216 – Saturday – 4/14/12 – Bosnia Trip 2

The plan for today was to go to Mostar, which is to the southeast of Sarajevo.  Cassidy and I miraculously woke up with enough time to go have a sit-down burek breakfast! We both had potato burek- very delicious.  We also had enough time to stop at a bookstore on the way back to the hostel and to meet everyone else. I was able to keep up my tradition of buying a few children’s books in the countries I visit to bring back for my classroom.  We got back in the hostel, hopped in the car and were off to Mostar!

We are in Sarajevo!

Burek breakfast

The drive there was absolutely beautiful it was along a gorge with blue/green water.  The rocky mountains just disappeared into the water. It was rainy, just like yesterday, but it was still beautiful. Someday I would love to come back and sit along the water and have a picnic.

It was foggy but beautiful

driving

Once in Mostar, we headed straight to the old town, with the famous bridge, Stari Most.  The bridge connects the two sides of the old down over the river Neretva.  It was developed as a Ottoman frontier town during the Austro-Hungarian period.   Unfortunately during the conflict in the 1990s much of the old town was destroyed.; another price of war.  UNESCO has named the bridge to its list of World Heritage locations.  One hope I had while we were there was to get to see someone jump off the bridge, it is actually an event that takes place quite often in the summer months.  Unfortunately I came very close to seeing this happen, I heard the splash and saw the person swimming to the shore but I missed the moments in air.  Since the weather was cool and rainy we decided to eat in doors, but we stopped for some photos along the river.  We took some time to walk around the old town for a few souvenirs. Throughout the town there were shops with copper artwork, and in several shops the artists were creating their work right in front of us.  It was really neat to see.

sidewalks of old town Mostar

We made it to the bridge!

First view of the bridge

This is where the jumpers swim to

Looking across the river

View from the bridge

From the bridge

Looking from the center of the bridge

Where we ate lunch

A view looking down from the bridge

Look I was there!

Here are all of us under the bridge

Another view of the bridge

One of the many shops

Mostar was a beautiful city. Unfortunately it too was not untouched by the war in the 90s but rather than ruining the sights, I feel like it in some ways adds to its history and culture.  I know that there were probably many things destroyed that added beauty and culture, but I respect what the city is now.  I can’t imagine having lived there during the time the war was happening… just seeing it years later has changed me.

One of the buildings covered in bullet holes

Lesson: This world is filled with great beauty, there will never be enough time to see and experience it all, but that should not stop us from trying!