BOSNIA & HERCEGOVINA: Sarajevo and Mostar

The next day I crossed into Bosnia, which is really an ethnic jigsaw puzzle. Theres a plurality of Muslims but there are pockets of Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs and they make their presence felt strongly with flags banners. The new churches are built with ridiculously tall campaniles so that everyone can see them from miles. The landscape was very dramatic with steep green hills and rocky gorges. The place is poor but not impoverished.

Through a steep river gorge on the way from Zagreb to Sarajevo.

SARAJEVO. Sarajevo was an amazing city. Its a European, Muslim, ex-communist city where everyone seems to have light hair and look downright American. It was sort of shocking to see blonde, blue eyed men praying in front a a Mosque. The old part of the town has picturesqe old Ottoman houses and mosqes and there are also lots of 19th century buildings from the Austrian periods. The skyline is a big mix of churches, minarets and ugly communist-era apartment buildings. Unless these are carefully restored or very new theyre all peppered with Serbian bullets holes and shell craters. I took a war tour with a guy who had survived the Sarajevo siege of 1992-5 as a teenager and he took us to the preserved section of an underground tunnel that allowed the Sarajevans to sneak in weapons and supplies under the Serbian lines. Pretty amazing to think this happened in all of our lifetimes. Apart from all this the place is a modern metropolis and perfectly civilized, etc, although my hostel didnt have hot water. I suppose thats what you get for eight euros a night. Overall there are plenty of tourists in Bosnia these days although not as much as Croatia, which is being called the "New Prague".

War damage near the front line
The bridge where Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated in 1914, sparking WWI Old men watching a big chess game in the park
Old Ottoman headstones
The tunnel that the Bosnians dug under the UN airport to break the Serbian seige during the Civil War.

MOSTAR. Today I moved on to Mostar, which was a regional Ottoman city and the scene of another ferocious siege fifteen years ago. The place is famous for the incredible single arch bridge over the river which was destroyed by Croat forces in 1993. They rebuilt the bridge in 2004 and the center of the town is an amazing destination, although many of the surrounding buildings still look like Stalingrad. Local divers take huge tips from tourists to plunge off the eighty foot bridge and into the tretcherous, fast moving river below.

On the way to Mostar

Mostar buildings and minaret with the huge, newly built Croatian cross

The ethnic tensions of the past decades have led Bosnia's Croatian minority to build churches with almost comically exagerated beltowers, like this one in Mostar.

View from the top of a minaret in Mostar
A Muslim war cemetery in Mostar

Anyway, when İ last wrote, İ was in Mostar, Bosnia, an ethnicallydivided city with an incredible old bridge. İ was going to leave forCroatia but the hostel was so nice and friendly that İ was easily convinced to stay one more day and take the tour led by the crazy,hilarious, and knowlegeable brother of the hostel owner the next day.He led a group of eight of us all around the area, to old desertedfortress cities, to water falls, to a dervish lodge, and to a creepymodern Catholic pilgrimage site. We even got to go horseback riding (İforgot how much that sucks by the way). İ also learned from the guidethat Bosnia, especially the southern districts around Mostar, was evenmore screwed up than İ had reallized. To be sure İ got a stronglyBosnian perspective on the ethnic issue but most things the guide toldme İ could easily confirm. He pointed out that the local Croats(Catholics) were putting big crosses on the local hills and buildingchurches with insanely elongated campaniles (imagine a new Englandchurch with a 300ft steeple) as a sort of chauvanistic display oftheir local dominance. Apparently the Croat areas never serve Bosnianbeer even though Bosnian restaurants usually have a variety ofCroatian brands on hand. We also learned that the impressive Ottomantown we visited was deserted merely because the local Croat councilshad blocked the government from providing basic services to the place,making it impossible to resettle the war torn city. Anyway the area issort of a mess and everyone seems bitter. Apparently 1,000 police werebrought into Mostar (pop. 100,000) the other night to prevent ethnicbloodshed surrounding the Croatia-Turkey match in the EuroCupquarterfinals, which promised to be intensely divisive in Bosnia. Old Ottoman caravansaray and fortress town. Roughed up by the Croats during the war and restored, there are still only about five occupied houses because the local Croat administration will not provide services.

Drinking homemade Elderberry juice served by an old lonely woman who lives in the nearly deserted town.

The leaning fortressKravije falls
Zipline

Inside the dervish lodge near Mostar. Located by a stream produced beneath a cave, the site has been the spiritual center of the Bosnians for ages, first serving as a pilgrimage spot for persecuted Manicheans and then becoming a lodge for sufi mystics who still flock here today.
The elaborate ritual that is Bosnian coffee. Bata, the crazy, hilarious and knowlegeable guide is left.