Contrasts

Trip Start Nov 15, 2005

248

Trip End Aug 15, 2008

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Flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Thursday, July 6, 2006

Mostar is a fascinating place, not least of all for the bridge that everyone comes here to see. The front line of the war ran through the town, one half Serbian and the other Muslim and the damage is still very visible, especially along the main road into town. This doesn't give a favourable first impression of the town, given I had been told what a beautiful place it was, and how superbly it had been restored. All I could see as the bus was driving through town was the empty shells of houses and shops that had once lined the road. Ten years on, and still they hadn't been repaired. I was beginning to doubt my sources.

Walking ten minutes from the bus station, my faith was restored. There is little left of the medieval city (if there was even much to start with), but what is there is as stunning as I had been told. Stretching for not more than a few hundred meters either side of the bridge, the cobblestoned streets have a very different feel to towns of a similar age in Croatia. The Turkish influence is quite obvious, with mosques as common as churches and coffee shops lining Kujundziluk, the main street of attractive tile-rooved shops selling a disappointing amount of mass-produced junk.

The main attraction of the town is the recently rebuilt "old" bridge, destroyed during the war and painstakingly restored and reopened in 2004. This graceful arch makes a visit here worthwhile in itself. No matter how good the picture, it can't do justice to the site of the bridge stretching across the emerald waters of the Neretva river, and to see it lit up at night is the only reason you need to spend the night in town.