July 22, 2009

From Sarajevo, my travelling companions and I took a train to the city of Mostar. The train was donated to Bosnia and Herzegovina by Sweden, after the Bosnian war, so all its signs onboard were in Swedish. We rattled our way quickly out of the city, through small towns and farm areas, past incredible lakes surrounded by cliffs, and a few hours later we were in Mostar, being offered accomodation by ten different people on the train platform. We were only passing through, so they were out of luck.

Mostar is the home of the beautiful Stari Most (literally “old bridge”), which crosses the Neretva river. It took 9 years to build originally and was finished in about the year 1567. In 1993, during the Bosnian war, it was completely destroyed and fell into the river below. Reconstruction using some of the original material and the same building technique began in 2001, and the bridge was reopened in 2004. It’s traditional for the men of the city to dive off the bridge – which is a scary prospect, given the height of the bridge and the cold and fast water below! Two of the men in the picture above looked as though they were discussing diving techniques and were certainly dressed ready to jump in, but to my disappointment they didn’t go for it while I was there. Here is some YouTube footage of people taking the plunge at the yearly competition.

The old town centre was also very heavily damaged in the war and a massive amount of reconstruction work has taken place. The main street towards the bridge is now busy and lined with shops and restaurants selling fabrics, tea sets, souvenirs, paintings, and all manner of other colourful things.

The surrounding country side is dry and rocky, and it was into this that we next travelled, via an indescribably hot and airless bus that took us slowly toward Croatia. My main memory of the bus trip is of being consumed by tiredness in the stuffy heat, becoming groggy with sleep, and then repeatedly hitting my head on the window as we lurched around bends. Perhaps a courageous dip in the river in Mostar would have kept me cool and awake?