Weekend in Mostar Part I

I spent the weekend in Mostar, which i think might actually be the most beautiful city i have ever seen. It's about a 3 hour busride southwest of Sarajevo, and is in the Hercegovina part of BiH. It is also on the Neretva River, and has more of a Mediterranean climate than nothern Bosnia. It was one of the hardest-hit cities in the war and alot of it has not recovered as well as other parts of BiH. It is similar to Sarajevo in that it has a city centar that is characterized by Austro-Hungarian architecture, and an "old town" with Ottoman architecture, where people still sell their crafts in open shops where you can watch them create.

"Stari Most," or "old bridge" is a famous monument that was destroyed in the war, and rebuilt to precisely resemble the original one. It's kind of considered a "crossroads" between the mostly Bosnian Muslim eastern side of the river, and the mostly Bosnian Croat (most of whom are Catholics) western side, although alot of inhabitants consider that to just be symbolic as people have lived, as in other places in BiH, integrated lives for hundreds of years. Here are several photos of Stari Most, which apparently is one of the biggest tourist attractions in all of BiH. In these photos i had just crossed the bridge from the west to the east side and was standing in the old town beside the river.







































































The Bridge is also famous because every summer they hold diving contests. I saw some of the divers practicing- yikes! The brigde is very high and the current in that area of the Neretva is very strong and fast.

Several mosques in Mostar are open to tourists, so i went inside this one and took photos.










This is the mosque.

















The sebijl (fountain) in the mosque courtyard.










The front of the mosque where people pray five times a day.

















Underneath the dome outside at the front entrance.










Below are some photos of the inside of the mosque.










































































This is the entrance to the stairwell up the minaret.


















The winding stairwell was very narrow and there were 90 steps up...









Here are some photos i took from the top of the minaret of Stari Most