Mostar Off The Beaten Path

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One hour drive from Mostar: Kravice waterfall. No entry. Mainly local people go there, only a few tourist. Enjoy the great view, nice sound and smooth, warm water! You can climb on the rocks, just be careful some of them are slippery due to humidity. Take natural shower and use the natural jacuzzi, too!

The text on the side of the hill on the outskirts of the town used to say "Tito volimute" but has been changed into "BiH volimute", "We love Bosnia and Hertzegovina". The figure below the two words represents the Old Bridge, after which the town is named .

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A Dervish Monastery creviced into a mountain where the river Bruna flows out of a cliff. Built in the 15th century, this monastery was home to Dervish monks. There are lots of old scriptures inside and is adorned with beautiful Islamic art. A very nice and quiet place to visit. Be sure to visit the nearby Muslim cementary on the way with new and old graves and surprisingly lots of turtles wandering around.

On my way from the appartment to downtown Mostar, I came upon this part of the old bridge, laying on the grass. The bridge was restored a couple of years ago, to the same look it used to have.

(I will come back with the excact location, I dont have the Mostar map with me today.)

In the street where we stayed, in the croatian part of Mostar, there is a muslim graveyard. They all died in 1992, and not many of them were old. The youngest one I saw was five years old, many of them were in their twenties and thirties ...

During the civil war Mostar was occupied.
Many houses were disturbed and many peoples died.

Mostar is still a ethnic mixed city.
Nothing has changed except the country which it belongs to.

The people live friendly together again.

For most of them it is very strange how the hard war could take place in Mostar.

Most of the houses and monuments are rebuilt now.

But some remain as a monument to remember how bad war is.

Mostar is a growing city.

So take the chance to see this traces. In few years there will stand new houses on the places.

You can find those houes if you go over the river from the railway station.
The houses stand parallel to the river.

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20 km near Mostar there is one of the biggest Karst Sources in Europe.
If you want to drink some clear water you should bring your bottles with.

It is a very nice place.
There are also some restaurants with view to the source.

There are no frequent busses to Blagoj perhabs it's best to take a taxi.

Just some 10 km from Mostar to the south you have to see the source of the river Buna. Powerful stream of deeply green, cold and absolutely clean water (drinking it from the silver orientaly carved cup is an experience for itself!) is coming out of the cave at the bottom of monumental natural cliff. Extraordinary beautiful corner of natural beauty is enriched with history and spirituality: few centuries old Tekija - a monastery of Muslim spiritual Dervish order - is nested just beneath the cliff and above the river. There are no dervishes there any more, but you can feel the atmosphere of heavenly peace with the sound of the river in which they have been discussing the life, heaven, earth and universe during the past centuries. After touring the interior, you must sit outside and order coffee - made and served in traditional Bosnian (Turkish) way including special dishes (dzezva and fildjan) with complementary piece of rachatlokum (one of the sweetest things and finest sweets on Earth). And don't forget to enjoy it in Bosnian way: sloooooooowly. Take your time, sip by sip, listen to the river... Old water mill and some nice restaurants are just few steps away, serving delicious trout just taken frome the water. After that, you should follow the road alond the river and after some 8 km you will rich Buna, where the Buna river is embraced by Neretva. From Buna everybody will show you the way to another wonderful spot - the source of Bunuica, another short river streaming to Neretva.