Around Mostar

I have just arrived in Sarajevo and this computer is weird and I donćt know how to connect my camera or use the Bosnian-Croatian keyboard. Its using an different system called Ubuntu and its just too complicated for me.
Im just gonna nick photos off the Internet but I am annoyed that I cant post my own pictures
This morning I was out by 7am to walk around in bearable heat.  I met the tour guide for the day for a coffee at 8 and he said that Mostar and Athens are the two hottest places in Europe. He told me that in Bosnia the language is the same but who you identify as indictates what you are speaking!   He said as a good guess use beer as a guide...if you get Ožujsko you are in Croat area, if you get Sarajevsko you are in Bosniak territory and if you get beer with an antler on it you are in a Serb dominated area!!   EASY

The money here has three different pictures for each note.  Related to the three groups above.  The government has 3 different leaders who dont agree and dont speak or even govern from the same buildings. Old parliament buildings are empty as the three different groups cant agree how to work together at all.  Schools, hospitals and even water and electric companies are split into serving different groups.  Unbelievable...but true.

My guide today was born in 1976 and he was snipered by a Bosnian Croat who he knows still lives on the Catholic side of town. It seems like the Bosnian Croats are the fundamentalists.  They have even built a n enormous cross on the hill to remind the Bosniaks of where they attacked them from. Even Croatia is telling them to calm down and just get on with life ina mixed community.

Anyway, today I went to one of the holiest sites for dervishes from Turkey called Blagaj Tekija or the Dervish house.  Once a year Dervishes from Konya Turkey come here.  It was stunning .

Yes, pictures are from the Internet.  Im using ones similar to mine. Inside was beautiful.


Then to Medugorje a massive holy site for Catholics...full of Pilgrims and a Jesus who bleeds and automated confession boxes where you put a sign up for what language you want to confess in.

Pilgrims collect the Jesus liquid on paper tissues and take them home for sick relatives.  I think this hope  and belief was really important for Catholics who were traumatised  after the war because this site only became famous in the last 15 years.  War and communism kept it small before plus the vision of Mary only happened in1981.


Then to the most amazing waterfalls  where we swam and got totally refreshed.  Everyone was about 20 years younger than me...Aussies, Canadians and Americans on their Uni breaks..no Brits in evidence here.  We all got on well because they were really interested in the tour ( but they mountain goated around the water falls and dived in and I just swam!)

Then to Pocitelj.  For me another  highlight because this is THE far end reach of the Ottoman and Islamic influence in Europe.  The Bosnian Croats completely cleansed this village about 18 years ago...they wanted to wipe it out completely from the map and the majority of the Muslims are either dead or living in the States...about 20 percent have returned. The EU paid for the rebuilding and it is now a protected site and highly regarded by artists...it was stunningly beautiful.  THis is European heritage and history at its most intense and I found it really amazing that I was finally standing at the far ends of two empires...the Austro Hungarian and Ottoman.

The village from afar.  This river is where the Ottoman expansion into Europe stopped and was almost totally wiped out in the 90s.

Then I caught the train to Sarajevo...my God what an experience.  The train was Swedish from the 60s I think.  Really old with carriages and corridors and conductors with trays of drinks. As atmospheric as an Indian train!!  The windows didnćt open and there was no air conditioning...the Finnish woman in our carriage was 5 months pregnant.  She was with her German partner and there was a guy from the States.  The pregnant Finnish woman  was great and seemed OK about it.  I handed out my postcards and we used them as fans.  The two  local young guys kept saying THIS IS BOSNIA!! WELCOME. They were 17 year old heavy metal fans.   It was like being in a Swedish sauna. Stunningly beautiful outside but honestly not for the faint hearted.  But we had fun, drank lots of juice and ate  sweets.  and the guys told us how to buy train and tram tickets. We found out that from the 1st July Bosnians can no longer go to Croatia without a passport and not many have one.  They are very depressed about this because the beautiful Adriatic , which they love, is almost all in Croatia.
The journey was  over 3 hours long through stunning scenery and cost 5 euros...the price of a pint of beer!!
I then got a taxi and had to speak German to him.  He was crap and I was crapper but we had a conversation. He asked me out for a coffee tomorrow but in my shite German I politely refused...although speaking German to him was pretty surreal and amusing. Pulling taxi drivers is not much better than pulling a peacock!

Sarajevo awaits me tomorrow.  I cant wait...very excited!! So tired now.  Night.  PS Hotel here is lovely too.