Mostar

Mostar is located in the latter geographical area of Bosnia & Herzegovina and its old bridge is one of the symbols of the country.  The original twenty-one meter high bridge had been built in the 16^th century, but during the war in the 1990s, the Croat army destroyed this beautiful monument of cultural integration. Although it was a strategic attack, its collapse represented the breach between the three main religions in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Luckily, it was rebuilt in 2004 and hopefully can work toward re-integrating Bosnian society. 

Our time in Mostar was brief, but of course we saw the old bridge. We contemplated jumping into the water from the bridge, but the view from the top was quite high. We put our toes in the water, and it was ice cold. In late July, there is a festival and Mostarians jump from the bridge... some even dive! 

Tour of the Siege of Sarajevo

As I was saying earlier, everyone in Sarajevo seems to have a story. We were lucky enough to be staying at a hostel with a war survivor, Yasmin, that was willing to tell us his story. For fifteen euros, he drove us through the mountains into the Republika Srpska, one of the larger political divisions of Bosnia & Herzegovina, and brought us to the frontline of the siege on Sarajevo.

Our first stop was at the ice luge from the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics. What had once been part of a symbol for international cooperation had been destroyed during the destructive war. We continued on to what had once been a cable car going from the center up to the mountains. During the war, it was used as a bunker.

We then picked our way through the woods as Jasmin told us of his personal experiences. Several times during the tour he would stop and talk of the death of one of his friends or areas that had seen particularly hard fighting. It was really moving. Near the end, he showed us this mortar that landed in his neighbor's garden. Luckily, it did not detonate.

Byeong Hun with a mortar

One of the concerns of the mountains surrounding Sarajevo is landmines. Although the city government has said that the area is clean of mines, people have still been injured in recent years. There are yellow flags up that warn about areas or specific spots that may have landmines. At one point, we were walking single-file behind Yasmin in order to avoid mines that may have still been between the Serbian front line and Sarejevo's.
A great experience, and if you are ever in Sarajevo, you should take the Yasmin tour. 

Caution: Mines

Bullet holes in the observatory

Sarajevo: City of Stories

Since we got in late on Monday, we spent Tuesday wandering around the city and seeing a couple of the sights. The old Turkish neighborhood is a maze of small streets with vendors selling handicrafts that look straight out of Istanbul. 

The well in the old city

The old town

The new town had Austro-Hungarian architecture with popular European brands and even a great mall where BH and I tried, and failed, to find short shorts. These two areas of town and the mix of mosques, Orthodox, and Catholic churches really gave the city a nice eclectic feeling. 

Detail of the mosque

Catholic church

 

The orthodox church

 In the evening, BH and I went to the Deaf Association to meet some local Deafies. As we were leaving the Deaf Club, one of the guys told us that the street we were on had been a focus of sniper activity during the Serbian siege from 1992 to 1995. People had to sneak across the street to deliver supplies and food. I feel like a lot of the buildings and streets here can evoke memories from the not to distant war, and it seemed like everybody had stories of the war.

Our new Deaf friends showed us some of the buildings that we had missed, like the old synagogue, and then brought us to the spot where Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. I have been reading this story of the spark that ignited World War I in history classes since middle school, and to stand in this spot was humbling. After our second tour, BH and I were left on our own.  We got a beer, and watched as crowds of people showed up at this random club. It was a Tuesday night, but these Sarajevans were dressed to the nines, and looked ready to party. We didn’t join them, but enjoyed watching the parade.

Arriving in Sarajevo

Monday morning we grabbed a bus from Dubrovnik headed to Sarajevo. While the internet said it would be a five-hour bus ride, in reality it was more like eight. Thirty minutes were stupidly tacked on when we stopped at a random restaurant featuring goats on the spit. No ATM, no convenience store, and no Bosnian Marks. We figured our bus driver must have just loved this restaurant and stopped every time he drove from Dubrovnik to Sarajevo.

Mmm goat

We did eventually arrive in the city, but, for some reason, we had lost our directions to the hostel. Guest House SA would pick us up at the train station, but we needed to give them a call. We ran back and forth between the train and bus stations searching for a phone, wifi, or an ATM. We finally found a computer in the information center that we could use for a couple of marks. We ran back to the bus station looking for the ATM and finally sat down at the computers. One problem: they didn’t have microphones. They were old desktops, so I got underneath the desk trying to plug in my microphone and sweating like crazy. We couldn’t get Skype to work, but eventually the guy at information gave our hostel a call.

I thanked him, and tried to hand him fifty marks to pay for our five-mark coffee and juice, but he couldn’t break the bill. I spent the next ten minutes running around the train station looking for change until finally the man told me I could pay in euros: thank God!

We were picked up by our hostel at the train station and arrived at our hostel, which was equipped with, wait for it, air-conditioning! We had been camping for the past six days, so it was heaven to just relax on couches, bask in the air-con, and surf the Internet. 

Nice view

Three hours later, and we are all still using the Internet when we realize it is getting late and need to head out to dinner. Our first meal was at the most traditional restaurant in Sarajevo. It was delicious, but way too meat heavy. When we aren’t in restaurants, we have been living on bread, cheese, and salami. We need more vegetables!

We finished the evening with big beers at the Sarajevo Brewery. Eight dollars for these one-liter beers. Delicious!