Touring Mostar and its ancient Old Bridge (Stari Grad)

Bismillah,

I tell you what on the first day of 2011, the seven of us woke up while most of the citizen were still in bed because last night was new year's eve and probably most of them stayed up late celebrating.

Early riser huh? Hehe

We planned to stomp to the southern part of Bosnia:

MOSTAR

Why did we go there?  Because everyone kept suggesting us to go there and visit the Old Bridge. 

 

Bought the ticket for the first bus in the morning. The ticket price is 17KM (RM34) for single trip per person. At the bus station, we asked a man which bus heading to Mostar. And he pointed a bus just behind him and straight away made his way to the bus. So we followed him but when he opened the door bus, suddenly he turned to us with his confused look. After like 10 seconds, then only we realized that he is the bus driver! We were supposed to use ANOTHER entrance for passengers to get into the bus! LOL! Forgive us, Mr Bus Driver! =) Terlebih excited pulak kami ni!  We left the station at 9.55am.

It took us 2 ½ hours to reach there. If you take the train, it would take you like 4 hours.

For the first time in 2011, I did not fall asleep riding with the bus! Hehe. Maybe it’s because I wanted to see everything on the road. I didn’t want to miss a thing. If I fall asleep, I won’t be seeing this…

Until now, this picture still looks unreal to me. Seriously.

The river is greeeen! MasyaALLAH!

Went through so many tunnels since it very hilly here

Mountainous view..My dad is going to love this cause he likes mountains..=)

We arrived there around 12.30noon. We walked from the Mostar bus station to the Old Bridge which is like 15 mins. On our way there, we found this Muslim cemetery. It is clean and beautiful.

I observed that most of them died in 1993, which is during the war. It is said that this cemetery used to be a park. But during the war, particularly in 1993, lots of people got killed and they were running out of land to bury those bodies since the Bosniaks (Muslim Bosnian) were under siege from every side. In the end, they used this park and buried those dead bodies. Most of them are young people who died.

Since our stomachs had making lots of noises, we decided to fill up our empty stomachs at a restaurant near the Old Bridge.

Done eating, we quickly made our move to the bridge. Wohooa! MasyaAllah! :D

This stunning bridge was built during the Ottoman Empire by a Turkish architect, Mimar Hayruddin. It took 9 years to build and is completed in 1566. It is classic example of stone arch bridge and was an example of advanced technology at that time. How to build arch stone bridge?

“The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire swore to execute Mimar Hayruddin if the bridge collapsed after the wooden supports were removed. It is said that Hayruddin started to dig his own grave on the day the supports were removed. However, the bridge stood for 429 years, a testament to its excellent design and construction.” –quoted fromTechonology Student Webpage

Mostar was named after the old bridge (Stari most) and the towers on its sides, “the bridge keepers”. Those bridge keepers are called Mostari. Unfortunately, it was bombarded and destroyed by the Croats during the war.

Watch this powerful clip above. Though it’s quite long but well worth watching as it shows the footage of the moment this bridge was destroyed

After the dark war years ended, they began to reconstruct the bridge. It took longer time to rebuild it than to build it at the first place. The fund for reconstruction came from the World Bank and under the patronage of Prince Charles of Wales.

Now, this bridge has become one of the UNESCO World Heritage List. =)

We spent a night in there and stayed in Demadino Motel, rented an apartment for 5 people with 3 bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen and living room. It costs us 160KM per night.

]The next day, we wandered around the old town, walked over the bridge, and buy some souvenirs.

We managed to buy metal handicraft which is cheaper than the one I saw in Bašcaršija. We could get like half price after extensive bargaining. For example they sell 25 Euro for a 40 Euro exactly the same item in Bašcaršija. Maybe because this store is quiet hidden and not many tourist could see it. Okay, Mom! Your souvenir is done! Hehe



With the owner of the shop =)



After that, we walked to the bus station and bought the ticket. This time we got discount and student price of 11KM. We were still wondering why we did not get student price for our first trip to Mostar yesterday. We left Mostar around 4pm when the dark started to replace day light.

I think I want to come here again. InsyaAllah. Maybe in spring. The astounding green Neretva river and historic bridge hooked me now. Mostar, will I ever come back?