Mostar revisited

I went to Mostar 11 years ago when the old stone bridge destroyed during the war hadn’t been rebuilt yet. There was a wooden one in its place. I wanted to seem how things have progressed and whether the rift between the Muslim and Croat side had healed.

The bus left Sarajevo at 1130 and the ride to Mostar took 2h30.  Leaving Sarajevo through Sniper Alley, there was still evidence of pockmarked buildings and those which had bigger holes in them.
About an hour into the journey we went through a tunnel and entered Hercegovina. There were high mountains in the distance which resembled those in Dalmatia.

Last time, I saw many Croat (not Croatian) flags flying instead of the Bosnia & Herzegovina flag. This time I only saw one, which suggests that Bosnian Croats are starting to see their future in this country rather than in Croatia.

Upon arrival at the bus station, I was meant to ring the hostel so they could come to walk me over (it was meant to be hard to find). Fortunately I picked up some stray wifi which allowed me to ring them cheaply without a phonecard/payphone.

I was hungry and headed out immediately after dropping my stuff. There wasn’t much choice nearby so I settled for a cevap cici again. The old Turkish part of town is now extremely touristy leading to the bridge and also on the other side. There is now considerable business on the Croat side now too.

Each night, Almir (the owner of the hostel) puts on coffee and lokum for his guests. We were able to ask him lots of questions about life during the conflict.

• They had four years without power and water during war.
• In addition to fighting the Serbs, they later become under attack from the Croats as well (with their snipers including French Foreign Legion up on sniper tower).
• Relations are now much better than when I last visited. It appears that relations between Bosnians and Croats are easier to heal than with Serbs.

By the way, I finally realised I can have a bed-time coffee.  I always thought it would keep me awake 🙂