The Azure Dalmatian Coast
V: Bosnia-Herzegovina
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On a Slow Boat on the Adriatic
(1) Neum
We had been in Bosnia-Herzegovina earlier, because the road between Split and Dubrovnik passes through a section of Bosnia-Herzegovina at Neum. True, this section is just a few kms wide, but you still have to pass through immigration control twice; once as you enter the country and the second time, a few minutes later, as you depart the country and enter Croatia again. But customs and immigration were quite streamlined and delay was minimal.
There is a store in Neum, which does a roaring business in wine, tobacco, etc., because their prices are lower than in the surrounding Croatia. And to make it easy, they will take Bosnia Markas, Kunas, or Euros. Bosnia’s official currency is the Convertible Marka (BAM) which, at the present, (June 2014) is around US$0.69/convertible marka. This is of course a sore point with the merchants in surrounding Croatia.
left: A gorgeous view of the Dalmatian Coast from that sliver of Bosnia-Herzegovina, in the city of Neum
(2) Mostar
(a) The Bridge
But we did make a detour to visit Mostar and its famous bridge, the Stari Most (Old Bridge) over the Neretva River, considered to be one of the most classical example of the Islamic culture in the Balkans. The original 16th-century Ottoman bridge was commissioned in 1557 by Suleiman the Magnificent and by Mimar Hayruddin, a student and apprentice of the famous Mimar Sinan When the bridge was completed, it was the widest man-made arch in the world and obviously a major architectural feat. The story goes that the architect prepared for his death, when the final supports of the bridge were being removed at completion. Pasha Suleiman the Magnificent does not accept failure of his orders. But the bridge stood there, strong and firm.
right: side view of the Old Bridge.
After standing there for 427 years, this bridge was destroyed on November 9, 1993 by Croat artillery during the Bosnian War. The structure still needed some 600 direct artillery hits, before collapsing into the river below.
Minar Sinan is probably the world’s greatest architect. He was the chief architect and civil engineer for three sultans, Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim II, and Murad II. He was only 15 when he designed his first building and he became 99 years old, building some 365 buildings, bridges and other structures in his career. His students would later design the Sultan Ahmet Mosque and help design the Taj Mahal in Agra, India.
At the end of the war, funds were collected from many sources and the bridge was rebuilt, using the same technology and materials as close as possible to the original. Divers recovered stones from the original bridge and incorporated them in the new structure. The bridge is hump-backed, 4 meters wide, and 30 meters long and stands 24 meters above the river. The rebuilt bridge was opened on July 2004.
left: Entrance to the bridge. There are steps to go over the hump and down. It was raining a lot when we were there, portending the heavy rains and the floods a month later.
In Mostar, Muslims and Christians used to coexist peacefully and share their cultural heritage. Even now you will see many minarets and churches close to each other all over town. The reconstruction of the bridge was an important symbol of reconciliation and rebuilding of the peaceful coexistence of these two cultural groups.
(b) Visiting Mostar
We had picked up a car from Fleet Rentals at Dubrovnik airport, an Opel Astra station wagon. The weather was miserable, with lots of low-hanging clouds threatening to dump lots of water everywhere we could see. Our original plans were to drive past Trebinje and Ljubinje to get to Mostar, but we decided that in bad weather it is probably safer to stay on the E 73, the large road through Metkovič.
As it was, this bad weather was a harbinger of bad things to come. A few weeks after we were there, there was severe flooding, the worst in more than 100 years in the country. There was continuous rain for three days, dumping an estimated three-months’ amount of water in this short period. Some 40,000 people had to be evacuated. This is very bad for the country, because Bosnia is a poor country, where the average net wage was quoted as being only €420/month.
Hotel Pellegrino was very easy to get to because as soon as we entered Mostar, there were signs we could follow and we ended up in a parking lot, where Azer from the hotel materialized and said he was expecting us. So he showed us several rooms to choose from –we seem to be the only guests at that time- and we took room 201, a huge 40’ x 16’ space one flight of stairs up from the ground floor, and he then helpfully lugged our suitcases up into the room.
It was still raining and we slogged through inclement weather to the Sadvran restaurant, just over the Stari Most, and well recommended by our host.
We told them they were recommended by our hotel, hotel Pellegrino. It may have helped because, as soon as we were seated, the waiter immediately served us with little cups of their strong and fragrant local liqueur. The menu showed a lot of grilled items and the dishes looked good, albeit not as refined as you would see in more developed countries. The food was good, the platters were huge, and the servers were helpful and friendly.
right: This was the special mini we ordered. A huge amount of food for €10
There is always a sense of adventure and some misgivings as you peruse a menu for the first time in a foreign country. But they had a menu in different languages, including English. We ordered their special mini platter for two, priced at €10, and didn’t expect much for that price. But it was a large combination plate and it would have been sufficient for the 4 of us. In addition, we also had a Moroccan Tajin dish and also some grilled fish, capped off with their very good tasting local beer. The meal ended with complimentary dessert and another complimentary round of their local plum brandy.
But what was surprising was how small the bill was. Mostar, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, uses the Marka as their local currency, shown as BAM. One BAM is about US$0.70. But they happily accept Croatian Kunas or Euros from tourists, often using an exchange rate heavily skewed in their favor. Some places only accepted Markas, such as the local drug store and the local supermarket.
But in this restaurant, we opted to pay cash in Kunas, and when I took out my calculator, I found out they had honestly converted the bill using the official exchange rate. And there was no sales tax and/or service charge either. For the four of us, the bill was around € 30.
The next day we walked around the old town. There was really not much to see except the Bridge. Now we understand why many tourists just take a day trip to visit Mostar when they are in Dubrovnik. There were still damaged buildings bearing pockmarks from the recent sectarian war.
Lunch was in a friendly-looking small restaurant with a small outdoor overhang just at the entrance to the Stari Most. We ordered something, which looked like a falafel, but with two rather tasteless sausages inside them reminiscent of a Denny sausage, but worse. And since we were obviously foreigners, and we asked for the bill in Kunas, he probably overcharged us. It was about US$15, because he just wrote a number on a piece of paper and showed it to us.
left: The main street leading to the Old Bridge. Picture taken from the restaurant mentioned above.
That evening we decided to eat at the M5, a restaurant just of the main drag. We were the only guests and the waiter/owner didn’t speak English. But he spoke some German, so we got along well enough to be able to exchange some salacious jokes. We ordered a bottle of the local white wine, for which he charged us US$30. It tasted watery, and I am sure he had added a substantial amount of water to the already opened bottle. At the end he tried to shortchange me, which was easy to do, because there were so many different currencies, and when I pointed this out to him, he suddenly did not understand German at all.
Breakfast at the Hotel Pellegrino was bountiful, and the lady on duty carried our luggage from one floor up to the street, one floor down. When we settled our bill, they were actually nice enough to change the excess Markas we had into the more liquid Euros.
Our destination for the day was Skradin. So we took the road through Metkovič again and back on the A1.
9:17 PM
