Bosnia & Herzegovina travel and Mostar's Stari Most

Phillip and I are now in Bosnia & Herzegovina. We are traveling by bus because we've gotten to the part of the Balkans without train service. Our bus rides from Split to Mostar and from Mostar to Sarajevo were both about 3-1/2 hours, the perfect length for us. And the scenery on both of those trips was great.

Scenery on the trip from Split, Croatia, to Mostar

On Saturday, we had the choice of catching an early direct bus or leave at 10 am from Split and make a transfer in a Croatian town called Ploce. We chose later and had an hour layover. We stayed at the bus station and were the only people there except for a ticket agent. 

The Ploce bus station.... a very quiet location!

Our Ploce to Mostar bus crossed the Croatian/Bosnian border, our first foray on this adventure outside the Schengen Zone. The Zone consists of 29 European countries who agree to have no border control among themselves, so no passport checks or even stops at the countries' borders with each other. The bus stopped at the Croatian customs kiosk and all passengers got off the bus and presented their passports to the officer. She just looked at our passport picture and stamped the passport. Back on the bus for less than 1/4 mile and then we stopped at the Bosnia & Herzegovina immigration area. The bus driver collected our passports, the border officer looked them, and the bus driver returned them to us. No pictures of the process as it's prohibited to take photos there. 

Our two nights in Mostar were enough to see the town's damage from the Bosnian War (1992-95, ethnic conflict that rose to the level of war when Yugoslavia dissolved, 100,000 people killed) and Mostar's UNESCO World Heritage site: the Old Bridge.

Bullet holes and mortar damage on every street

Some damaged buildings are still vacant 30 years later

Numerous streams feed the main river in town, the Neretva River. 

On our way to see the Old Bridge, we came across the Crooked Bridge. It didn't look crooked to us, but it was built as a test bridge on a side channel in the 1500s, before the bridge builders invested in the Old Bridge construction. This area was part of the Ottoman Empire, and the Old Bridge had been commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent. Construction workers did not want to disappoint the sultan. 

The Crooked Bridge, a mini-version of the Old Bridge

We arrived to visit the Old Bridge at about the same time several hundred other people arrived. 

Two men are on the outside of the rail. Local young men will collect money from the tourists to dive off the bridge into the river below. We didn't see either of these guys jump off the bridge, but we did hear the crowd cheer while we were walking on a nearby street, so at least one of them did jump.

The river just west of the bridge

The Old Bridge from about a block away

As we were leaving Mostar on Monday, we passed acres and acres of vineyards. 

Bosnian vineyards

What we enjoyed tremendously on the Mostar to Sarajevo bus were the views of the river and the rock walls of the gorge the road went through.