Hotel-Restaurant Kriva Cuprija Mostar

... What I see here leaves much more of a lasting impression than spending an afternoon looking at London.

This is the domain of backpackers and the mainstream tourists would never think of coming here, much less walk down a street that was once the Front Line in the war. It's a shame really because they are missing out on a human interest story like nowhere else. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea though and travel is all about finding what ...

... some back streets, it was the hosts home (rather than a hostel) and therefore a little cosy, though fortunately I was the only guest staying at the time.
Mostar is smaller than Sarajevo but gets the same number of tourists (by the busload!!) squeezing through it's narrow little lanes and it's locals are definitely more geared up to grabbing some tourist dollar... (I found the salespeople in Sarajevo to be relaxed ...

... When he did we then had a hard time figuring out if we were supposed to leave our car, follow him, or whether we were walking anyway. We eventually decided to just get in the car and we were glad as it was over a mile away and near Old Town. It turns out we’re staying in his house. It seems he lives in another part of it and rents a number of rooms out. It was cute, with a main room and kitchen, balcony and 4 ...

... Mostar, when on June 24th 1981 when 6 teenagers, claimed they had seen an miraculous apparition of the Virgin Mary, although the Catholic Church hasn't officially acknowledged the apparition (if you are not religious don't make this a stop on your itinerary when you come to Bosnia, a horrible town, well in our opinion).
After a freezing dip in a local waterfall and a wine tasting, were we got a 1L bottle of wine for only €3 and it tasted bloody good to, we ended ...

... mosque which featured intricate thirteenth centrury paintings and a minaret open for climbing. We felt dizzy after our climb of what seemed like one hundred claustraphobic stairs winding around and around to the top. It was definitely worth it as the view out over the valley and across the town was spectacular. We spent a good deal of time wandering the ancient and winding streets of this City and deeemed it worthy of it's UNESCO Heritage status. The ...

... were old buildings everywhere with a beautiful river that crossed through it. You could tell however that a lot of work was put into restoring the Old Town after the war. The buildings were definitely old but some looked like they were given a facelift recently. I then decided to leave the touristy part and see if there was anything interesting to look out. There definitely was. Walking 10 minutes away from any direction from the touristy Old Town brings you to ...

... to our hostel. Majda's place was in a soviet style block with a few bullet wounds on it, however these were nothing compared to some buildings in the rest of the town. This place suffered bad during the war. Mayda gave us cake and a nice intro to the town, would have been very interesting to go on their tour and learn more of the history etc, but we only made a flying visit. Short walk to old town and the restored bridge (blown ...

... morning, I wander the old town, strolling among the souvenir shops selling the more traditional Turkish coffee sets and images of the bridge beaten into copper, along with pens made from old bullets and old shells with various designs beaten into them. I am sucked in by the postcards, buying ten before the morning is out. Fernando, my first travel companion in nearly two weeks, and I duck into a shop for strong Turkish coffee and tea, escaping the morning's chill ...