Dubrovnik was a bit overrun with tourists like ourselves during our short time there. We paid a little too much to have a "war storytelling tour". Fortunately for Dubrovnik, there's not too much physical evidence left to show that the city was fought over, besieged for well over a year and left very badly damaged.
Dubrovnik by night...
... and by day - our apartment was on this street
We had an early start the next morning with the bus to Bosnia, arriving around lunchtime in Mostar. Unlike Dubrovnik, Mostar's scars have not healed so easily. They have only recently finished painstakingly rebuilding their biggest tourist attraction, the Old Bridge, built by the Turks in the 16th century. Mostar has always been a city divided - Muslims on the eastern side, Catholics on the west. The area in the middle alongside each bank of the river was bitterly fought over, and since the war there has been little interest in moving back in. The immediate vicinity of the bridge has been beautifully restored, but the rest is still a work in progress*. We walked through both sides and passed many empty building shells along with rebuilding work in progress. The small city quarter around the bridge, the "old town" was really fun, especially on the eastern side where we weren't harassed by everyone selling food or ice cream (this is probably not a cultural difference but rather a reflection of how hard it is to keep people on the western side which is smaller and mostly devoid of landmarks).
"I'm so glad they built this bridge so I can make a quick getaway from the ice cream seller"
Picture Perfect
Plodding onward
The Muslim side of town with restored bridge and tower. In the background, an as-yet unrestored building - we weren't able to figure out what it is/was
Ruins along the Eastern front line
It must also be said that compared to Croatia, Bosnia is CHEAP, and this in an area almost 100% occupied by tourists and tourist-targetted businesses. We had a good meal, saw the bridge, of course, and took the tour of the museum. It must be one of the few museums in the world that is situated both on many levels of a tower and underground. The former is completely set up with boards and exhibits, and the latter allows you to see the archeological remains uncovered underground on one side of the bridge, followed by minute details on the civil engineering behind the area's restoration. Price? About €1.50. Nearby there is also a photo exhibition on the bombardment of Mostar and the bridge which is free and very interesting. We finished up with some proper Turkish coffee (Matt's first) and then it was off to the station to buy our ticket and watch another World Cup game whilst we waited.
Getting the train was more than a little complicated. When we arrived by bus at lunchtime we learned from a sign that the ticket office was closed till 4, and from a local that the train that evening would be partially bus substituted and we'd be better off taking a proper bus the whole way. We've been a bit wary of over-willing locals because almost everywhere we stop we've been greeted by people agressively trying to rent us a place to sleep. But in this case we should have heeded his advice. There wasn't enough space on the buses - we stood for the ~1.5 hour trip, and had a short but terrifying experience where we broke down and lost all power (including lights!) in the middle of a tunnel. After 5 minutes of hoping the cars behind would notice us, the driver got enough clear space behind him to do a hill start, in reverse. Off we went again, soon to be joined by a group of drunk passengers who seemed to be the only ones enjoying the journey! The scenery made up for the misery though, and it got even better once we reached the actual train. Finally in Sarajevo, a tram and a few helpful people got us to our hotel. Finally we could put down our packs and a very sweaty Matt could take a shower. We hadn't found a left luggage in Mostar, and as we weren't staying anywhere there, we were stuck with our very heavy bags all day. It was tempting to sleep, but we were both famished. The only area still providing food was the party centre of the old city. We had very noisy fast food!
Sarajevo train station
Some late night internet research showed up the alternative train connection, so after a wonderful early breakfast this morning it was off to the station to see if they'd sell it to us, and then a quick sight seeing tour (in the rain) before checking out and heading back to catch the train. We haven't really seen enough to make a reliable recommendation, but we liked Sarajevo very much. Especially the people are so friendly, and the city is charming, even in the rain. Most of the buildings damaged in the war have been restored, and Catholics and Muslims live side by side - their mosques and churches mixed up together in the city centre.
Photos of Sarajevo. The last, the Latin Bridge, was right by our hotel and is the site of the spark that set off World War I, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated.
In the time I've been writing this we've been stamped by Bosnian and Croatian border police (its quite exciting to have your passport stamped in Europe these days), and left the train to wait for 50 minutes in Strizivojna-Vrpolije for the train to Zagreb.
Border control Bosnia-Croatia
Amusingly, despite everywhere we've been, this waiting room is the first place we've had to use the insect repellent...
*The source of this explanation is here
