Thursday, 15 April.
Right after breakfast we started back northwest along the coast road . Soon
after Neum, where a finger of Bosnia-Herzegovina reaches to the Adriatic, we
turned right into the mountains,
to the Neretva River and its valley. Initially
the valley was very
wide, but it narrowed gradually as we drove into the mountains and entered
Herzegovina. We could already see
that this area was quite different from the coast. For one thing, there was
fertile soil and large scale agriculture in the valley. The Neretva River was a light, almost
milky, green color. We later learned that all the rivers in the area were that
color. We reached Mostar without incident, but there were no signs to help us find the old part of the city. We got an unexpected assist from several laborers riding in the back of a truck ahead of us. They kept motioning us to follow them, even indicating when the truck was about to turn. Finally, as they continued straight ahead, they motioned us toward a little side street. We parked there and found the Old Bridge (Stari Most), our main goal, just a couple blocks down.
We were surprised at the surface of the bridge. It sloped
sharply up to a peak in the center, then just as sharply down the other side.
Beside that, it was made of marble, worn very smooth and slippery over the
centuries. If it hadn't been for the ridges every couple of feet, it would have
been impossible to walk across it.
After we got across the bridge, I wanted to get some good pictures of the bridge from below so, while the others shopped and looked for a bathroom, I looked for a way to get down to the river. When I found one, I walked along the bank away from the bridge until I had some great shots. In the process, I came across an old Muslim cemetery. Most of the tombstones were topped with stone turbans.
All together again, we looked for mosques we could go into, mostly out of curiosity. We especially wanted to see a very old one like the Karadjoz Beg (1554). We found it and also a couple other mosques, but none were open to the public, so we gave up on that. We found an outdoor market and, soon after, a store where we bought food and beverages for our lunch. We drove a short way out of town and parked along the river bank to eat. Then we continued on toward Sarajevo.
The scenery was beautiful, especially around Lake Jablonica, a man-made lake surrounded by mountains. There were many olive and almond groves and the trees were all in bloom. We also began to pass Muslims walking along the road in their distinctive costumes.
The road was generally pretty good, but there were some bad stretches as we continued into the mountains. Crossing the ill-defined border between Herzegovina and Bosnia, we approached Sarajevo. Sarajevo is situated in the valley of the Miljacka River, surrounded by the Dinaric Alps. Although there were earlier settlements, the modern city began around 1461 when the first Ottoman governor of Bosnia (with the unlikely Slavic name of Isa-Bey Isakovic, or "Son of Isaac") built a palace (saraj) in the valley (ovasi). This gave rise to the name Saraj-ovasi, which eventually morphed into Sarajevo. The Ottomans ruled the area for four and a half centuries (1429-1878) before the Austria-Hungarian Empire captured Bosnia and eventually (1908) annexed it. World War I started here with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria in 1914. After that War, Bosnia was included in the newly created country of Yugoslavia. Since the end of World War II, which included four years of German occupation, Marshal Tito has ruled Yugoslavia. Although Communist, the country is not dominated by the Soviet Union, and Tito has shown a great deal of independence. As we neared Sarajevo, the traffic grew very heavy. We finally
found our way to the old central city and parked in the vicinity of where we
thought the National Hotel was. Dennis, Kevin and I got out to find the
hotel on foot. We walked about a block along the Miljacka River to where the
hotel seemed to be on our map, but there was no sign of it. As we stood there
looking at the guidebook, some teenage boys pounded on a window behind us. When
we turned, they motioned us to go around the next corner, and there was the
entrance to the National Hotel. The boys in the window must have been psychic
because we'd given them no indication of what we were looking for. They were students at the hotel, which is the national training
school for "catering." That apparently included both waiters and kitchen
employees. I had selected this hotel because of its low prices, as well as
its location. It's room prices were half those of any comparable hotels. (Each
double room with bath cost us only $5.00 a night, a real bargain in a big city.) The hotel was ideally located
in the heart of the city, next door to the Imperial Mosque and across the river
from the Bazaar. To our surprise, no one at the hotel desk spoke English or even
Italian, so we had to deal with them in our limited German. By the time we
checked in, it was 16:00. We were excited about being in Sarajevo and decided to
take a quick look around. Larry chose not to come with us. We looked at the exterior of the Imperial Mosque. It wasn't open to the public, so we continued on to the magnificent Gazi Husrev-Beg Mosque (1531; rebuilt 1886), considered the most important Islamic building in Bosnia. It had a beautiful courtyard with a lovely, large fountain.
We didn't realize we could enter the mosque until a caretaker offered to sell us tickets. (The tickets were also picture postcards of the interior of the mosque.) A German-speaking guide took us in with a few other people. It was really impressive, much different than any of us had seen before. The floor was covered with dozens of priceless carpets and prayer rugs, gifts from many Arab leaders, including both Nasser and Sadat. There was only one Muslim man there, praying and giving us tourists very hostile looks. [More pictures of Gazi Husrev-Beg Mosque on next page] After leaving the mosque, we roamed around the center of town
and finally into the Bazaar (16th century). They were selling everything from oranges to
carpets. It looked fascinating, but by this time the sun has gone down. The
Bazaar was not enclosed and we were all freezing. We hurried back to the hotel. We ate in the hotel dining room and were delighted to find the
prices very low. We ordered more than we normally would eat, and it was all
very good. The service was excellent, too. Our adult waiter must have been an
instructor, rather than a student, and he spoke a few words of English. There was a small
problem, though, when Larry ordered cold milk. The waiter insisted there was no
cold milk and brought him warm milk. Before Larry could touch it, the waiter
returned and said there was cold milk after all. He took away the warm milk and
set down a cup of very thick-looking milk. It turned out to be yogurt. Randall
gladly had that and Larry went thirsty. Back in our room, we could faintly hear what sounded like the trainee waiters having a free-for-all in their dormitory across the hall. It didn't keep us awake but made us wonder what kind of life these boys had. |
