The next morning,
I woke up at nine o’clock and I had slept so well! Got ready and left
downstairs with no plans what to do. I had thought maybe to go see the
waterfalls or go to Sarajevo. At the reception the same nice woman was there,
and she told me about this trip to the waterfalls and other places too. It cost
me 30€ and left in 40 minutes after I booked it. :D So it started at 10 am to
18.00. I ran to the old town to quickly catch something to eat and then back to
the reception to wait for my ride to arrive.
It was a
normal car with a couple from Australia and a Polish girl and the driver who was our tour guide. First stop was at this hill overlooking down at the Mostar.
They had also a zip line thing there that was brand new. It was quite rough to
hear this guys stories about Bosnia, Mostar and the war -93. Since that the
city has been divided totally in half. (I arrived to the East terminal for example.)
The small city has two football clubs, two universities etc. It’s divided into
Bosnian-Croats, Bosnians and Bosnian-Serbs if I understood correctly. He told
us stories a little over an hour so I can’t remember everything. They have
different school for kids that are from different “groups”.. It used to be so
that all the religions etc. were just divided and it was common that different
religions could also marry. Like our tour guide’s dad was Muslim and mom
catholic. Nowadays in there it’s a big no no. Our tour guide told us different
stories about the war and how his dad had been saved from the sniper’s bullet.
The sniper was up on the hill and his dad had gone to the river to get water
and had taken his shoes off. The bullet made a scratch to his head.. So being
1cm higher (with shoes on) he would have died.. Our tour guide told us that he
was 5 year’s old at the time and can’t remember everything but he can still
“hear” the bombs and bullet sounds etc..
- 45
% unemployment rate
- Average
salary 350€/ month
- "Tito had had the biggest funeral ever held. 700 000
people attending including presidents from different countries etc. He had died
before the war and some have said that with him there never would have been a
war since he was so good with people."
The next
stop was the top secret during 20 years of Yugoslavian time. It was next to the
airport and had been build if the airport would have been attacked so the military
planes could have been moved to this secret location. It was invisible from the
air and from the ground. It was this massive tunnel build underground that had
sleeping areas, showers, storage rooms etc. We only had one flash light and it
was sooooo creepy!!!
Our next
stop was this village which had one of the oldest houses still standing in
Bosnia. This one house was built 1520 and it was open to visit except for one room which
had the coffins of the couple who had lived there. It would have cost 2,5€ to
get in. There was this 7 km river starting from there and the water came from
inside the mountain. There has been divers going inside the mountain trying to
figure out the source of the water but it remains a mystery and hasn’t been
figured out. The water coming right out from the mountain is drinkable and the
story tells that people who drink the water will return to Bosnia.. I wandered
around the small village and went to sit down at this restaurant to catch a
bite. Then we continued our way to Pocitelj Castle.
Hiking up
towards the old castle it was so hot! When I started descending from there I
stopped to buy pomegranate juice from this lady and she asked me a favor. She
wanted me to sit there for a while when she ran home to get some more juice.
She had earrings, wallets and bracelet there on this small table that she was
trying to sell. So there I sat and tried to sell stuff when people passed me
there. She was gone maybe for 10 minutes and as a thank you she let me choose
one item from here table. I chose this black bracelet thing. She also said that
she had worked there for three years and I was the first Finnish person she
saw. After this it was time to continue our drive towards the Kravice
waterfalls.
It cost us
8 mk to get in and we spent there two hours. The sun went behind the clouds (of
course) and the water was freezing. I tried to go to swim but I couldn’t..
Quite impressive looking waterfalls they were. Sat there at the restaurant
eating small meat platter (wasn’t too small..) and drinking beer. The drive
back to Mostar took around 45 minutes. Great day and well worth the money!!
When I
arrived to the hostel I asked about buses to Dubrovnik and Sarajevo. To
Sarajevo they recommended a train leaving around 6.30 and taking 2,5 hours. It
would have been to totally opposite direction, so I decided to skip that an
continue straight to Dubrovnik. Since I didn’t have any pics of the bridge in
day light and left to wander to Old Town to get one (or couple..). I felt so
tired and exhausted that after an hour or so I walked back to the hostel to
chill. I deleted some photos, called mom and read about Dubrovnik.
