6 - 9 September 2013
Day 1: Split to Mostar
I'm back in Split now, just off the ferry from Hvar and on the way to the bus station I got a bit distracted; I bought a (super cheap) pack of Uno cards, a little further on a pair of sunnies then I made it a bit further before getting a chevap sandwich. I bought the bus ticket without any hassle and the bus was coming in 45 minutes so I thought "great, not long to wait" but the bus didn't show up. After a bunch of confusing and unhelpful conversations with bus drivers, I headed back to the ticket office and had the ticket exchanged for the next bus (only 30 minutes later) and as a bonus, this bus was about half the price, WINNING! This bus actually showed up and I jumped on with 3 Belgians that I met in all the confusion with the earlier bus. It sucked that the bus ride was at night because the views when we were leaving Croatia and later, when we were entering Mostar would've been awesome.
Where to stay
I didn't have a hostel booked so the plan was to try a few that I had marked on my map but because we arrived fairly late at night, I decided it would be easier to follow the 3 Belgian guys who already had something booked (and knew where it was). They were staying in a pension that was run by an Albanian family who was a little bit weird; the father, who ran the place, had a bit of a creepy vibe about him and one of the young boys was obsessed with my tablet but I guess it's fair enough because I was too and that's why I bought it. Anyway, I ended up staying at this place mainly because it seemed to hard to go find somewhere else and it turned out to be comfortable enough.
Beer
After we'd dumped our bags we headed out to have a look around the town and find a beer. The old town in Mostar is pretty small so we pretty much walked from one side to the other in about 10 minutes and we settled on a bar that was down by the river with a nice view of the bridge. While we were there we watched another table of guys get more and more drunk on Rakia until they thought it was a good idea to go for a swim in the freezing river!
Day 2: Lazy morning
The Belgian guys were moving fast on their holiday so they were off to the next city in the morning. That left me to go find another hostel, which turned out to be really easy because I stumbled across one just down the road right after I'd said goodbye to the Belgians. After I'd dumped my stuff I went for a walk around the town during the day and spent the afternoon relaxing in the room.
Dinner
The hostel had a bit of a kitchen so using my Bear Grylls skills I managed to make something. The dishes didn't seem all that clean but I didn't die so I'm not worried.
New roomies
I had two room mates who rocked up in the evening. They were two Bosian friends who were travelling to raise money for another friend's operation and they were really nice guys. One of them spoke a little English and the other didn't speak any but they insisted that I go out for a drink with them that night. We started at a small pub that had tables out on the main street before heading over to what was possibly the only club in town. This club was interesting because there was a tiny area inside that had the bar but pretty much everyone was outside around the tables listening to a DJ blasting music of all sorts. There wasn't a fence or anything, in fact we were almost standing on the road and had to keep moving to avoid the cars that were driving past. There were also A LOT of hot girls and I have no idea where they came from because you sure don't see them during the day or even get the feeling that anyone with disposable income lives there.
Snoring
It was a good night out but as I found out, one of the Bosnian guys had a tendency to snore when he was drunk. Unfortunately it wasn't light snoring and to have any chance of sleeping I had to chuck earphones in and play music at a decent volume.
Day 3: Nothing
I did nothing noteworthy today unless blogging or watching TV shows is interesting.
Day 4: Off to Dubrovnik
After breakfast I wandered over to the bus station and managed to finally buy a ticket after a bunch of locals pushed in front of me. Then there was a fair bit of waiting because the bus was over an hour late but when you're only paying a couple of dollars for a ticket to another country, you can't really complain.
Thoughts on Mostar
Day 1: Split to Mostar
I'm back in Split now, just off the ferry from Hvar and on the way to the bus station I got a bit distracted; I bought a (super cheap) pack of Uno cards, a little further on a pair of sunnies then I made it a bit further before getting a chevap sandwich. I bought the bus ticket without any hassle and the bus was coming in 45 minutes so I thought "great, not long to wait" but the bus didn't show up. After a bunch of confusing and unhelpful conversations with bus drivers, I headed back to the ticket office and had the ticket exchanged for the next bus (only 30 minutes later) and as a bonus, this bus was about half the price, WINNING! This bus actually showed up and I jumped on with 3 Belgians that I met in all the confusion with the earlier bus. It sucked that the bus ride was at night because the views when we were leaving Croatia and later, when we were entering Mostar would've been awesome.
Where to stay
I didn't have a hostel booked so the plan was to try a few that I had marked on my map but because we arrived fairly late at night, I decided it would be easier to follow the 3 Belgian guys who already had something booked (and knew where it was). They were staying in a pension that was run by an Albanian family who was a little bit weird; the father, who ran the place, had a bit of a creepy vibe about him and one of the young boys was obsessed with my tablet but I guess it's fair enough because I was too and that's why I bought it. Anyway, I ended up staying at this place mainly because it seemed to hard to go find somewhere else and it turned out to be comfortable enough.
Beer
After we'd dumped our bags we headed out to have a look around the town and find a beer. The old town in Mostar is pretty small so we pretty much walked from one side to the other in about 10 minutes and we settled on a bar that was down by the river with a nice view of the bridge. While we were there we watched another table of guys get more and more drunk on Rakia until they thought it was a good idea to go for a swim in the freezing river!
Day 2: Lazy morning
The Belgian guys were moving fast on their holiday so they were off to the next city in the morning. That left me to go find another hostel, which turned out to be really easy because I stumbled across one just down the road right after I'd said goodbye to the Belgians. After I'd dumped my stuff I went for a walk around the town during the day and spent the afternoon relaxing in the room.
Dinner
The hostel had a bit of a kitchen so using my Bear Grylls skills I managed to make something. The dishes didn't seem all that clean but I didn't die so I'm not worried.
New roomies
I had two room mates who rocked up in the evening. They were two Bosian friends who were travelling to raise money for another friend's operation and they were really nice guys. One of them spoke a little English and the other didn't speak any but they insisted that I go out for a drink with them that night. We started at a small pub that had tables out on the main street before heading over to what was possibly the only club in town. This club was interesting because there was a tiny area inside that had the bar but pretty much everyone was outside around the tables listening to a DJ blasting music of all sorts. There wasn't a fence or anything, in fact we were almost standing on the road and had to keep moving to avoid the cars that were driving past. There were also A LOT of hot girls and I have no idea where they came from because you sure don't see them during the day or even get the feeling that anyone with disposable income lives there.
Snoring
It was a good night out but as I found out, one of the Bosnian guys had a tendency to snore when he was drunk. Unfortunately it wasn't light snoring and to have any chance of sleeping I had to chuck earphones in and play music at a decent volume.
Day 3: Nothing
I did nothing noteworthy today unless blogging or watching TV shows is interesting.
Day 4: Off to Dubrovnik
After breakfast I wandered over to the bus station and managed to finally buy a ticket after a bunch of locals pushed in front of me. Then there was a fair bit of waiting because the bus was over an hour late but when you're only paying a couple of dollars for a ticket to another country, you can't really complain.
Thoughts on Mostar
- The city has a bit of a run down feel about it. Some building look fine while others have bullet holes or are completely destroyed from bombs
- The cobblestones in the old town are both harsh and hard to walk on
- The bridge is REALLY high and you'd have to be crazy to jump off it (I didn't see anyone do it while I was there)
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| One of the building with bullet holes |
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| My first view of the bridge |
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| The view of the bridge from the other side where we found the pub |
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| A panorama out over Mostar from the bridge |
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| A run down building with cool looking panels on it. No idea what it was |
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| The university? |
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| My two Bosnian mates |
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| With an 'a' is water, with an 'o' is beer :D |
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