Fall Vacation Pt 4: Day Trip to Kotor & Mostar

  Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Hi everybody!

The long climb up

From Dubrovnik, it is an easy day trip to Kotor, in Montenegro. To get to the walled town of Kotor we drove around the Bay of Kotor, stopping in the town of Perast to enjoy the peacefulness of the Bay. Our impressions of Montenegro, generally, were that it is far poorer than Slovenia or Croatia and not nearly as developed for tourism. The Bay of Kotor is beautiful and the town of Kotor, itself, is a stop on the cruise ship circuit, but otherwise the country felt very rundown. The town of Kotor is a very small walled town filled with cats and, at least by day, tourists. Every street and alley smelled of cat piss. The town wall, however, doesn't just circle the town but climbs up the steep hill behind it. It was quite a strenuous climb, but from the top the views were amazing.

On the drive back from Kotor, we had the most amazing meal we've had in our time in Europe. Outside of the town of Morinj, down a bumpy road, we arrived at Konoba Catovica Mlini. This restaurant, built in and around an old mill, has been in the same family for 200 years. The setting is beautifully peaceful with babbling brooks, bamboo tunnels, pools with ducks, and cozy indoor space in the old mill. We chose to eat outside, even though it was chilly, and were surprised when our shoulders were draped with blankets. The service was impeccable and the food amazing. We had salad, risotto, seafood, Montenegro wine and a caramel custard cake that was one of the most delicious treats we've ever had.

The next day we left Dubrovnik to head back North, toward home. But first we detoured to the town of Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Old Bridge, Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Mostar is famous for its Old Bridge, which was built 1557-1566 and, at the time, was the longest single-span stone arch bridge on the planet. The bridge lasted 400 years - even as Nazi tanks drove over it in WWII - until the early 1990s when it was destroyed in the Serbian-Bosnian-Croatian war. Mostar is a town that is Muslim and Catholic, with Muslims on one side of the river and Catholics on the other. For years, the bridge was a symbol of the ability of these varying religious and ethnic groups to live peacefully together, but this all changed when it was blown up in 1993. The bridge has been painstakingly replicated and the old town area directly around it has been rebuilt, but just one block off the tourist strip the scars of war are still obvious with many destroyed buildings left in ruin.

Some interesting sites in Mostar (aside from the rebuilt bridge) are several mosques which can be entered and a Turkish house. Having never been in a mosque before, it was interesting to see the decoration and to learn about the standard elements in a mosque complex. The Turkish house was interesting in that it was filled with dark wood furnishings and completely covered in rugs.

After Mostar we drove through Bosnia-Herzegovina back toward Split, in Croatia. This interior drive was not as interesting as we had anticipated. Bosnia-Herzegovina is even more poor than Montenegro. Although the drive from Dubrovnik had been interesting for the abundance of tangerine trees and pomegranite trees and other farm goods, there was nothing beautiful or interesting on the interior drive. It was only scruffy and poor. Having said that, however, it always felt safe both here and, the previous day, in Montenegro. In fact, throughout all of our former-Yugoslavia trip we felt more at ease than we have felt in parts of Central Europe, for example.

Never forget

Back in Croatia, we found ourselves driving along what must have been the frontline of the recent war. There were many deserted, bombed out houses. According to our guidebook these were the houses of Serbs who had lived here prior to the war and had never come back. We passed a field with old war machinery (planes and tanks) which was being saved for a Museum of Croatian Independence. The real destruction of this war continues to be evident almost 15 years later.

Late in the evening we arrived at Plitvice Lakes National Park, found a room at a guest house and had yet another pizza dinner at the restaurant across the street. In the next entry we'll share beautiful waterfall pictures from this amazing park.

Stay tuned for more happy travels!
Chris and Melanie



Note: Most of the historical information in this post was taken from Rick Steves' "Croatia and Slovenia 2007"