Bosnia and Herzegovina: Mostar

Mostar, Bosnia: bombed out building across from our room
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Our vintage 1970s bus rolled into Mostar just before midnight.  The city Mostar is not part of Repulika Srpska, but instead the unofficial capital of Herzegovina, part of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina which in turn is one of the two political entities that make up the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina.  Get it?

Mostar has over 100,000 residents (fifth largest in Bosnia) and is situated on the picturesque Neretva River.  The name Mostar is derived from its famous bridge, Stari Most, and its bridge keepers (mostari).

Late night arrival on the Neretva

Mostar, Bosnia: our hot joint
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The bus station, which doubles as the train station, was a large commie relic with nothing to offer at midnight.  We took our heavy packs and roamed down what looked like the main street parallel to the Neretva River.  We basically had no idea where we were going, but we were tired and our backpacks were killing us.

Twenty-five minutes later we were still walking...and walking...and walking.  I saw one sign for Sobe (rooms) and entered some fairly scary courtyard, but there were no signs of life anywhere.

Mostar, Bosnia: view of central mostar from our balcony
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We did find lots of bombed out buildings with signs warning us to stay away because of the risk of danger inside (assumed to be landmines).  Virtually every building we passed was strewn with shrapnel and bullet holes.

Finally we found one expensive-looking house with a sobe sign, and we woke the owner up.  He hooked us up with a sweet room and an even sweeter bathroom.  Probably the best bathroom of the summer.  I mean, sparkling clean and massive.  I think the bathroom was actually bigger than the bedroom.

I heard loud music coming from near the old bridge, and I wanted to go out and take a look, but the front gate was locked and I didn't feel like causing a scene with the already frustrated owner.

We crashed and vowed to wake up early to make the famous pilgrimage to Medjugorje, a short bus ride south of Mostar.