Croatia - Day 4 (Bosnia-Herzegovina)

We're on a bus excursion today to Bosnia-Herzegovina. We heard the roadsigns aren't the best so we thought we'd do an organized trip. Its supposed to be about 2 1/2 - 3 hours from Dubrovnik. First you go north, and go through Bosnia-Herzegovina for just a few miles of coast. The only access is by the Adriatic Highway so there's not even a border check as you go into B-H, then a bit later go back to Croatia. This is the view from that coastline. The second picture is from Neum which is in Bosnia-Herzegovina.



The Neretva River Delta in Bosnia-Herzegovina.


Our first stop after going through the B-H border is the artist community of Metkovic.




There are 3 regions of B-H, and we're in the middle one called Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other region is the Serb Republic but its half on the north and half on the south. We're going to Mostar which is about 2 hours south of Sarajevo. This is the turnoff for Medjugorje - made up of a few Roman-Catholic villages. This is the area where people saw Our Lady apparitions, and is now a world-known pilgrimage destination and one of the biggest prayer centers in the world.


Arrival in Mostar. Mostar was the most heavily bombed of any Bosnian city during the war. It was both shelled with artillery by the Serbs and then subsequently by the Croatians. It is most famous for its beautiful historic Ottoman-style bridge which spanned the Neretva river which was destroyed, though fortunately the bridge has been rebuilt and the city has in most ways returned to the beautiful riverside town it once was.


We started in the new town and crossed the main street which was the front lines in the war, as you can see from this bullet-riddled building.


Now we're walking into the Old Town. By the way its 43 degrees Celcius up here in the mountains (which is more than 109 degrees fahrenheit!!)


View from Mostar Bridge upriver.


Can you see the little bridge? Its the one they practiced on first.


Now we've crossed over the bridge into the Turkish side.




We toured a museum with pictures from the war. This was taken in Sept 1993 after the bridge was used for snipers, then finally destroyed.


We toured an old Turkish house which was really interesting.



Looks like a Turkish bazaar to me!


Back on the bridge.


There's a society of bridge watchers who can dive off this big bridge into 3 meters of water (they know just the right spot). They gather donations from the tourists and when they get to 25 euros, they dive. (Bosnia's currency is Convertible Marks but they take Euros and Croatia Kunars). Here's the before picture of the diver.


He was really fast. Can you see his legs sticking out at the very bottom left?


And look at him coming up on the right - he's okay!



The bridge is a UNESCO world heritage site and they spent $13 million to rebuild the bridge in the exact same traditional manner it was built in (oddly enough it took much longer this time.)


Sunset back at our hotel in Dubrovnik.