Saturday, August 20- From Dubrovnik to Sarajevo via Mostar

 

We left at 8 AM for the drive to Mostar, continuing to Sarajevo.  One stop we made was near a bridge opened only 10 days before, connecting a section of Croatia that had been cut off from the rest of the republic by an intervening strip of land belonging to Montenegro.  This is a huge benefit to people who had to endure two border crossings to get through the Montenegrin section to see family or transport goods for sale but it was a blow to Montenegro- not just due to loss of trade but because of the clear message the EU sent in funding the bridge.  Montenegro wants to be part of the EU and this was a clear sign it will not happen any time soon.  The bridge would not have been built to bypass onerous border crossings if Montenegro would soon join the EU.

New Bridge in the Distance

We stopped in Mostar for lunch.  Our guide had chosen the restaurant, which she said was decorated pretty much like the inside of her grandmother’s house.  

Detail of design embossed on plaster walls.

Waitresses in traditional dress at the entrance to the restaurant where we had lunch.

We visited the famous bridge, of course, but 400 years after the Ottomans built it, it had been destroyed in the war 30 years ago and since rebuilt. There were a couple of guys up on the top of the bridge who had friends collecting money from the crowd.  When they collected enough, a guy would jump.  The one I saw went feet-first and survived- they seemed to have had a lot of practice.

No, I did not attempt to defray the expenses of my trip by jumping off the bridge. 

We passed through spectacular mountain formations on the way to Sarajevo; pictures wouldn’t do it justice.