“The more I see, the less I know.”I think this line really rings true the longer our travels extend, especially with BiH. Growing up, I’ve always thought Bosnia sounded like one of the most exotic places in the world…somewhere so far away and that I’d like to see someday.
Fastforwarding to the present. We’ve just survived the pounding thunderstorm with lightning filling the sky, three border control crossings for a small 12 mile strip of land which intersects Croatia along the Adriatic Sea. We’re winding through the mountains in the valleys of massive vineyards and other agricultural fields, and then we enter a small town called Mostar.We left the bus station with our packs on our backs and walked toward our apartment. I remember thinking it was so starkly different from seaside Croatia just flooded with tourists and any amenity you could want at your fingertips. This…this was different. This had a story behind it that was almost palpable in the air.
As we unpacked, we heard the call to prayer from a mosque just behind our apartment. This was completely new to us, and we thought it was very interesting. We would later come to learn this happened five times a day, with different prayers for each call, varying in length. Also, Fridays are considered to be a special day of prayer and a special teaching or sermon is taught in lieu of the typical noon daily prayer. The city was dotted with beautiful minarets reaching into the sky from which the prayers were called.
We wanted to get a brief look at the town after unpacking so we went down to the famous Mostar bridge which connects the two parts of the city. The original bridge was built in the 16th century during the Ottoman period. It was destroyed in 1993 during the Yugoslav Wars and rebuilt to completion in the early 2000’s. This bridge is no joke. It has embedded planks to help you get over to the other side, and it’s all made of smooth limestone. This was especially interesting after it had been raining all day. Haha.
Alas, we survived and made it to the “Old Town” on the other side. Here we experienced traditional BiH food. We had cevapi (looks like sausage links on pita), at Tima-Irma. Two sisters own and operate this business, and they run like crazy. The food was really tasty. Just for the record, to anyone who knows me as a vegetarian, I have decided while on this trip, I want to experience traditional foods as people would typically eat them. There will be meat pics! Haha
The next day we decided to take a bus to a smaller village called Blagaj. Here we visited a monastery complex referred to as the Tekija which dates back to at least the early 17th century. It was built into the side of a large cliff face, along the side of the Buna River. This was a dervish house used for worship and also contained a domed mosque.
We then continued up the road through some older pomegranate orchards to a very well maintained hiking path up to the Blagaj Fortress “Hum”. This fortress is said to have been originally built before the 10th century. This was such a cool find as Morgan and I got to explore all on our own.
Followed this up with some coffee and some serious porch sitting waiting on our return bus.
Later that night, I really wanted to go see some live music at the Black Dog Pub in town. We went with the complete and honest intention of going for one hour and one beer. After all, we had a 6:00 am train to catch. Long story made short, we had some really cool people come sit with us, and we ended up shutting the place down at 3:00 am. The 5:30 a.m. shuffle in the dark still intoxicated on the way to the train station hurt a little bit (you know it’s bad when they’re already doing the early morning prayer call), but it was worth it. Haha. Great conversation, and we loved getting to meet them.
Goodbye, Mostar, and we hope to meet again.
Morgan and Jaime's Wanderings 