Exploring the Unknown

Clarinda: Yesterday we rented a car and drove from Split, Croatia, to Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina (while this is the official name, most people refer to the country as Bosnia, so I will do the same). I first discovered Mostar, Bosnia when I was researching possible day trips from Split. Not that I want to be a “country’ junkie, but the idea of traveling to Bosnia was appealing. It certainly was never a country I had considered traveling to when we set out on our year long leave and really the only thing I knew about Bosnia was what I had read about the Bosnian war in the media in the early 1990’s. However, after reading one particular blog post about Mostar and the history of the Bosnian war, which is still so visible in this town of 113,000, I knew we had to go. What better way for all of us to learn about history then by visiting a city where significant fighting took place and where the signs of war are still so raw despite 20 years having passed.

To get to the beautiful town, we took the scenic route. I drove, while David navigated, an approach that has served us well during the various times we have had to drive in unfamiliar territory. Bosnia is beautiful! The rural route took us through small ancient villages with rolling hills, wine vineyards and olive groves. The fall colors are starting to come out, so the hints of yellow mixed with green on the hilltops were stunning and the drive passed quickly. The only hiccup was that I missed a stop sign at the border crossing - oops, but David quickly let me know, (ok, he may have panicked a little bit) so with a little backing up and lots of good old Canadian apologizing, we were ok. Although I did get a stern warning from the male border guard to maybe pay better attention to the signs. Noted. My excitement may have gotten the better of me.

When we arrived in Mostar, we had intended to park by the Old Bridge, as had been recommended in several blog posts, however, we found a parking garage about 1 km from the Old Bridge. This turned out to be a good decision as it avoided the crowds, and as a plus, the Sniper Tower, one of the buildings I had wanted to visit, was a short walk en route to the Old Bridge. I’m not sure we would have found it otherwise, as it is located outside of the main center square. The Sniper Tower was what I had initially thought was an old apartment building, that saw quite a bit of fighting during the Bosnian War.

Neve: I really wanted to go into the abandoned building and explore the inside rooms, but my dad wouldn’t let me. There was also lots of cool graffiti that I wanted to look at. Instead, we went to the back of the building where we discovered lots of stairwells that had no walls, which might have been dangerous had we gone into the building. This is also when we saw what looked like bathrooms and that’s why I thought this building was an old abandoned apartment building. However, the Sniper Tower was actually an old Bank and was the tallest building in Croat Territory.

Next, we walked to the Old Town to find “Hindin Han” a restaurant we wanted to try out for lunch. My sister and my dad shared a meat platter while my mom and I each had some cevaplici, a kebab made of grilled minced meat. The food was good.

After lunch, we headed to the Old Bridge. We saw a man wearing a speedo standing on the bridge waiting to jump off, but he needed to get enough money first - about 25-30 euros. We waited for a bit, but he didn’t end up jumping off. The Old Bridge had metal bars along it which helped to walk along it as the surface of the bridge was super slippery.

Clarinda: The Old Bridge was destroyed on November 9, 1993, due to heavy fighting. It was rebuilt with the help of UNESCO and cost 15.4 million dollars to complete in the same old style as the original bridge. The new “Old Bridge” was completed in 2004.

Neve: After the “Old Bridge” we wandered around a graveyard where a lot of the graves had dates from 1993. I think a lot of the people in this graveyard were fighters from the war. I don’t like graveyards, so didn’t really want to stay here.

We then explored some of the alleyways that had little shops. The little shops sold little copper coffee pots that are way different from the ones sold in North America.

Clarinda: It was really emotional to see gravestone upon gravestone marked with either a 1992 or 1993 date of many young men who died while in their early twenties. This, along with the war torn buildings that still have signs of mortar shells and bullet holes, has a bit of a dizzying effect, as such buildings are found amidst new buildings. In fact, there are some buildings where half the house is new, but still attached to a war torn building. I had read that the war torn buildings are still standing as there is confusion about who owns the building. Yet when we asked at the local tourist centre, we were told it was due to funding and politics. I suspect it is a combination of each.

Neve: Next, we went to Koski Mehmet-Pasha Mosque. I found this mosque really interesting. The doors were really low so my dad hit his head. The floors were covered by many beautiful rugs. The hard part was taking the very narrow steps up to the top of the minaret of the mosque. From the top, you could see the Sniper Tower, the River, the Old Bridge, new buildings as well as some of the old buildings. It was really pretty. Going down was really hard too as other people were coming up the tower and we had to squeeze by each other. We ended our day in Mostar by have some cold drinks at a cafe as it really hot out.

Clarinda: Visiting Mostar was an amazing experience. It led to some really great conversations with the girls about what caused the Bosnian war, dating back to WWI (and centuries before that). You realize that politics are complicated, but that they play out impacting people’s everyday lives. So many of the people we saw in Mostar would have been adults during the Bosnian war and both David and I wondered what it would feel like to have visible reminders each day of a time in history that killed approximately 100,000 people. As David and I returned the rental car this morning and stopped in at a coffee shop for an almond croissant and a drink, I commented on how privileged we are. While I have loved this first month of traveling, I have gained an even greater appreciation of where we live in Yellowknife. We are indeed beyond fortunate!Read more