Dubrovnik to Mostar

Tuesday was a day of traveling. Our driver Al and Mario picked us up at the Hilton promptly at 10:00. We had a very nice van that seated 10 people for the 5 of us and all our luggage. We were so excited because we were going to have about 3 hours without smoking. Everywhere you go in Croatia and Bosnia EVERYONE smokes. It's beginning to make us sick, but we must persevere. Our guide was very knowledgeable about history and started from the time Dubrovnik became a city-state until the end of the war. Traveling out of Dubrovnik we crossed the Croatian - Bosnian border 3 times. We had to be ready to show our passports each time. The first two times they just waved us on. When we came upon the final Croatian border they waved us through, but when we got to the Bosnian border some 50 feet away they wanted all of our passports and the driver and guide had to get out of the van to explain in detail where we were going and why they had 3 American tourist with them. After about 20 minutes they decided that we had waited long enough and let us go. We traveled along the Adriatic Sea for almost an hour seeing the beautiful seaside and the islands that made up Croatia. Our first stop was in Neum. This was just for a bathroom and Coke stop. While we were in Neum we came upon a bicycle team that was riding into Dubrovnik. It was straight uphill, but the scenery was beautiful. Some of the riders were in their 60's and 70's. I was amazed at their stamina. From Neum we turned right up into the mountains as we began our journey into Pocitelj (Poch - e -tely). The names of these places are very hard to pronounce, but once you learn them it's hard to get them out of your head. Pocitelj is a small Turkish town that was heavily bombed by the Croatians. It has a beautiful Mosque that was almost destroyed during the war. Our guide took us inside and explained the differences in the flags that were hanging in the mosque. For my school students, I will explain these to you upon my visit. As you will see from the pictures, this is an ancient city. It is very hard to climb and walk on the streets because they are made of small stones carefully laid into the sand. We sat with Al and had "a coffee", as they say; and he continued our history lesson. On to Mostar. When we turned toward Mostar we traveled along the Bosna River, which is as blue as the Adriatic Sea. We saw salmon and trout fishing villages. You could tell when we began to approach Mostar because of the stores and shops along the way. The name of their big grocery store is called, "Koznum." Of course, it is not as big as our Wal-Mart but you can find most any grocery item that you want. Once we arrived in Mostar we went to the train station to get tickets for our trip to Sarajevo on Thursday. However, they did not want to sell them to us until Wednesday which turned out to be a good thing because we hired a private driver. Again NO SMOKING for this trip. We then started looking for our apartment. When I made the reservations on-line I had no idea that it was a bed and breakfast. It turned out that this building was destroyed during the war and was brand new. They made 4 apartments on the top 2 floors and one apartment on the bottom for the housekeeper. After we unloaded our luggage and was shown where our breakfast would be served our guide wanted to show us around "Old Town Mostar." It is quite difficult to walk in the Old Town because the streets are made up of the slick rocks and concrete. As you enter Old Town it is straight downhill and quite slick. Many shops and cafes lead to the famous bridge, "Stari Most," city bridge. This is the bridge that was destroyed during the war. This bridge separates the Muslim side of the city from the Croatian side of the city. The Mostar Diving Team jumps from this bridge many times a day, of course, they go around collecting money to dive. The distance from the bridge to the water is 70 feet and the water is 15 feet deep. The temperature of the water is about 40 degrees. It doesn't take the divers long to get out of the water once they jump, all of them wear Speedo swim suits After a trek through town we stopped to have lunch. For my school kids, see if you can find out what "cevapcici" is. I will tell you that is a Bosnian specialty. We had cevapcici and "pie" for lunch. I'll put pictures of these at the end. Once lunch was done we returned to our apartment to say "good-bye" to our driver and guide. We have pictures for you at the end. It was time for a nap and our 2ND day in Mostar. We have already updated you on Wednesday so I will just attach the pictures that we took. Thursday morning we were up bright and early to catch our ride to Sarajevo. I will update you on that trip on the next page. Until tomorrow...

Sep 17, 2009

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