Bricks and Mostar

View of Mostar from the old bridge
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Mostar feels like a minature version of Turkey, except with no turkish people but it still keeps the coffee. If you ask for a Bosnian coffee they;ll just tell you 'no'. We thought they were just always out of it, but then we discovered that its a bit of arse to make- so they basically didn't want to make it unless you were really keen. It was a good thing for them that the coffee was pretty spot on and quite addictive.

Mostar is really nice in the centre where the (UNESCO certifed) old town has lots of cobbles and coffee and nice little shops. The gorge is really cool as the bridge spans over it, despite neither of them being particuarly large. The oukirts of the town are a different story. If you didn't know about the war hear then you will do after walking around here for 10 minutes. Its quite emmotional looking at bullet holes round the windows, especially if somebody is still living in the house (which they often are)

Mostar feels like a minature version of Turkey, except with no turkish people but it still keeps the coffee.

The old bridge from the mosque minaret
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The famous 'old bridge' was distroyed by the war, and there is this little musem that shows you about it. The Museum is basically this old man's house will a little screening room. It showed this fairly poinent video about the bridge being destroyed and then reubuilt again. It was the most interesting part of the museum.

The bridge is probably the most famous part. We watched this guy in speedos jump off it, as they have a diving club right next door. It seemed to be some sort of local event as there were a couple of dozen people crowding round to watch. He didn't really do any thing for about half and hour except stand there in his pants and show off. But then he jumped which was quite impressive as it was a bit of a drop.

We gave these small gypsy children some cherries we bought earlier. We asked for a small bag from this market stall woman. She clearly didn't understand us and began practically filling this bin liner full of them. The Gypsy boy didn't seem happy though, probably becuase he was after money not fruit.

The locals here are nice. They tend to shout at eachother alot, though the guidebooks have assured us thats just what Bosnians do. They don't tend to have normal conversations, they talk to eachother really loudly and expressively. This seems to get more prominant with old age.

We left Mostar and Hercegovina (as the Information desk woman pointed out to us was definetly not Bosnia) to the captial city; Sarajevo.