Magical Mostar

Up early again, after being woken by those in my accommodation coming in at 4am laughing as one chick had broken her thongs, and while in her intoxicated state had been on hands and knees in the dark trying to find the plugger from them… which she now held and wouldn’t let go until someone promised her that they would try fix them in the morning!

Started to pour with rain moments after arriving in the square for breakfast, and continued on and on, getting harder and harder with each passing second.

Got free bacon and egg rolls provided by FAB food (who if you’re going to split, have some fantastic food..) it’s run by two aussies, and you get beetroot on burgers, fresh fruit salads, pasta salads… good old food from home, and at reasonable prices too… and they speak English!

Mitch had told us we’d get picked up from outside so Gill and I waited and waited and waited…

Eventually Olwen went to find out what was happening and found the other 5 on our tour waiting in comfort at the hostel, where they’d been told we’d meet.

So we set off in the drizzling rain in search of the bus!

Somehow we were down one, so Mustafa went off in search of the wanderer (see it started from the very beginning!), which seemed to take hours.

But gave the rest of us plenty of time to get to know one another.

With just 8 people on the tour it was small, a make or break kind of situation!

Before long owe were set, and headed off south along the Dalmatian coast, which had the weather been better would have offered some fantastic views..

With our bus leaking and windows fogging up, it was a great start to the trip!

Stopped just before the border for coffee, and drinks, more like a chance for a smoko!

And then crossed over the border into Bosnia.

Stopped once on the way to Mostar, at this quaint little town called Pocitelj, where there was this cute little boy of about 6 selling dried fruit in cones…

I wanted to shrink him and take him with us, but I think his mother wouldn’t have approved!

On and towards Mostar, where we checked into our hotel. Being told before hand that this would be the best of the tour.

I think we ended up with the best room of the lot, being in the triple at the top of the hotel, the penthouse (well not quite.)!

Apart from the dangerous dinosaur looking stairs, that required your full concentration in going up and down them, and having to pack a night bag to go to bed!

It was great…

Tini and Tash were the two unlucky ones that got stuck with me!

After Olwen decided the stairs and her just weren’t going to work.

Met in the lobby and set off on a walking tour of Mostar.

Mostar was under siege for eighteen months during the Balkan war of the nineties. Many of the buildings are mere fragments of their original structures, riddled with hundreds of bullet holes.

Stopped at the famous bridge, which was bombed in 1992-93 and they rebuilt in 1997.

to the locals as the new old bridge, they even have a competition with the locals to jump off it, showing off their diving abilities.
Which is crazy, as it’s 20m above the fast paced Neveretva river…

Goes to show that some Bosnian’s are crazy…

Many of the young ones see it as a thing that makes them a man.. And will stand there for hours working up the courage to jump.

It was here we got to see the type of people on our tour.

It didn’t take long for the wanderer to start asking question after question, almost challenging Mustafa on his knowledge, she went a bit far with some of the personal questions she asked when he was trying to give his spiel, and just kept at him, when you could see he just wanted to get on with what he was saying…

I don’t get some people… don’t they know when to stop…

Go ahead and ask your in-depth questions and challenge away,.. But in your own time, not in front of the group when the guide is obviously trying to give everyone a brief history of the place..

We get that you know a lot… but shut up already!

Wandered down over the crooked bridge, and then over the new old bridge, along old cobblestone streets, past many a cafe, chapel and mosque. With Stalls offering handcrafted jewellery, local art and copper coffee sets that overflow onto streets.

Did laugh when Mustafa, introduced a crumbling ruin of a building, by this used to be an old building…

If it used to be one, what is it now!?!

And he’d turn around and say stop following me!

It was eerie walking through the cemeteries reading the inscriptions all dated 1992-3, still today they are finding more and more bodies as they reclaim their city.

Had dinner of Bosnian stew, mualica, which was delicious, and the first time I’ve ever tried veal.

We got told off for eating the bread before the meal arrived. Supposedly it’s impolite to eat bread without a main meal in Bosnia…

Oops…

Headed off in search of gelato after dinner, much to our guide’s amusement..

Mustafa was intrigued why we’d want it, and followed us around… and just as we’d given up any hope of finding a store that as open, there was one..

Nothing like eating freezing ice-cream in the freezing cold… no wonder he thought we were mad.

At up chatting for awhile before braving the crazy stairs.

You may laugh at these stairs..

But you try climb them…

they just weren’t quite right.

Put it this way, you wouldn‘t see them in OZ, because of the lack of safety.

They really did require all your attention to get up and down without falling out the window.

Day 2

Up nice and early and onto the bus to visit the Tekija Monastrey. Which is a 16th century Dervish monastery at Blagaj, about 15km southeast of Mostar. It was built at the base of the cliffs, where the River Buna gushes out of a gaping cave.

Set off on our hike to the monastery expecting to be climbing for hours, to find that we just went to look at it from the other side of the river..

Perhaps our guide liked to jest!

Headed back to the monastry, and everyone was given head scarfs to wear, and those of us with shorts were given aprons to wear over them. Before climbing the stairs and having a look around, how things used to be.

I think it’s still a working monestry, but not to sure on that.

Stopped for juice at the little café underneath, and sampled their strawberry juice (am I just blond… I never realised you could juice a strawberry!) it was delicious.

Managed to startle a bright yellow wasp with my quick thinking hands and the wooden menu.

Before setting off back to Mostar.

After studying the map, we decided to go in search of another of their cemeteries, and set off over the bridge… only to realise that where we thought our hotel was, was not where it was actually located.. And we had to go in a complete circle to get where we wanted… but we did get another great view of the bridge, and got to see different areas of the town.

After walking through the new, posh area, where new café’s spilled out onto the street full of “possible gay” males… (still not sure about that,) but they were all young, smartly dressed and all male, in all the café’s we passed.. Which is just not what you normally see…strange, and nice new shops with designer clothes. Everyone was dressed to kill, and there we were in our typical tourist clothing, we didn’t stick out at all!

It was really interesting walking along, as one minute we were walking through streets where there were still many houses that are destroyed or severely marked by the fighting, the next we were in this new area, where everything was almost sparkling it was that new.

Eventually found the stadium, and realised we’d gone past where we wanted, so back tracked and started walking to where we assumed the cemetery was, when we heard yelling, then saw groups of youths in hoodies, making menacing stances…

Looked at each other, and decided maybe that’s not where 4 females want to be heading alone!

So turned back and headed back into town for lunch.

The day before we’d noticed these nice little restaurants overlooking the river, so we went in search of one of them, only to be collected by a scout, and ushered into a restaurant offering European toilets… it’s an interesting way to sell your restaurant… by the type of toilets you have.. But when in Bosnia!

Ended up with a great view of the bridge, and even in the sunshine, and a mass of ferral cats!

Wandered around shopping for the next few hours, bought some pretty earrings only to lose them not long after… (we’ll still not entirely sure where they have gone… I had them one minute, then couldn’t find them back at the hotel… so there’s still hope that I’ll come across them.)

Ran into Olwen who we learnt had been testing out the local hospital services, after getting a sore eye. Who managed to get a Bosnian ambulance ride as well as a pirate patch for the eye..

nothing like trying out hopital services in eastern europe!

Sampled some sniker gelato, and yes I was classy and actually asked for snikers!

Nothing is lost in translation!

Had dinner at another restaurant before heading back to the hotel to sleep.