Mostar and Kotor

Leaving Split, we traveled further south down the Dalmatian coast.

After about 45 minutes, the nice new speedy freeway ended and we were deposited onto some small, slow mountain roads with incredible views into Bosnia, just to the north.

Soon we crossed into Bosnia (actually, Herzegovina) itself, heading directly away from the coast and up the Neretva river. Soon the dry, warm valley around us coalesced into the town of Mostar, the 2nd largest city in the country after Sarajevo, de facto capital of the Herzegovina region, and our destination for that night.

Upon arrival in Mostar, we found our hostel after a bit of trouble navigating the streets (it's very tough to find a detailed map of the city, and the streets themselves are not marked…locals tend to not even know street names, instead going by landmarks). The hostel was really nice, with very friendly people.
Heather on the colorful porch of the hostel

When people think of Bosnia & Hercegovina, they usually think of the brutal war the country endured as it split off from Yugoslavia in 1992-95. It's really hard to wrap one's mind around all the history of the "Yugoslav wars of independence," as they are called, and if you're up for some fascinating reading, I'd recommend the Wikipedia pages on the subject. But for the purposes of this blog, I'll try to describe the basic scenario of the Bosnian conflict. It was a three-way war, the sides corresponding to the three large religious/ethnic groups making up the population of Bosnia: Islamic Bosniaks (who are the largest group, but not a majority), Catholic Croats, and Orthodox Serbs. When Bosnia voted to split off from Yugoslavia (like Slovenia and Croatia had done a few years before), the Serb- and Croat-dominated areas of the country rebelled. Intense fighting ensued, and horrible atrocities were committed especially in the eastern part of the country where pro-Serbs instigated a program of ethnic cleansing mainly against Bosniaks, resulting in mass genocide and other unfathomable acts.
Mostar, being on the western side of the country, was (and is) mostly populated by Bosniaks and Croats. So, the conflict there was only two-sided, but that doesn't mean it avoided the horrors of war. This old, proud city was split in two with the main boulevard as the front line, and ended up devastated. Though the city has undergone a remarkable rebuilding process since 1995, the scars of war still remain. Here's a building on the main street, gutted and pockmarked from bullets and explosives.

Heading into the old town, we stopped to take pictures outside a mosque, and an extremely old lady came up to us. After struggling against the language barrier for several minutes, we realized she was offering to let us into the mosque to climb the minaret (for a small price). We took her up on the offer, and had the charming experience of viewing the city from a small platform perched on a very slender column!

Mostar has certainly retained its glory. It's a beautiful city, of mosques and streams, minarets and waterfalls, stone bridges and waterfront cafes.


At the top of the minaret. Notice the wire—it leads to a loudspeaker that plays the call to prayer from the top of the minaret.

This little bridge, the Crooked Bridge, is actually a smaller replica of Mostar's signature landmark, the Old Bridge, which I'll get to in a couple pictures.

A little water channel seeming to appear out of nowhere.

Here it is: the elegant Stari Most, or Old Bridge, over the Neretva River. In fact, the name Mostar comes from mostari, refering to the "bridge keepers" who defended this bridge. The Stari Most was originally built in 1557 when the area was controlled by the Ottomans, and it stood in its original state for 427 years. It has always captured the identity of the city, signifying the bridging of West and East, and the coming together of Mostar's diverse peoples. In addition, since its construction, it's been a tradition for locals to dive off the bridge 75 ft down into the chilly waters below (a difficult and challenging feat), with crowds of people spectating.
Tragically, the violence that tore the city apart in the early-to-mid-90s symbolically brought down the bridge with it. One day, the bridge was shelled by artillery perched on a nearby hill, and the structure collapsed into the Neretva. What had withstood the weight of even Nazi tanks was brought down when the people it served turned on each other. See 2:40 of this video for actual footage of the bridge collapse.
After the war, as the city recovered, so did the bridge. In the early 00s much effort was put into rebuilding the bridge, using the same technology and techniques as were originally used in the 16th century. (In fact, apparently it took them longer to build the new bridge than it took the Ottomans to build the old one.) In 2004 the restored bridge was inaugurated with fireworks and of course the traditional diving. Here's a more recent video of diving off the new bridge.

A waterfall coming out of a restaurant?

View from the Stari Most

On the bridge


"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -George Santayana

The cross high on the hill overlooking town marks the place where artillery stood while firing down at the town. The city is still religiously heterogeneous, with a big Catholic church and many mosques.

In the center of town lies a cemetery. In 1992 it was a park, and all of the gravestones there have death dates between 92 and 95… since the town was under siege, there was no other place to bury the dead.

The cool BiH (Bosnia in Herzegovina) flag. The triangle has a double meaning: the three points signify the country's three nationalities, and the triangle also mimics the physical shape of the country on a map. (Note that this one is turned on its side.)

More husks of buildings.


That evening, we ate at a wonderful restaurant perched outside above a rushing stream (our table was under the arch at right.)

Mmmm…

Here's an aerial shot of the ruined town during the war.

The next morning, we headed out for a bit more exploration.

Back at the bridge

Looking upriver. The Old Town, with a Turkish-style bazaar, is at right.

Looking downriver

Our hostel was an old building, but since it was a few blocks on the Croatian side, it didn't get destroyed in the fighting—however, you can still see pockmarks on the exterior.

Mostar was a very memorable place, and I'm so glad we were able to visit. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to journey further inland to Sarajevo or beyond, but I'm sure we will be returning to beautiful Bosnia again someday. For this time, it was back to Croatia.

Back at the coast, we headed south towards Dubrovnik. The road passes through a < 10 mile stretch of Bosnia, necessitating an extra couple border crossings (they were pretty easy and fast.) In this picture you can see the sole Bosnian port town, Neum, across the bay.

Soon, we reached Dubrovnik. But it wasn't time to stop here yet! That day, we were headed further down the coast to Montenegro. However, we pulled over to stretch our legs and take a few nice panoramic shots of the "Pearl of the Adriatic."

Much more about Dubrovnik to come!


The Bay of Kotor lies just south of Dubrovnik, across the border in Montenegro, the newest country in the world. (They declared independence from Serbia peacefully in 2006.) The bay is sometimes called "Europe's southernmost fjord," but in fact is a submerged river canyon, lined with towering mountains with picturesque medieval towns nestled between mountains and water. At the heart of the bay lies the imposing town of Kotor, our destination for the night after a drive clockwise around the shores of the bay.

The bay has been populated by various peoples since at least Roman times. The steep mountains and unique shape of the bay have made it extremely defensible, and an outstanding natural harbor: to reach the bay proper, a ship must travel through the narrow Verige Strait, which can easily be defended: the Illyrians laid a ship-catching net across the strait, while the Ottomans later set up cannons facing the strait from the land beyond.
Here we are at the narrowest point of the Verige strait: the little white-and-black light-post is on the other side.

The bay has two islands: this one, St Mary on the Rocks, is man-made. Apparently, someone once found an icon of the Virgin Mary in the water below this point, and they built the island and church there to house the icon.

Viewing the pretty town of Perast, across the bay from the Verige strait. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to stop there when we drove through.

We did, however, stop in the small town of Morinj, where we visited the Konoba Catovica Mlini, a restaurant/haven that has been a local landmark for generations. It was afternoon, so we just ordered some hors d'oeuvres and enjoyed the scenic setting.
The food itself was wonderful…

…as was the view!


They had peacocks. This guy was pretty aggressively courting the (disinterested) female.

Part of the impeccable setting at Konoba Catovica Mlini.


The other island in the bay, Saint George.

As we neared Kotor, the city walls came into view, high above on the mountain slope.

Kotor is a walled city jutting out into the water, almost like a smaller version of Dubrovnik. However, unlike Dubrovnik's city walls, Kotor's walls actually go up the mountain behind the city, with a fortress at the top. (On the other side of these high walls is a pretty steep cliff, presenting an imposing defense to any potential invader.)

The city gate of Old Town Kotor.

Kotor's old town is very small—it takes about 5 minutes to walk from one end to the other. At the back of town lies an inconspicuous walkway, shown here, that leads to a path going up the city walls. For a small fee, anyone can hike up to the top—and as the day was quickly ending, we made this our first priority.

Stone steps led us quickly above the houses.

Hiking up the walls


As we climbed higher, the Old Town spread its triangular shape below us.

K for Kotor

View up the bay

The steep cliffs on the other side of the walls

At the top, we enjoyed the colors of the sky and land in the setting sun.


Walls

Part of the Old Town: in the center is the plaza outside the main Catholic church. (Most of the churches in town are Orthodox.)

Headed down


A boat coming into the bay

Night falling



The walls lit up at night.

That night, we had trouble finding a place to stay in the Old Town. (This, like Plitvice and later Dubrovnik, was one place where we hadn't made a reservation, thinking it would be easy to find a cheap room.) The only housing in town seemed to be a couple of overpriced (for us) hotels. Eventually, we got in the car, headed about a mile out of the Old Town, and quickly found a soba (which we had seen in countless numbers during our drive earlier.)

The next day, we took some time to walk the streets of the Old Town.
Here are two Orthodox churches: one from the late 20th century, the other from the 15th century.

It was also a little tough to find breakfast food in town—but after asking around, we eventually found the sole bakery in the Old Town.

The same 15th century church, with the city walls high in the background.

Enjoying the narrow pedestrian streets of Old Town Kotor

In the Catholic church

The Catholic church has a room containing a true treasure trove of Christian relics: the walls are stocked with chalices, armor, etc. At the center of it all are these chests, which contain the bodily remains (head in one, limbs in another maybe? These Catholics are weird…) of, I believe, the patron saint of the church.

Exterior of the Catholic church

In the main square, the bell tower

Right outside the city walls, we found a bustling weekend market with lots of good-looking produce and meat. Notice the ever-looming walls in the background.

Our stay in Kotor was short, but the town was so small that it seemed like we walked down the same streets upwards of 5 times. That said, all the towns on this bay seemed really nice and it would be easy to spend a relaxing week or more around this pretty bay.

Headed back to Dubrovnik, we continued clockwise around the bay, to take a ferry across the Verige Strait. On the way, Heather did an amazing job navigating some a daunting road: at most 1.5 lanes but with 2-way traffic, and often with no fence or any other buffer between road and water!

On the ferry across the strait


OK, we're nearing the end…next stop, Dubrovnik!