Brrrr. 0600hrs and the temperature is -3 degrees C. But we will be a lot warmer by the end of the day as we journey south over a series of passes and across a number of lowland plains as we work back to the Adriatic coast. We said good bye to Sarajevo as we rolled out at 0800hrs. As our sojourn took us south and west, we could not escape the damage that was done during the 4 year assault on Bosnia and Herzegovina. We were treated to a stop at the UNESCO world heritage community of Mostar. Mostar is significant study in as it has elements of the Ottoman empire, Austro-Hungarian empire, Turkish, Mediterranean as well as western European architecture (read more: Read more here). The 1990’s assault took its toll on Mostar as well. A significant portion of the Old Town and the very historic Old Bridge had been destroyed.
Mostar Old Bridge
Thanks to major international undertaking, the community has been restored to its historical grandeur. For decades young local men have jumped off the highest point of the bridge into the river below as a right of passage into manhood. Thanks to international efforts in the resotration of the bridge, this long standing tradition is again alive and well. AS a matter of fact, Red Bull became aware of this ‘sport’ and has now included it as part of their extreme sports competitions.
The only way out got really busy.
After the primary walking tour we had the opportunity for some descressionary exploring. Several of our group joined Marion and myself at a local restaurant in the Old Town for a chance to try a local delicacy call Civapicici (pronounced cheh-vaup-eh-chi-chi), (read more: Read more here). The problem that we had with this dish, is that like many of the other dishes we have tried on this trip, it was fantastic. In addition to the great meal, the locals were a constant source of amusement.
Dinaric Alps
That leads me into the next part. We have written a lot about the damage we saw, the human toll, the losses but what we have not touched on is the incredible human spirit that we encountered everywhere we went. The humour exuded by the locals frequently caught us off guard. There self reliance and ability to just pick themselves up and rebuild their lives and their homes and their communities makes everyone of them a hero. We are leaving Bosnia and Herzegovina with nothing but the highest regard and admiration for the internal fortitude that almost seems to be genetically wired into the people of this area regardless of ethnicity, religious or cultural background.
The Mostar Valley
By the time we bade Mostar farewell the temperature had climbed to the upper 20’s. The terrain became rapidly more rugged as we wound or way through the Dinaric Alps and the temperature continued to climb to the low 30’s. We had to do several border crossings before we were welcomed into Croatia. These were really interesting. I think that we crossed 3 borders. At 2 of them they just kind of waved at us. The last one required that all of us had in our passports that were handed back to us less than 15 minutes later and we were on our way again. As we continues our decent to the coast the temperature dropped to the mid 20’s. A short distance from Dubrovnik, we drove across a bridge that we recognized. We had watched its construction on a “Mega-projects” show on Netflix.
Dubrovnik Mega Project Bridge
We thought that we had seen some pretty fantastic scenes during this trip, but we were in no way prepared for how stunningly beautiful the Dubrovnik area is.
Nearing Dubrovnik
1700hrs and we are checked into the Hotel Argentina which has the feel that it was designed in the same period as the Banff Springs and feels like it was designed by the same people.
That’s ‘snuff’ for now.
Sarajevo to Debrovnik