Beautiful Bosnia

Beautiful Bosnia

I didn't really know what to expect when we were going to Bosnia. We'd made our way up the coast from Split before cutting across the Bosnian border. The journey there was beautiful winding our way along the blue sea past lots of little villages and farms. On the way to Mostar there were two border crossings (one from Croatia and one from Bosnia). The whole journey was rather long, mostly taken up by the border crossings.

Upon arriving in Mostar we were even more unsure of what to expect as we felt very uneasy on our arrival, there were a few beggars around the bus station, the main road that we had to follow was being dug up in it's entirety, and several of the buildings were riddled with bullet holes. We were slightly convinced we'd come to the wrong place. However whilst walking down the broken road we saw many glimpses of the Old Town that had undergone much restoration in the early 2000s.

Large photo to show the divide

Context

To provide a bit of context to the above, after the death of Tito in 1980 (The leader of Yugoslavia) there was a bid from Serbia to be the main power in Yugoslavia. This eventually resulted in the various republics that made up Yugoslavia disbanding. Due to Bosnia's multicultural nature there was a fairly mixed population of different ethnic groups. This resulted in a bloody war between the Croats (those who were ethnically from Croatia and felt that they should be part of Croatia) the Bosniaks (those that were ethnically derived from Bosnia and wanted Bosnia to be it's own country) and the Serbs (form Serbia wanting Bosnia to become part of Serbia). This gave rise to nationalism within the whole area and what ensued was a long war that heavily effected Mostar in the 1990s, hence the fairly recent bullet holes. In the above picture of Mostar you can see the old front line on the left of the river (it's the wide street).

Mostar

We were very relieved when we arrived at our accomodation as it was a really lovely place. A family run business which gave us home cooked breakfasts every day (which is a bonus). The breakfasts were really good and cooked by the owners grandparents. They varied from eggs with the pepper sauce I mentioned in the previous post to something called Burek. It's a bit like a pasty, but is made with filo pastry and contains meat, cheese or potato. Although we particularly liked the pumpkin and pepper one! We were told that they'd got up at five to start preparing this, they were very sweet (the grandmas, not the Bureks).

A short three hundred meter walk takes you past the often frequented bakery and on towards a bridge. From this bridge you have stunning views of the Old Bridge. This is an Ottoman era bridge which was destroyed in the Croat-Bosnian war and subsequently rebuilt in 2004. There are excellent views from the river bank as well.

It can be quite crowded and a little slippy, but the whole area around is beautiful and covered with markets selling all sorts of local wares. During the reconstruction they tried to keep it as close to the original as possible. This even included the slats to help the horse and carts over the bridge, lending the bridge an old fashioned feel.

From this bridge it is also possible to see the divers. They jump off the 20 odd meter high bridge into the icy depths of the Neretva river below. The river is so cold that if the weather is particularly chilly then the Bosnians describe it as being like the Neretva. If you click on this link there is a GoPro version of a jump. It is possible for non-Mostar Diving Club divers to do the jump, however it is very dangerous as you can easily injure yourself or die from the shock of the temperature change between on the bridge and in the water.

Herzegovina

We also ended up taking a tour through the Herzegovina region. Bosnia and Herzegovina are two traditional kingdoms that nowadays make up the county, hence why it sounds like two names. The area around Mostar is part of the Herzegovina kingdom. It is apparent the heavy influence that the Ottoman empire had on the region.

The first place we saw was Hum Hill which overlooks Mostar and we were told about the war by our guide. It is from here that the top picture was taken.

The next place we went was the Dervish house in a place called Blagaj. The Dervish house is a 16th century house that the Dervishes would go to in order to rest after a battle. They also believed the water had healing powers. The water itself is amazingly blue and is said to provide drinking water to the White House.

We also swam by the Kravica Water falls, now I'm not sure if it was warmer than the Neretva river or not, but we couldn't swim for long as it was freezing... The setting itself was beautiful but once we got in I could feel myself turning blue. Once we had walked back up from the valley we went to our last place, Pocitelj.

Pocitelj is an Ottoman town (yes them again) and was used as a place of rest for those travelling from Dubrovnik. Rising above the river is an old lookout tower and a few fortifications. We had an hour as part of our tour to explore this steep town and it was so idyllic and lovely, complete with beautiful flowers which Olivia loved. Climbing the tower was a little scary as it is essentially a ruin which contains no handrails and some very steep steps (each step was roughly the height of Olivia's knee) but the views from the top were well worth it.

Where next

Well actually as we write this we have just arrived in Dubrovnik. We drove through 3 seperate passport checks as there is a small bit of Bosnia that splits north and south Croatia. But we'll write again in a few days to talk about that. In the meantime more and up to date photos from our trip can be found here


Links to other parts of the world

• Overview
• European Ecstasy
• Adventures in Asia
• Pacific Paradise
• Instagram - Up to date pictures of where we are