Mostar, Bosnia Herzegovina

They warned me that things are different in Bosnia, that is, different to Croatia. I wondered what they meant. But on the bus trip from Dubrovnik to Mostar I soon learnt! Our bus journey was not so bad, we had stopped once to tighten the bolts on the wheels so they did not fall off, but apart from that it was hassle-free. Then we crossed the border into Bosnia – and that in itself took time because we had to pass through at least four checkpoints and at each one our driver would get out and have a cigarette with the guards.

Then once safely inside the Bosnian border our bus driver put the pedal to the metal and started driving about 20kms faster. We noticed immediately that all the drivers in Bosnia were crazy! Regardless of the oncoming traffic buses would pull into the other lane to overtake cars, and then trucks would overtake the buses.

After a couple of minutes we got used to the crazy driving and went back to resting and looking out the windows. We drove through beautiful countryside. Incredible. It was so green and lush. There were hardly any dwellings or anything, just miles and miles of fields and greenery.

I arrived in Mostar with another kiwi lady who had been staying in the same hostel as me in Dubrovnik. We were met at the bus terminal by a man from the hostel I had booked (I wasn't able to find a couch surfer). We walked the five minutes to the hostel and up the stairs to the dorm room. It was a great place, very clean and comfortable. We didn't even go out that evening, just stayed in the hostel and caught up on emails and travel plans.

Mostar is a very small town straddling a river. Over the river is a fairytale stone bridge. It is so picture perfect. The next morning we headed out to explore the town and see the bridge. You can't miss it, everything revolves around the bridge! It was a gorgeous little town. We walked all over the place, down the main lane parallel to the river that leads to the bridge. Many little cafes and souvenir stalls and a small busy market lined the lanes. It was not like the Old Towns of Croatia which I complained about – this village was full of life! You could see that the locals were frequenting the streets as much as the tourists were. I loved it. We stopped at a small bakery and I tried some Bosnian food. It was great!

It was a very small town, in just a couple of short hours we had explored every inch of the place, and had lunch too. We went back to the hostel and I made more travel plans before I said farewell to the other New Zealand traveller and I headed off alone to the train station on my way to Sarajevo. At the train station I met my Sarajevo angel – a local guy who helped me with my bags and saved me a seat on the train. I was so grateful to him because he told me a lot about Bosnia and about Sarajevo. I asked him where he was going in Sarajevo, and it turned out that he had to go to the same place as me – which required a tram. We took the tram together and he showed me exactly where to get off. I said goodbye to him and met my couch surfer who was waiting for me at the stop.