Day 15 - an educational and impactful trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina

11,679 steps, 5.29 miles, 30 floors

Sierra's pic of the Stari Most ("old bridge"), which signifies the unity of Serb, Croat and Bosniak cultures in one city. 

We wake up and go to the bus station to catch the 9:30, but it doesn't exist--so we hop into a cab. The airport is further than I realized, but we're there before 10am. We pick up the little rental and head on our way, hoping to have minumal issues with directions. 

On the way to Bosnia-Herzegovina we stop at two highway toll booths and 4 border control booths. I've lost count but I'm guessing we hit about 12-14 border control booths in the next 48 hours. 

I thought that said "mocrap" at first. The cool countryside, and probably the last sign we would see for Mostar before the "you'll figure it out" style of directions kicks in. 

Bosnia was much more up-scale than expected: lots of neatly-manicured yards and pretty houses. We stopped for construction and waited for a green light...unsure if it would ever come. It appears they are beefing up the highway system to try to make Mostar more accessible.  We come to a semi truck driver just parked blocking 2 of three lanes. People started to go around us, so we went into oncoming traffic and passed. It wasn't as scary as it sounds as we could see the oncoming lane, but it was funny to see this guy just parked in the way.

We get to a little town and don't see signs for Mostar, so we stop to eat. Maybe 1-in-5 people speak English, but the town looks clean and the restaurants seem nice. We see a lot of dudes in track suits, which is kind of a running theme around here. Sierra orders what the waiter recommends, because we can't understand the menu at all. We get a nice pizza and salad, and it feels like we're at BJ's pizzeria back in the states. 

The weather is beautiful and this little Bosnian town seems the opposite of shady: couples with young kids in strollers, wifi, clean streets. Parallel parking is kind of a free-for-all, which is entertaining to watch. They basically just get within a few feet of parking and some park diagonally on a street-side parallel spot. The waiter tells us how to get to Mostar (no street signs) and we get on our way. 

The drive through the countryside contained many vineyards, churches and a beautiful teal green river the entire way. The directions were weird (Rick Steves had warned us that drivers can get a little stressed trying to find their way around). My map says we're close, so we park and walk. 

The first area we walk through is this cool, contemporary street packed with folks out on patios enjoying the sun. 

We walk towards the old bridge, and our first view urges a brief moment of silence (as we drove here, and along the way, we continue to learn about the war and specifically the tragedies which occurred in Mostar). We walk down coppersmiths street, "Kujundžiluk," which is a cool round-stone street with the feel of a Turkish bazaar.  

Kujundžiluk, before we come to Stari Most

We walk a bit further and find a terrace overlooking the old bridge, and get the best table in the place. 

Stari Most was destroyed in the early 1990s, and a temporary wooden bridge existed. This is the bridge which was rebuilt in 2004, symbolizing the reunification of Mostar and the opportunity to rebuild trust and peace in the Balkans. 

We saw this one on the side of a building. I believe the two dots represent the coming together of people from opposite sides (Bosniaks and Croats, most likely) and meeting on the bridge. 

Many of our pictures of the city show clearly the religious diversity of Mostar, including iconic images such as the cross on the hill over the city, as well as a mix of mosques and Christian steeples. We decide that selfies seem a little disrespectful to a city which has gone through so much. Moments later we see a group of four super makeup'd, Kim Kardashian-wannabe looking women making duck-face poses and tons of booty-flexing, back arched, turned-to-the-camera selfies on the bridge.  Then of course there were men staring awkwardly at them. If experience is any indication, all of them were also probably smoking. 

I needed at least one picture to show you how beautifully green the water is. This river ran all the way along our drive from Croatia, splits through the city of Mostar and has streams and waterfalls integrated into the west side of town. 

A shot of Stari Most from the south--the right side is mostly Muslim and the left side is predominantly Christian. 

We walk down south to see another angle of the bridge and the river. Then we cross over to walk to the Bulevar. It was once the bustling Main Street, until this war made it the division between Croats and Bosniaks (right after the Serbian military were forced out). My understanding is that the Croats had more firepower, had snipers and had electricity. So the Bosniaks on the east side of the street (which included both banks of the river) were in constant fear of going outside. They only went out at night in all black, and only out of necessity. Below are just a few of the many buildings left as a reminder of what can happen when people turn on their own neighbors and relatives...

A building on the Bulevar, completely decimated by Croatian artillery. 

I still need to figure out who that is in the spacesuit, but the words say "give me back my clothes."  These buildings (on the Croatian side of the street) are intermixed with new buildings, creating a moving image of reconstruction. 

Right on one of the main intersections. I think this one was a bank. 

As we walked along, we saw a lot of old and a lot of new. We wondered if we looked odd standing at a main intersection, photographing buildings. Through a hole in one building I could see the old hot water tank in the bathroom and a sink on the 2nd and 3rd floor of a building that had been annihilated. All in all, it was a sobering reminder that anyone who lived here during the early 90's spent most days in fear for their life, and most likely lost many friends and loved ones. 

It was difficult to capture how far this went.

On the way out of town we passed a cemetery which was a park pre-1991, and was converted to a cemetery for those who died in the 1991-95 time frame. Apparently the trees provided cover from Croatian snipers to allow families to bury their loved ones.  

We left town at about 4pm and were happy to have enough light to make our way to the ocean before dark. Continuing the theme, we passed a number of border crossings. At the first one, we think it's a toll booth and offer him money, and he says some things and he and his friend giggle the whole time. Apparently we may have just tried to bribe a federal officer. Then we had to pull over and have our car searched.  The border guard said: "No cigarettes, alcohol, drugs?" Sierra replies with "No." To which he said "Why?" Hahaha...apparently these guys have a sense of humor. 

That's the guy searching our back seat. I hope he doesn't take my bag of mixed nuts, apple or bottles of Italian wine. 

Shortly after that, we drive through some mountains and then along the coast to Dubrovnik. The sunset was beautiful so we snapped 100's of shots:

Heading out of the valley to the Dalmatian coast 

Weaving along the coastline, looking back at the sunset. This is the part where we go back into Bosnia-Herzegovina for about 10 miles, before being in Croatia again. 

One of many cool towns on the water

Looking south as we close in on Dubrovnik

The final Croatia checkpoint, probably our 12th of the day: Croatia-Bosnia-Croatia-Bosnia-Croatia today. Each time with 2-4 booths and passport checks.  

When we get to Dubrovnik it's dark. We go to return our rental car and no one answers the door, so we park it in old town and head to our room. We can tell already that we are really going to love Dubrovnik.

Our first glimpse from inside the walls. We'll grab an omelette at that place on the left in the morning. 

We get lured into an alley for dinner and it turns out to be a really cool spot. We have a nice Croatian dinner and some wine, then head to bed, ready to return the car and take on Dubrovnik in the morning.