A day trip from Mostar

 We rented a car for one day while staying in Mostar and did a little road trip to explore some nearby sights. 

Pocitelj

Pocitelj is about 30 min south of Mostar by car. It's a very small, old town built into the side of the valley wall. It's beautiful! We might have driven by and not really noticed it from the highway, but we were glad we stopped and walked around. It was a short but steep climb up to the fortress, and it looks like some of the sights are being restored. Check out the stone slab roofs of the homes!

Kravice Waterfalls

About 30 min futher driving West from Pocitelj, we parked at the lot for Kravica Waterfalls and had our packed lunch. There was only one other car in the huge lot that obviously gets packed with tour buses in the summer. It's very popular for tourists to visit and swim here in the summer. We paid our entrance fee and walked down to the falls. Since it had been raining very hard recently, the water levels were very high and some paths weren't accessible. 

"Connecting seraparted" is what the sign says

The white, green and blue long distance hiking trails in the Western Balkans

The stairs lead into the water

After the waterfalls, we drove about 10 min to a fortress on the hill above the valley. The fortress is called the "Fortress of Herzog Stjepan Vukcic Kosaca" and seems to have had some recent restoration work.

A 15 min drive away from the fortress took us to a took called Medugorje, which was dominated by the Church of St. James. It's common for pilgrims to come to the nearby Apparition Hill, where Mary apparently has apparently been seen in visions. 

Statue depicting the Rise of Jesus nearby the church

Next we drove back toward Mostar, stopping at the town of Blagaj to see the Dervish House at the mouth of the Buna river. The source of the river is underground, so it appears out of a cave in the cliff walls. We really enjoyed watching the river flow here.

We thought it was pretty funny that 'sleeping is not allowed'

This was a great day overall and we really enjoyed the sights. It was awesome to do it without more than a handful of other tourists, even if we didn't get to enjoy swimming at the falls. Plus, the rental car for the day only cost us about 35 euro!

Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

 Here are some photo highlights of our time in Mostar. 

Mostar is a beautiful town in a river valley with hills all around. The river, the hills, the old town - all of it is beautiful and this town is a very popular tourist destination in the summer. Many, many folks stop here on bus trips between Dubrovnik and Sarajevo. 

We found the people we interacted with to be very kind and welcoming. But the community is still healing from the Bosnian war 1992-1995. We learned some tragic history of this war and that history is visible everywhere in town. We could feel that someone's ethnic background is a huge part of who they are and not only affected their past, but still affects their daily life and situation today, 30 years later.

Bosnian money: 100 BAM is about 50 euro

Jason running in the hills above the city

The mighty Neretva river and its beautiful colour

shelling still visible everywhere from the civil war 1992-1995

the 'crooked bridge'

The water flows through town in amazing ways

This bazaar of the old town must be packed in the summer

The old bridge

In 1993 the old bridge was destroyed in war

The bridge has been rebuilt with aid from UNESCO 

The church right behind our apartment

I joined Jason on one of his many running loops in the hills

Our host made us this amazing layered apple cake - yum!

Eating salmon, veggies and a salad in our kitchen

The old bridge

Hiking up to the cross

Having a quick snack, trying to find a place out of the wind

Yellow tape warning of us land mines

The cross - it was VERY VERY windy

The view back to town from just below the cross

It doesn't look like much, but Ava's eye had a close run in with a thorn bush when we ran down the trail

Rachel joined Jason for one of his loops above town

The sniper tower, now a place for creative expression

The bullet holes are incoporated into the artwork

This country is still healing

We tried a few delicious bakery treats

I tried some 'Bosnian coffee' 

Did someone say crepes?

Jason did a lot of hill training while we were here. It was mostly sunny but every day was very windy.

Jason and I went into the museum of war and genocide victims. It was very moving and difficult.

Waiting at the bus stop to head to Sarajevo.

We also did a beautiful road trip while we were here, which will be the topic of another blog post.