Montenegro and Mostar

On Wednesday, we took an excursion south to the country of Montenegro. As we left the cosmopolitan Dubrovnik behind, we were able to see some of the damage still remaining from the war in the countryside. We saw a few hotels that had been pillaged by the invading armies and left in ruin, as well as a few houses that had been bombed. I even noticed a Russian-made military jeep taken apart in one town.

The border crossing was pretty easy, especially as these two countries were at war only 10 years ago. During the conflict, Montenegro continued to side with Serbia and was still considered in union with Serbia until 2006, when that union dissolved and they became an independent country. I have to saw, based on what we saw in Montenegro, they probably picked the wrong horse to back in that race.

The country is not part of the European Union, but they use the Euro as their currency. If anyone exerts influence in Montenegro today, it is the Russians. I heard several people in our group refer to the underworld of the new Russian empire, but I did not necessarily see that. What I noticed most was how much Montenegro reminded me of being in the Eastern Bloc countries in the mid-1980's. There are old Soviet-style concrete apartment blocks everywhere. There seems to be no organization or planning to any commercial or residential development. Many projects look unfinished. Industry, what little there is, seems pretty non-advanced. There is a lot of general litter everywhere.

That being said, there were some very pretty and interesting sites. And as I found in Odessa and other parts of the Eastern Bloc in the 60's, the people were very friendly.



We made a couple of photo stops along the way to our first big stop in Kotor. We spent a couple of hours in Kotor touring the Old Town, which is not as big as Dubrovnik, but was very scenic and interesting. Our guide for the tour there had a good sense of humor and imparted on us his pride in being from this place. We did not have time to do a hike up the city walls above the town, but they looked pretty cool set against the mist and clouds the weather brought that day. Also, as the old part of town is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, the facades of the city must preserve their original appearance. This can be seen on the family palace in the photo that is now a restaurant inside.


After Kotor, we headed around the bay to Budva, a city that felt more Russian than anything I have seen since the 80's. There are apparently a lot of Russian real estate investors in this area. We saw several resorts under construction. The town didn't seem to offer a lot on the surface, but we found another old town with surrounding walls and walked around a bit. While there does seem to have been a lot of communist influence in the days of Tito and shortly beyond, there is also a strong church presence in many of the towns. I was actually surprised at how many churches stood in these places and seem to be still in use. There was a pretty strong Orthodox and Catholic influence in both places, and the people all seemed to have some sort of membership to the faith. I suppose some of it could be related to the tradition that the financing of defenses of these towns basically came from the church, and that tradition still holds.



We left Budva and headed back to Dubrovnik. We took a ferry across the bay to save on a bit of travel time and had a little adventure while on board. The car parked beside our tour van started up while the ferry was still underway and the driver somehow backed into our van. Our driver and guide conferred with that driver and his passengers for a while, then finally got some of the ferry crew involved. Finally, the captain said something and the driver of the car gave our van driver 5 euros and the incident was over. Nothing like drama on the high seas!

Today we went to Mostar in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The city was the scene of fierce fighting between Serbs on one side and Croatians and Bosnian Muslims on the other. Later, the Bosnian Muslims and Croatians went against each other, resulting in the destruction of the town's most famous landmark, the old bridge commissioned by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent himself. More on that in a minute.


The drive to Mostar was absolutely beautiful. We drove up the Dalmatian coast and then turned inland toward Mostar, following the Neretva River through a lush agricultural valley. The views of the islands along the coast were striking, but the views of snow-capped mountains as we started inland were almost as amazing.


We stopped in one village just inside Bosnia for a quick look around. The village was mostly Muslim, overlooked by an old Ottoman fortress. A mosque (reconstructed since the war) stood about halfway up the hill. I felt a bit like a gawker invading these people's lives, but hoped our presence could also provide a little support for them.



We then traveled on into Mostar. One is struck by the number of buildings around in the countryside and the city that lie in ruins, or are pockmarked with bullet holes, even ten years after the conflict. Mostar saw heavy fighting, and the bridge the town was named after was destroyed, as seen in this picture.


A little history on Mostar and the bridge - the city has been a meeting place for East and West since early in the Ottoman empire. While many ethnic and religious lines were firmly embedded elsewhere in the region, Mostar was a city that truly blended the cultures. Many couples had blended marraiges, the largest export from the region was wine (produced largely by Muslims), and trade went both ways between the Rome and Istanbul through this region. Since there was no river crossing for about 100 miles around, a letter to the Sultan earned a commission for the same architect that designed the Great Blue Mosque to build a bridge over the river in Mostar.


The bridge took ten years to build, and was the largest single arch bridge in the world when completed about 500 years ago. It was a feat of engineering in its day, and stood not only to bridge the land, but to show a unity of the different religions within the community of Mostar.

In 1993, the bridge was destroyed by Croatian forces after having stood for 500 years. No one can say exactly why the Croatians destroyed it, but it served to hasten international efforts to end the conflict. A later Croatian minister promised to help Bosnia Herzegovina built a new bridge that was older an more historic that the one that stood before.

The minister didn't quite get that one right, but the world community did step in to help. A team of international military engineers retrieved the stones from the river bottom and painstakingly reconstructed the bridge as close to original as they could get it. For stones that were too damaged to use or couldn't be found, new stones were quarried from the same quarry as original stones. It took ten years, the same amount of time the original bridge took to build, but it was completed and opened to the public a few years ago with grand spectacle.



The bridge stands today in a partially reconstructed city, still facing the visible scars and invisible pains of the war. So many people here profess to want to move on and for everyone to live in peace, but the tension is still very apparent. Graffiti professing support for one cause or another is everywhere, and even the Cyrillic writing on highway signs (meant for the Serbians) is painted over black in many places.


But many things have returned to normal. A tradition and competition of bridge diving from the old bridge has revived, even becoming part of the Red Bull Extreme Sports lineup. The local diving club has their office in one of the towers beside the bridge.

On a side note, Sidney is certainly doing her part for diplomacy in the area. While we were waiting for our lunch to come out, she charmed a lady on the patio with us into inviting her over to chat. The lady even gave Sidney a taste of her ice cream! Either the people in Mostar are really friendly, or Sidney is a world-class con!

We are going to hike up the hill overlooking Dubrovnik tomorrow, and will hopefully have some wonderful pictures to share. We have been warned to stay on the trail, as though the minefields that were there have been cleared, one can never be 100% certain.