Mostar, Bosnia & Hercegovina

A few guys from the hostel joined me for the trip down south to Mostar so after checking out of the hostel, one Brit, one Pole, one Czech and one Indian took the short trip following the fantastic scenery along the river to Mostar.

On arriving, I parked up by the huge tower of the Franciscan Church (no chance of getting lost then) and headed to the Koski Mosque where you can climb the minaret for a great view of the city. It is from here that you arguably get the best view of the world famous Stari Most Bridge over the Neretva River, undoubtedly the highlight of any trip to Mostar.

Wandering through the old town, you can reach the bridge itself which had to be reconstructed ten years after being destroyed in the civil war in 1993. It is a fabulous piece of architecture and engineering which seems to look fantastic from almost any angle. It is arguably even better when lit up at night too.

Occationally you get a guy who jumps off the top of the bridge into the river if he can raise enough cash from the tourist hoards before being collected by kayak at the bottom. I was lucky enough to witness it but it's a bad time for your camera to run out of battery! Along a little stream connected to the river is the Crooked Bridge, a mini version of it's older brother.
 

Flanking the bridge on either side are a couple of big stone towers. On the east side, it has become the Bridge Museum, while on the west, the Tara Gunpowder Tower is now the clubhouse for the bridge jumpers. Above the Gunpowder Tower is the excellent War Photo Exhibition showing the work of Wade Goddard who documented the town during the civil war through his camera lens.
 

The other side to Mostar can be seen by walking along the west bank of the river which used to be the front line for the war with the Croats. Many of the buildings here have yet to be renovated or rebuilt such as the riverside apartment blocks and the shell of the old gymnasium. Instead, many of these buildings only contain a dot-to-dot of bullet holes and whatever plant-life has rooted itself there.

Where work has begun on restoring the area, it looks impressive with the Music School having been restored to it's former glory and the new bright-orange university now up and running.
 

The previous day I had met a Polish guy called Jacob who was also headed for Dubrovnik so we both jumped in the van and set-off, making a couple of stops along the way. Our first stop was at the little town of Medugoje, which has become the centre of a religious pilgrimage after alledgedly 6 teenagers were spoken to by the Virgin Mary - I mean a bunch of teenagers wouldn't make up something like that would they?

On arrival, we passed the rows and rows of tacky souvenir stalls with life-size Jesus and Mary statues and a number of restaurants with biblical names to draw in the punters and headed for Apparition Hill. We climbed the ridiculously jagged pathways up to the Virgin Mary statue at the top, passing various crosses and other parafinalia along the way.

On reaching the top, still only around 8am, there people throwing themselves at the railings in prayer while grown women burst into tears, it was very surreal and a bit much. On the way down, the first coachloads of tourists of the day were on their way up as literally hundreds of people with walking sticks in one hand and prayer beads in the other made their way to the top. I am glad we were then leaving as staying any longer would have driven me a wee bit mental.

Our next stop was a bit more peaceful, the waterfalls at Kravice. Earlier in the year, these 25m falls are foamy and noisy with all the water flowing from the surrounding mountains but after a few months without rain, the water had dried up a bit too and the scene was picturesque but not too dramatic. Still it was worth the detour and we got back in the van and plotted a course for Croatia.