Friday, 16 May 

Sarajevo - Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Dubrovnik, Croatia


Grand Hotel Park - Dubrovnik 


Weather - Cold and cloudy in the morning, sunny in the afternoon - 22c Max


We were on the bus at 8.45am setting off to Mostar on our way to Dubrovnik. The peak hour traffic in Sarajevo wasn’t too bad as we passed many highrise buildings built during the socialist period.


We  were soon on a new highway heading south west to Mostar. When the highway ended we were on a much narrower two-lane highway. The road took us through scenic high mountains up to 2000m and through a number of long tunnels as we followed alongside the wonderfully green Neretva River with its deep gorges.





After an hour’s driving we called into a small, smoky cafe at Jablinca. We all agreed that the Bosnian coffee would put hairs on our chest! The cafe had an atmosphere all of its own. Our guide says that 90% of the population smokes and people are allowed to smoke in all areas except in closed places serving food. 




It was market day in Jablinca and many townsfolk were out and about buying their fruit, vegetables and flowers. The market also included homewares, manchester, gardening supplies and clothes including underwear.



The Yugoslavian Oscar nominated movie The Battle of Neretva was nominated for Best Foregin Film and was filmed near the cafe at the river. It is set in WWII. The railway bridge was destroyed during filming but the footage couldn’t be used so it was rebuilt and destroyed again and once again the footage was useless. The bridge was not rebuilt and the footage was gained using small, replica models.



It’s cherry and strawberry season and we passed many small market huts on the side of the road. We have been having strawberries for breakfast and they have a good flavour. 



We arrived in Mostar at 11.45am and our coach was parked in the newer part of the town. Mostar means bridge which was the point of visiting the town. We walked a short distance down to the Old Town. We had free time of 2.5 hours to be a tourist, have lunch and take in the old bridge. To get to the bridge we walked through a large market street with slippery stoned pavements heaving with tourists. This is low season and we all remarked how unbearable it would be in high summer.




It was great to see the bridge in full sun. The green water of the Neretva River was sparkling and gave good reflections. The bridge is a rebuilt sixteenth century bridge having been shelled in 1993 during the war.




We walked over the bridge to the markets on the other side. There were highly polished marble steps on the bridge and we all took great care not to slip.



The views from the bridge were spectacular. Today there was no one jumping off the bridge which seems a rite of passage for the younger folk. It’s a 25m drop from the bridge to very cold water.



Once we had seen the bridge we decided it was time for a long lunch. Brian, Julia, Henk and I chose the Sadrvan Restaurant in the centre of the market near the bridge. It had traditional Bosnian food. We were pleased with our choice of restaurant. Once again there was plenty of meat, and we enjoyed our meal with locally made white wine. We sat in the restaurant courtyard which had great ambiance with vine leaves growing over our heads. 




We left Mostar at 2.30pm and it took about an hour to reach the Bosnia Herzegovina/Croatia border. We had a toilet break about ten minutes from the border at Neum, once again not knowing how long the passport control process would take. We could see in the far distance from Neum the Croatian bridge, the Peljesac Bridge which we will cross on Monday to head further north. 



Unlike the process of entering Bosnia, the passport process to Croatia didn’t require us to get off the bus and Sanda collected our passports for processing. It only took about ten minutes and we were on our way. For the next hour the bus followed the winding coastal road along the spectacular Adriatic shoreline to Dubrovnik. 


We arrived at our hotel at 5.30pm. As we had had a large lunch and we were tired we decided to have a light meal at the hotel and call it an early night. Tomorrow we start exploring Dubrovnik. We are here for three nights. 





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