Day 218 Mon 21 May 2007 Ston, Croatia to Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina
After one of the best breakfasts of the trip, sitting on the waters edge and catching up with all the admin, mainly ferry bookings and tax, we leave Ston and head inland to Mostar in Bosnia & Herzegovina. We’re fairly ripping through these countries now and the back window of the car where we paste the flags is getting a bit crowded. Still Mostar is on the world heritage list so we have to make the effort. Fortunately border formalities are minimal as we ignore the direction to stop and be searched and reach Mostar in early afternoon.
It’s a bit of a culture shock and our sympathy for the Croats after seeing the destruction at Dubrovnik is lessened somewhat when we drive down the main street of Mostar. On what was the front line between the Croats and the Bosnian Serbs, virtually no building is unscathed with many burned out ruins, windowless and roofless, with every surface riddled with bullet or shell holes. A few have been patched up or restored or rebuilt but the extent of reconstruction appears to be just starting and much slower than in the other Balkan towns we visited. Mostar bridge itself with its watchtowers, built in the 1550s and destroyed in 1993 has been rebuilt and looks splendid, with much of the old town on either side restored. The churches and mosques too have been largely rebuilt but outside a 500m radius from the bridge it still looks like the war zone it was. Who was fighting whom and why is extremely difficult to fathom, its the usual mix of religion (Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish) with shifting alliances combined with ethnicity (Slavs, Serbs, Croats and Albanian). Whilst everyone now is pleasant and cheerful, getting on with making money, or at least a living, its not hard to envisage it all erupting again in the future.
After lunch of ham and smoked meats, cheeses and Bosnian donuts, washed down with Sarajevan beer we explore the town with its narrow cobbled street before staying overnight in a restored watermill.
It’s a bit of a culture shock and our sympathy for the Croats after seeing the destruction at Dubrovnik is lessened somewhat when we drive down the main street of Mostar. On what was the front line between the Croats and the Bosnian Serbs, virtually no building is unscathed with many burned out ruins, windowless and roofless, with every surface riddled with bullet or shell holes. A few have been patched up or restored or rebuilt but the extent of reconstruction appears to be just starting and much slower than in the other Balkan towns we visited. Mostar bridge itself with its watchtowers, built in the 1550s and destroyed in 1993 has been rebuilt and looks splendid, with much of the old town on either side restored. The churches and mosques too have been largely rebuilt but outside a 500m radius from the bridge it still looks like the war zone it was. Who was fighting whom and why is extremely difficult to fathom, its the usual mix of religion (Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish) with shifting alliances combined with ethnicity (Slavs, Serbs, Croats and Albanian). Whilst everyone now is pleasant and cheerful, getting on with making money, or at least a living, its not hard to envisage it all erupting again in the future.
After lunch of ham and smoked meats, cheeses and Bosnian donuts, washed down with Sarajevan beer we explore the town with its narrow cobbled street before staying overnight in a restored watermill.
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