Day 219 Tues 22 May 2007 Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina to Hvar, Croatia

Leaving Mostar in an unaccustomed rain shower, we return to Croatia after surveying the war damage. Bosnia is clearly much poorer and more third world like than Croatia or even Albania, but they are busy building what promises to be a very nice park in the city.

Stopping to use up our Bosnian KMs – its quite difficult as everythings quite cheap, we have coffee in a beautiful Ottoman town with obligatory walls, castle and cobbled streets west of Mostar. Its very Turkish in Bosnia, not just the mosques but the hamans (baths), coffee and grilled meat as well as the ottoman houses.
Back in Croatia we while away an hour or two in the Bar Oz waiting for the ferry to the island of Hvar whilst it thunders. Eventually the ferry emerges from the storm looking like something in a Turner painting, and we cross to the island. Its long and thin with a single narrow road running its length. By early evening we reach Stari Grad, an original roman settlement near the western tip. After walking the length of the waterfront we cant find a hotel, although there are dozens of buildings which would make great little inns, and resort to an agency which provides us with a room in a private house. Much of the accommodation in Croatia is in private homes, mostly owned by widows with families in Melbourne, with agencies in each town which arrange bookings. Its quite a good system as most of the hotels are large resorts built in the 1970s and should have been used instead of the Mostar bridge for target practice.

The ferry to Split leaves at 11 the following morning so we decide to visit the town of Hvar for dinner. Its about 16km from Stari Grad and is a beautiful venetian style of settlement based around a little harbour full of smart charter yachts. There’s the obligatory collection of ancient churches and monasteries, castles and palaces, and narrow cobbled streets all in limestone and marble. Dinner comprises the obligatory Dalmatian smoked ham, mussels, fish and Hvarian wine as we watch the sun set once more into the Adriatic.