Sarajevska Summer: Weekend in Mostar Part II

The walk from where i was staying in the Centar to the Old Town was marked with lots of buildings that had been destroyed in the war, and alot of the area has not been rebuilt yet. The destruction there really contrasted with the beauty of the Stari Most that was rebuilt, and the Old Town which looks like it has mostly recovered from the war damage. Here is some scenery on the walk.

The Old Town in Mostar is similar to the Old Town in Sarajevo; there are cobblestone streets with open craft shops and coffee shops. Also like Sarajevo some of the streets are specific to certain crafts; like there is one street where metalworkers make the Bosnian coffee sets and other metal crafts, a leather street, a jewelry street, etc. But in Mostar there were a lot more painters and photographers selling thier artwork outside as well. Here are some photos of the Old Town.

And some hand-made shoes.

I walked over the bridge several times, the view was so beautiful.

In the evening, I ate dinner right over this little bridge, but it was too dark at the restaurant to take photos. I had another one of those amazing fresh mediterranean fish meals with tons of grilled vegetables and fresh herbs and olive oil. This time i tried some wine from Hercegovina. Wine from Hercegovina is compared to wine from grapes grown in other mediterranean climates and people that come to BiH always wonder why they don't sell the wines internationally. It seems odd, but Bosnians just generally aren't interested in putting thier products on the international market- i've heard some people say Bosnians are bad at business for that reason, but they just don't really export things. It's similar to the response i've gotten when talking to Bosnians about thier food which is all organic- no chemicals, preservatives, etc. My friends here ask (generally with horrified looks on thier faces) why we would want to put chemicals into our food.
I respond, "well i guess to make it last longer..."
"But why would you want to do that when you can just grow things that you need?!"
"Um, so you can sell more and make more money?"
"That is crazy. Who wants to eat chemicals?!"

After dinner I heard a bunch of music coming from the beach, so i walked down through some restaurants and there was this huge beach party on this beach, so i went to it for a while and talked to some people. I went up on the bridge to take a photo, but it was dark and nothing really showed up, so here it is during the day. It was really fun; people of all ages out dancing on the beach, with a dj playing kind of terrible but still fun techno.
After that i was walking back up to the hotel when i heard some really good live music coming from around the corner, so i checked it out and it turned out to be this little outdoor concert venue in one of the coolest spaces i have ever seen. It was called something like "Alternativski Centar" and it's like an arts collective where young artists can come to live and practice- they have a concert space, a dark room, studios etc. It also has a bar/coffee shop and a place to show films. I talked with the guy who does sound for the concerts and got a grand tour of the place- it was so cool. It is in a building that was hit pretty hard by the war. It was repaired enough to be safe, but they chose to create the space in a heavily damaged building in an effort to not forget what happened, but choose to create something positive out of destruction. He is originally from Prishtina, Kosovo, but came to Mostar in 1999. I asked him if he has gone back recently- i was going to ask what he thinks about the current political situation- but he said no, that he had not been back because he has no family left; they were all killed by the NATO bombing that ended the war. He said a lot of people that live at the collective are in a similar situation.

The next day, i walked around some more. This cemetary was by the oldest mosque right outside the old town. The graveyard was relatively new though; all of the gravestones said "1993" which is when Mostar was hit really hard.