It was a bright sunny day in Mostar! I was particularly excited to see the main event, Stari Most (Old Bridge)! But along the way we explored the ancient multicultural town of Mostar.

We started off the day to stock up on supplies at the local supermarket, Konzum. Konzum seemed to be a trend as we saw one in Dubrovnik. The thing about visiting supermarkets is that it gives us an insight into what the local populace like to buy. In this case I noticed there seemed to be a large amount of yoghurt varieties which was to be my first purchase of the day. Ippy became particularly enamoured with a very sparkly Kras Dorina Napolitanke chocolate bar. Although Kras is Croatian, Napolitanke is a wafer biscuit is easily found back home but chocolate coated Napolitanke? MUST HAVE :O

We travelled down the road passing the crooked bridge. The crooked bridge is a small bridge that kinda resembles the main Stari Most and is in fact just as old. The crooked bridge was believed to be used as a prototype before the main bridge as it was built 8 years before it in 1558. It is made from stone and is only 4 meters high and 8 meters wide. A baby bridge, if you will. Unfortunately the Crooked bridge before us was a recreation, as the original was destroyed during flooding in 1999 but was already damaged from the war in the early 90s.

Stari Most

Wasn't long before we finally arrived at the main attraction. The symbol of Mostar that ties the two sides (the Muslim and Christian sides) of Mostar together, the Stari Most that stands today is a reconstruction that was built in 2004. The original bridge was destroyed in 1993 during the Bosnian war. As we walked to the other side of the bridge we learned that many various foreign governments helped contribute to the reconstruction of the bridge.

To get a better look at the bridge from a different angle, we walked to the Koski Mehmed Mosque just north of the bridge. The streets on either side of Stari most were your usual touristy shop selling souvenirs and other rip off goods. There were signs directing us to the mosque but before long we had arrived. We paid our admission fee and went inside. The mosque was quite small and only had one room. From here we climbed the narrow minaret to the top for a spectacular view.

(Best viewed on desktop and in full screen mode)

Mostar, during the civil war was a literal war zone. Many of the buildings in the town are still abandoned and bullet holes are still visible. This was quite dramatic as the worst of the war is already > 20 years ago. Many of the same main streets we were walking were dangerous kill zones for innocent civilians by snipers which is quite sad considering it was essentially neighbours killing their own neighbours.

Mostar's Tragic Past

Our next visit was a visit to the Genocide museum to learn more about the town. This museum was run by victims of the civil war and collated a large number of personal stories of victims and their families of war crimes perpetrated by the various sides, most notably by the Croatian Defence Council. It's one thing to read a very general information blurb on wikipedia about this military organisation, it's another to read the personal first hand account of a victim who describes recognising one of the men who is now brutally torturing them as one of their fellow townspeople. Former policemen were particularly targeted. The methods of torture and their graphic descriptions are not things easily found documented in English, but are found in this musuem. There were various times I felt such despair that humans could be capable of such heinous and hideous monstrosities.

A Walk Through Mostar

After the museum we walked to Spanish Square. From here we can see that this place was presumably the former centre of town with various multistory skyscrapers. Only thing is I said former, as most of the buildings in the immediate vicinity of this square are largely abandoned and hollowed out. A reminder of the war that was not too long ago lingers on.

Podrum

We walked back towards old town and had lunch at a place called Podrum. I ordered the squid whilst Ippy had the veal stew. Free wifi was also handy considering none of our data plans worked in Bosnia because it's not in the EU.

The “Sniper Tower”

We were debating climbing the sniper tower of Mostar after reading some reviews on Google maps. We walked back in the direction of Spanish Square to check it out. The “sniper tower” as it's known by locals is actually a former bank building that was used by snipers during the war. Nowadays it's a heavily dilapidated and crumbling building covered in some really good street art. The tower itself is fenced off but there are not so subtle ways to get inside it. Considering the poor condition of the tower, unfamiliar territory for us and the fact there was a literal police car parked outside watching the area we opted not to enter the tower. Although the building was surrounded by high walls, we did notice a potential way in (someone had made some crude steps around the back). We came across an English speaking solo traveller looking to do the same thing as us but after a quick chat, we all decided we weren't going in. The cops out the front were the main deterrent.

The buildings near the sniper tower were also crumbling and many had visible bullet holes. It was a sad sight.

Dessert time

Ippy really wanted to try an Ottoman inspired dessert called Kadaif so we ventured yet again back to old town and headed into a cafe called Lasta Slastičarna to buy some desserts: the Kadaif and Hurmasica. The former is a pastry made of shredded filo pastry and walnuts. It was a little strange, kind of like eating dried out noodles with nuts and syrup. The Hurmasica was simply a small fingerlady biscuit drenched in syrup, causing it to soften. Ironically, Ippy enjoyed the Hurmasica more than the Kadaif.

Back at the bridge

We decided to admire the bridge once more, but from the river so that we could experience the full height of the bridge.

We walked back to the bridge and just out luck, guys from the diving club were announcing that one of their fellow members was going to dive off the bridge into the cold cold water below. The diver was wearing a wetsuit to help with this. They went around collecting donations, and we made a small contribution. It took them around 20 minutes to collect money from everyone on the bridge and below the bridge before the guy jumped elegantly off the bridge. It was pretty impressive.

There was now a bit of time we had to kill before we trekked out for dinner. Back to the accommodation we went, where we encountered Alissa's dad but no Alissa. He had zero English (and of course we had zero Bosnian), so we tried the old “talk to Google Translate for instant translation” thing but the man had noooo idea what we were doing. It was hilarious and Google Translate did pick up the guy swearing haha. Eventually he was able to tell us that there were two other people also joining us for the drop off to the bus tomorrow morning.

Ćevabdžinica Tima-Irma

For dinner we went to a barbecue/grill restaurant. The place was tiny and there was a miscommunication, causing us to wait longer than we had to. There were only 3 staff total (two behind the grill) and the whole place was so smoky from the grill. The waitress thought we wanted to sit inside but we were cool with whatever. She seated people outside before us :( Anyhow, when that cleared up, we got a seat outside and ordered.

Having done my research, we ordered the mixed meat platter for one. But it completely fed the two of us no problems. There were loads of meat - Ćevapi, Pljeskavica (similar to Ćevapi but in patty shape filled with cheese), Sudžukice (sausage). There were also lots of veg and served with loads of cheese (which might've been feta?), roasted chillies, ajvar (red capsicum sauce) and mustard. It was very filling and tasty but Ippy was slightly disappointed that there was no chicken :P The bread was really good. 8/10 #ipinions

Final Thoughts on Mostar

• Mostar was a good taster to Bosnia and Herzegovina. We would be keen to see more of the country in future.
• CHEAP. So refreshing after Dubrovnik and Rome.
• They need to join the EU already.
• Food wasn't too bad, hearty fare.