatians, so they are known to damage cars with Croatian plates that are parked on their side. Although we didn't see the guy we paid when we later got back to the car, it appears to have worked: our windows were intact (good thing because that was the one thing not covered in our insurance!). Actually, we really weren't all that worried.

The old town area of Mostar is touristy, but not too touristy. Since it took us so long to get there, we only stayed about an hour and a half, but that was plenty of time to look around. The old town was cobblestoned and very old looking. You could still see bullet holes in the buildings. The narrow streets were mostly lined with souvenir type stores as well as restaurants or ice cream places with patios that overlooked the river that the old bridge went over. We stopped to have an ice cream and were amazed that a 1 scoop waffle cone only cost 0.5 euros. The cheapest ice cream we've ever stumbled across (of course this was heaven for Mike!)! We also noticed a lot of war paraphernalia being sold as souvenirs, such as bullets and army caps. Just outside of the old town is a very white cemetery with graves marked from the early to mid nineties.

Seeing these things really hits home about the devastation in these war torn countries. Croatia also housed the war, but you get much less of sense of devastation (at least in Split). Bosnia seems to not be as financially well of as Croatia either. It's interesting to learn bits about the war, because we didn't know very much about it at all, and it didn't happen too long ago.

Once we left Mostar, we had an uneventful drive back through the countryside to Split.

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Comments

[Tim Clancy]

a few corrections
I'm glad you guys enjoyed your Mostar trip. However, you do seem to have some of your signals crossed. Where you parked was most likely on the so-called east side of Mostar. Up until May 1993, the Bosnian Croats and Bosnjaks (aka Muslims) were allies against the Bosnian Serbs. In May 1993 a conflict broke out between Croats and Muslims. The east side is often referred to as the 'Muslim' side and the west as ''Croat.' Although i reject the idea of an ethnically divided Mostar - reality sings a different tune. In short - you were on the 'Muslim' side not the Serbian side. Most Serbs were left or were driven from Mostar...with a very small Serbian population remaining. The guy that was 'watching' your car was, simply spoken, an opportunist. It's easy to convince foreigners of impending danger (especially with bullet hole ridden buildings around) and scare them into paying. What plagues Mostar more than anything is economic depression. People are generally poor, particularly on the east side. There is no right or wrong side to park on. Those days are behind. What i do recommend is for anyone traveling to BiH with foreign license plates is to park in a lot with an attendee. That way any crooks (not Serbs, Croats or Muslims)...won't have their way with your belongings. Hope you come to see us!

[noname]

'Serbian side' doesn't exist in Mostar. You have Croats on the one side of the river, and Bosniaks (Muslims) on the other side. Although these divisions aren't official :)