Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina

Wednesday October 3 / 12

We arrived in Mostar around 330pm. The sun was shinning magnificently. We navigated our way to Hostel Miran. Once we were settled, we headed out into the town.

This is the famous Stari Most or in English, the old bridge.

This Ottoman bridge was originally built in the 16th century. Standing for 427 years until it was destroyed in 1993 during the war (bombed by Croatians).

Standing on the Stari Most

The bridge reconstruction took place from 2001 - 2004. Local material as well as stones recovered from the old bridge were used in the reconstruction.

The bridge stands 24 meters above the river. It is 4 meters wide and 30 meters long.

After touring around the town and dinner, we tried to find the old Catholic Church in the darkness.
We stumbled upon a cemetery. The location of the church on the map made it appear like it was right where this cemetery was. So we decided to climb up the stairs - turned out to be 204 stairs leading to nowhere. Fortunately, it gave us some great night views of Mostar.

We never did find the old Catholic church.


Thursday October 4 /12

Ready for the day by 10am. We had a tour organized by our hostel owner, Miran. Two other girls joined Ross and I.

It started with a traditional breakfast. Some sort of pastry with either meat or cheese embedded in it and a yogurt drink.


We then walked along a small bridge, where we came to a Mosque.

Shoes off, head and legs covered. Beautiful look for me eh?

We learned about the traditions of the Muslims, how and why they pray and worship the way the do.

It was interesting.

There was a spring running from a cave, which has some of the cleanest, purest water in the country. It was very refreshing!

Our next stop was a small religious village named, Međugorje (meaning, "between the hills").

It featured this church, St. James Church, a Roman-Catholic parish.

The next stop after this village was to the Kravice waterfalls and silly me, I forgot my bathing suit back at the hostel.. So instead of touring the church, Ross and I were on a mission to find me a cheap bathing suit so I could swim in the waterfalls. This was a difficult task because it was out of season to be buying bathing suits. Luckily I found one, a bit small but it would do the trick.

The Kravice waterfalls were amazing! The water was freezing.. but the sun was hot.

We swam, rock climbed and enjoyed.

We could have spent the whole afternoon there but the tour had to move on at some point.

This is me sunning myself, trying to dry off.

Next we visited a fortress, it was under construction but we walked around the top of it, getting great views of the city.


A women lived in a house very close by. She provided us with fresh juice and fruits -pomegranate, oranges, grapes.

Then we proceeded to the castle. A winding stair case to the top for more great views.

We arrived back at the hostel around 530-6pm.

A great day of tours.

We headed into the old town for some supper and went to a few of pubs that were around.
An early night for an early morning.

Friday October 5 /12

We had a white water rafting trip booked.
First we had to catch a local bus to the town of Konjic.

An hour later we arrived and we were served a traditional Bosnian breakfast. It was some sort of flour based dish with cheese. Ross could barely eat it. I didn't mind it as much and ended up eating about half of it.

Next we had to suit up. They provided us with wet suits and booties - unfortunately they were XXL.

Haha the wet suit just hung off of me.

The booties were equally too big so I ended up just using my water/hiking sandals.

Luckily, they found a wet suit that fit me a bit better.

We waiting around for awhile, basking in the beautiful sun.

Then this small car came. The raft was fixed to the roof of the car and we were off. Drove about 40 minutes to where we unloaded the raft.

 Ross and I were the only ones on this tour, so it was just us and the guide.

We rafted / paddled for 5 hours!! It was exhausting for just the 2 of us.

But we enjoyed it.

Beautiful scenery and we hit some decent size rapids. The water level was low so we would occasionally get stuck on the rocks, but it was all part of the adventure.

We had a small meal once we arrived back at the tour company's office. Then took the local bus back to our place.

Dinner then we decided to hit the pubs / bars.

We were in one pub that had a night club in the basement. We saw tons of people go down there so we decided to follow. It was crazy packed. People were shoulder to shoulder. You had to push through people to get from the bar to spot on the floor.. There was absolutely no room for any kind of dancing.. although Ross and I attempted anyway :)
There was another club suggested in our guide books called, club oxygen. We didn't know where it was, so we overpaid a taxi to take us there to find out it was closed. We met a stranger and asked him where a good place to party was and we ended up back at the same club we were in before.
We stumbled home around 2-3am.

Saturday October 6 /12

On the bus to Split, Croatia, then ferry ride to Hvar Island, Croatia.
Details to come with my next post.