Mostar, Bosnia-DAY 7

A week into our trip we headed out from Split and made our way to Dubrovnik via Mostar, Bosnia.  Croatia and Bosnia were once both a part of Yugoslavia and there's a long history there with the war.  We  had friends recommend Mostar to us because of it's historical nature and the beautiful bridge.

The drive was quick (compared to some of our others) and we arrived a little before mid-day.  After parking our car we headed toward the direction of old town.  Amid the obvious tourist driven old town are eerie reminders of the war almost 20 years ago. There are the obvious museums dedicated to the conflict but the bullet holes and bombed out buildings still standing are probably the most striking.  

Old town

"The Boulevard" used to be the main drag of Mostar but during the war it became the front line.  Although most of the buildings have been repaired there are still mortar craters evident. It was obvious when we hit the old town as the streets turned from paved to "cobblestone".  The river rock was really hard on the stroller but we made it work!

The main attraction in the town is the old bridge.  The original bridge was built in the 1500's by the Ottomans and stood until the war in the 90's.  At the beginning of the war tires were draped over it to absorb some of the shock but eventually it fell when the Croats shelled directly.  The bridge was rebuilt after the war.  Although they were not able to reuse most of the limestone because of water damage they redid it using the same techniques used back in the Ottoman era.

The Old Bridge

View of the river from the bridge

The bridge itself was super slippery due to the limestone and frankly very hard to cross.  It was beautiful and we really loved watching the local diver's club collect donations...aka bribes...to jump off of it! Mostar is a mainly Muslim town so you could see 7 mosque minarets from the top of the bridge.  This was especially fun when we sat down for lunch and the call to prayers started!

The bridge from our lunch spot

A few of the minarets

After lunch we toured the rest of the older town taking in a few sights.  The museum we wanted to wander through was closed but we did walk by the New Muslim Cemetery.  I'm not typically intrigued by cemetery but again the history of this one drew me in.  Every tomb is dated 1993, 1994 or 1995.  When the war was raging the more exposed cemeteries were unusable but this area was tree covered and safe from snipers.

Made Josh walk up these stairs to see if the museum was open

Our last stop of the day was the Koski Mehmet-Pasha Mosque.  It is one of the only that non-Muslims are allowed to entered and it's fairly small.  We went inside and then Josh and Mara climbed the minaret to take in the views from the top.  Mara did amazing climbing the very steep circular stairs on her own!

Inside the mosque

view from the mosque

Mostar was beautiful with tons of history.  I frankly didn't know much about the war and this detour really allowed me to take the time, read and learn about the conflict.  

Although we enjoyed our day in Bosnia (kind of upset they didn't stamp our passports for this) it was time to head to Dubrovnik for the night!