Again we were spoilt by amazing scenery as we headed out of town the other way. Beautiful blue river (coloured from the ice melt) and jagged grey cliffs dropping to the water with pines growing where they could.
At one stage we needed to slow and move to the other side of the road for an accident - unfortunately we were very close in time after the accident and the picture of a motorbike rider lying dead under a blanket will stay with us for the rest of our lives, - his bike some 50 - 100 metres further along the road. Horrific and stomach churning. This road would rival the Gorge road easily for the fun it would be on the bends and the views are fantastic - but the price in lives is no doubt also higher, especially seeing the way that the drivers overtake and remain on the wrong side of the road long past the time that is safe.
We stopped to see the fallen bridge that was a part of the battle of Neretvi and headed onwards towards Mostar.
Mostar was a city with a line throung the centre- Croat and Bosniak during the war in the 1990.s. Some buildings remain unfixed from the massive destruction of this time. One reminder of this was the two houses side by side - both destroyed - one fixed, the other remaining as it was, with nature taking over.
Mostar is famous for the bridge that was originally built by the Ottomans in the 16th century destroyed in 1993 by the Croats in the Croat, Bosniak war, and rebuilt in 2004 in the original way. It is a single span and beautiful bridge. The history is that young men jump from this bridge and this still happens today. They tease the crowd while they wait for the payments to mount and then finally one of them makes a dive. Trevor caught the dive, but I did not , as the person who dived was not one of the young , scantily clad men teasing the crowd, but an older man in a wet suit apparently, and we were eating our lunch at a nearby restaurant with one eye on the bridge and another on the food. I must have been enjoying my local chevapchichi wrapped in pita bread with salad way too much.
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| teasing the crowd |
There were some quite interesting market stalls near the bridge, but we only had a short time, and our priorities were on resting and watching and having something to eat rather than shopping or climbing the local mosque minaret.
By the time we were heading back once again through the stunning scenery we were awake enough to take advantage of a brief scenery stop on the way home, but then pretty much all of us snoozed at least for a while despite the views from the windows. It remains quite hot, and I'm afraid sleep won for me too for some of the trip.
Tonight we had a bit of a cooking class, learning to stuff onions, vine leaves, capsicum and zucchini with a mince and onion mixture and later ate the same food which had been cooked in the Bosnian way.
We took the chance to drink the numerous bottles of wine that we had accumulated between us also. The days are quite long on this tour, with us rarely getting to bed before 11pm, and we have only had one chance to sleep in so far. The next two mornings will also be getting up around 7am, so we are getting pretty weary when you factor in strange beds, the temperature , Trevor's ongoing pain issues (especially in his arms) and our general inability to sleep anyway.
When we get home finally we may just sleep for a week.
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