The Balkans: Part II: Mostar and Croatia

NB: Please feel free to ask me questions about my trip, the meetings, etc!

I realized that I forgot to talk about Mostar, the unofficial capital of Herzegovina, although I did put up a picture of the river there. We left after my sunrise run and arrived in Mostar around 10am to take a tour around the city.

The Croat side

Inside the mosque

The fountain outside of the mosque to wash your feet and hands

The bridge in the second picture was built by the Ottomans in the 16th century and is considered to be one of Bosnia and Herzegovina's most notable landmarks. Fun fact about that bridge: people jump off of it for money. You can see the man standing on the side of the bridge: he was walking up and down it collecting money for his colleague, who jumped off a few minutes later. The water is so cold that they have to wear wet suits so that they don't have a heart attack upon hitting the water.

Being in Mostar was a really nice part of the trip because we finally got to hear about the Croat role in the war. Up until Mostar, most of the conflict we'd been hearing and talking about was the relations between Bosniaks and Serbs. In 1992, the Bosniaks and Croats teamed up to kick the Serbs out of Mostar, but in 1993 they turned against each other. Last year Mostar was the only city in BiH that did not have local elections. Today, Mostar is approximately 60% Bosniaks and 40% Croats, but the city is divided into two halves - recognizable by the churches and mosques.

The Croats created Herzegobosnia, a community similar to the Republika Srpska for the Serbs. There is a fear that if Republika Srpska gains independence from BiH, Herzegobosnia will want to do the same, and that these communities will set a precedent of freedom/independence based from war and genocide. However, the man we talked to hopes that once BiH is integrated into the European Union, there will be a more united feeling of being European and the different ethnic groups will begin to see themselves as part of the same people. Other people we talked to did not share that same view, but one can hope!

We left Mostar on Saturday afternoon and drove to Dubrovnik, Croatia - right on the coast and our hotel was a 5 minute walk from the beach! That weekend was like a mini-spring break for us, since we didn't have any more meetings until Monday morning.

We went swimming on Saturday evening and hung out in our hotel and at the beach that night. Sunday morning we took a tour around the Old City (just like we had a ton of meetings, we had a LOT of city tours!)

After the city walk, we had free time! Free time was seriously minimal for the whole two weeks, so we capitalized when we could. In this case, we took a booze cruise. It shouldn't come as a surprise, seeing as it was a trip of twenty-four 19-22 year old college students. We were responsible, though, so never fear! Seven of us are certified lifeguards, and I have my CPR resuscitator mask always in my backpack, just in case. But we didn't run into any issues and we had a lot of fun! The boat took us to a partially underwater cave, which was super cool, and then on to the only sand beach there (the rest have rocks instead).

I think I was born to be a sailor - I hung out over the water for the whole trip

On Monday morning we met with the former mayor of Dubrovnik. He showed us a lot of pictures from Dubrovnik before and after the war, which were just mind-boggling. Besides the physical damage, the war destroyed Dubrovnik's economy; the hotels were filled with refugees, and their main income is tourism, but no one comes during a war. Croatia is today (literally TODAY - July 1st!) the newest member of the EU! However, there are some anti-EU sentiments in Croatia, mostly because of frustrations at how slow the process was and skepticism of the EU economy. The hope is that the other Balkan countries will follow in Croatia's footsteps relatively soon. Croatia was probably quicker to attain membership because of its long standing connections with the West through tourism. Congrats Croatia!!