Demadino Mostar

... century but was destroyed by the Croats during the war in 1993. After the war, many different worldwde groups donated money to help reconstruct the bridge. In 2004 the bridge, using the same design and materials as the orginal, was reopened. The reopening of the bridge represented a major victory for Bosnian and was greatly celebrated.<br><br>On our way back to the hostel, we stopped by one of the many cemeteries around Mostar. During the war all the normal cemeteries were in ...

My dep*rt*re *fter 3 1/2 d*ys lovely d*ys in D*brovnik (notwithst*nding the t*rz*n incident), w*s *lso * bittersweet reminder of the motorcycle trip th*t didn't h*ppen.<br><br>While D*brovnik might not h*ve the sights *nd m*se*ms to m*tch Florence, Rome, P*ris or M*drid, it w*s by f*r the most ple*s*nt, rel*xing, *nd - cr*ci*lly - *fford*ble leg of my trip. I co*ld e*sily h*ve spent *n extr* 2 weeks in the co*ntry ...

... bodies were dumped.<br>We visited a tiny little village and the city of Mostar, which is famous for it's lovely old stone arch bridge and for being the place where Libyan dictator Moamar Qadafi went to high school. This former melting pot of Serb, Muslim, and Croat is just now starting to become a place for tourists to visit, but it is still in effect a divided city, with ...

After a week of nice sailing around Croatia I had to go back to the cheaper life of a backpacker. Boooooooooo.<br><br>I caught a bus up to Bosnia and ended up in a town called Mostar. It's the second most visited place in Bosnia after Sarajevo.<br><br>It's<br>another beautiful old town that has been restored amazingly well<br>because it was shot to hell and almost completely destroyed during the<br>Bosnia-Serbia-Croatia conflict from 1992 to 95.<br><br>It was one of<br>the cities that was ...

... there owing to the 14 degree temperature coupled with the 10 degree temperature of the water. I took a shallow dip, and then headed straight for the shack bar to get me some plum brandy. Its a place that I'll never forget, and if I have to come back to BiH only for this, its worth every penny I'll spend to get here. After a good hour of frolicking at the lake, we moved on to what could easily be a protected national park but is not classified such for reasons unknown to me ...

... of our time in Mostar (if not our time in Europe) was the hostel's tour, led by the owner's brother.   We piled into his Mercedes van first thing in the morning and he proceeded for the next 12 hours (!!) to entertain, inform and delight us as we toured the city and the surrounding towns and countryside. Very, very interesting to talk with someone who is willing to speak so frankly about his ...

... him that's too bad since I know all the words to '(What's so Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding'. He's not impressed. I tell him I'm also from Elvis Presley's home state. He asks what state that is. I tell him Mississippi. He's still not impressed. "But now I live in California." Now he's impressed. "Oh, California is very nice state. Mostar is like California, always sunny. We have famous song, 'Mostar, California'." It ...

... next to each other. We stopped by for a lunch in a small town on the way. I think we ate enough of food for two days, having a pretty smart conversation with the Frenchies. They are really sweet guys. Both of them have finished studies just recently, one of them is working and living in Budapest, another one in France. They speak English really well and in fact they don`t really make typical French guys. We arrived to Mostar around 3pm and straight away we were hit by the view of ...

... of its crumbly, orange, stone villages with red roofs, because I was on a big highway. The most interesting thing I saw was a guy who had a gas pump near the highway. This forty-year-old had a wimpy torso in a checkered shirt that flapped in the wind, his hands on his hips, a brown moustache with its points flapping in the wind, a wavy wave that parted his receding hairline and flapped in the wind, jeans, and socks in black, leather sandals that fit around his feet ...

... window almost straight up to see snow capped mountains all around. The river, which was more of a stream again, was now running in the opposite direction towards Mostar so I guessed that we had stopped climbing and were now heading down. Passing through towns such as Konjic and Jablanica, I saw a series of dams that had turned a fast flowing mountain river into a series of lakes. This has created a number of lovely lakeside ...