Wednesday, January 12, 2011

1/8/11 Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Today we drove to Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which is known for its old (1400s) bridge that got totally bombed out in the 1991-92 war. Bosnia is unique among the former Yugoslav states in that it has a mix of religious groups, rather than 90+% in one. There are Muslims, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox represented here and it was the scene of much fighting. The first thing we noticed about Bosnia was the trash. Even the Croatian area was messier than the rest of Croatia. A recent flood didn’t help because all the plastic bags floated on the river and got caught in the bushes, and then hung up when the waters receded, but you had to wonder why there were so darn many bags in the way to begin with. In addition, Mostar was much less repaired than any other bombed out place we have been.
Old bridge in Mostar
Our tour started off in a small mosque – quite the contrast to Turkey. Our guide said he was barely Muslim, much less consciously Sunni or Shia. Then we walked to a house museum to see how the wealthy lived. To keep the women separate, they went so far as to have a double door arrangement so a husband could ask his wife for refreshments for guests without her being seen, and she could place them on a tray, knock on the second door, and then close her door so he could retrieve them. We ended up in the area of the bridge and a bunch of tourist shops. The bridge is lovely, having been repaired quickly. We spent about 30 minutes trying to spend Euros, and I found a nice copper bracelet and a ‘pashmina’ scarf. Then we drove to Blagaj for lunch, where a spring that is the source of the Buna River flows out of a cave in the mountain. The spring was pumping out amazing quantities of water. 
Source of the Buna River

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