42:20.35N 17:48.29E

 

Sunday July 30th 2011

 

We have just left Mostar, in BiH, where the Stari Most (Old Bridge) stands, along with many other old bridges spanning the Neretva River.  The Stari Most was rebuilt in 1557 by Suleyman the Magnificent, and stood until November 1993 when it was completely destroyed by Bosnian Croat artillery.  I have to admit I do not remember the original footage of this, but we watched a film of it yesterday and it was shocking to see this lovely ancient structure, reduced to rubble crashing into the river.  Following the war, it was beautifully rebuilt by 2004, apparently using 16th century building methods, and looks fantastic but a bit too new!

 

I was so surprised to see what Mostar is like.  I expected a grey soviet style city and a sombre atmosphere.  Not so!! The Old Town is still pockmarked but all the damaged buildings have been sensitively rebuilt and there is propaganda everywhere about the wanton destruction of an ancient world heritage site by the Croats, as we expected.  The really fantastic thing is all the tourists, you can hardly move around the Old Town.  Our timing was not great, because today is the annual Bridge Diving Competition, which we have missed!  We did, however, watch video footage of a stunningly beautiful dive (by a pro, not sure who he was) at the opening ceremony when the bridge was rebuilt, and last night we watched one guy jump off, presumably practising for today.  But it is a massive and scary looking jump, and the river is only 4m deep, I dont think our UK health and safety rules would allow such a competition!  I guess this weekend is pretty special and explains the massive numbers of tourists, and there was a great holiday atmosphere and shops everywhere selling tat.

 

We stayed in a really cheapo pension attic room that still smelt of new plaster, having been done up by its owner, Alan, a nice guy.  In the yard at the back of his house is a tiny, 200 year old remains of a house that was owned by his great grandmother, which he has started to do up, so I had to attempt a painting of it.  I would have loved to know his background but didn’t like to ask.  He told us Mostar had only a tiny bit of tourism before the war, so this cloud really does have a silver lining.