NORMAL LIFE: Bosnia & Back To Base (Croatian Summer, Part 4)

Day 8 - Dubrovnik to Zagreb via Bosnia

After breakfast, we bathed in the sun for the last time on this trip before setting off at midday. As we left Dubrovnik, we passed the Bosnian border town of Neum once again before entering Bosnia at Metkovik. As the border check receded into the distance, the landscape changed completely; on a man-made level, abandoned buildings dotted the roadside with old adverts peeling away from billboards. On a nature-level, the route towards Mostar was graced with tree-lined hills to the right while a river gushed by on the left.

As we reached the outskirts of Mostar, a few raindrops hit the windscreen, adding to the mood as we passed yete more abandoned houses with walls that bore bullet holes. We drove through the streets of Mostar, trying to find the famous Old Bridge that Bree had heard about. Originally built in the 16th Century, the Old Bridge of Mostar was reputed to span across the River Neretva, link two sides of Bosnia and Herzegovina's fourth-largest city. In an ethnically divided town, it reached across the river to connect the Croats on the West Bank with the Muslims on the East.

During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995), Croatian secessionist forces turned against Bosnian government forces, and destroyed the bridge on November 9, 1993. It had already been damaged from Serbian bombardment in 1992. Both Serb and Croat nationalists saw the bridge and old historic area around it as part of the Bosniak and Islamic culture, and it was often targeted during their bombardments.

A project was set in motion to rebuild it, and the new bridge opened on July 22, 2004, its reopening ceremonies were based on the idea of reconciling the Bosnian communities, even though bad blood and suspicion remain evident. Now listed as a World Heritage Site, the bridge was rebuilt under the aegis of UNESCO.

It took a while for us to find the bridge, but in the meantime we searched for a restaurant, our tummies rumbling for food! Perhaps not so surprisingly, nowhere would take credit cards for our lunch and, since we didn't have local currency, we figured we would just take a drive round the city, find the bridge and then move on. Suddenly, however, I noticed the sign for the bridge and we took a sudden turn to the left and pulled into what resembled a newly renovated part of town. Ahead lay a cobble street of eateries and tasteful souvenir stores.

A bit further on lay the bridge, spanning across the river in bold defiance. We had arrived just in time to watch a young man dive 20 metres into the no doubt ice cold water of the River Neretva. Well impressive!

Having noticed that all the stores were trading in Euro currency, we stopped for soemthing to eat in a nearby restaurant. Whilst eating, a young girl approached me, her yearning eyes begging for money. For €20, we managed to buy two courses of food, which included beer for Bree, coca cola for me and coffee with our desert of Baklava, a flaky pastry containing honey and nuts. What a bargain!

We continued on our way, a vast mountain range emerging on our left; the land was a surprising mish-mash of forested lowland with rocky, towering cliffs. Directly ahead, we noticed a police car's lights flashing before our eyes focused on the amazing sight before us; as luck would have it, a huge rock had fallen from high overhead and landed on a vehicle.

As we were guided around the car by police officers, we drove through a landscape typical of a peak district, complete with beautiful railways bridges and expanses of rich greenery. Every now and then, a mosque made an appearance, serving as a reminder as to the many muslims who live here. We passed through the small town of Jablanica, passing another mosque and a cemetry full of head stones, each one bearing the sign of Islam, the crescent and the star. As we turned off towards Prozor, a road sign indicated that Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina which underwent the longest seige in modern history during the Bosnian war, was just 80km to the west.

After passing Prozor, we rose high into the mountains and, as we coasted during the downhill sections therefore gathering speed, we were stopped by the police. Apparently, we were doing 72km/hr in a 40km/hr area; the bizarre thing was that the road was steeply downhill (who would brake) and the road was rather straight with no bends. There was a disagreement between the two police officers, but the offer was we would pay €40 if we wanted paperwork or we could pay €20 without the paperwork. In other words, they would let us off with a cheaper fine if we didn't demand do things the official way. What corruption, I thought to myself. Naturally, we opted for the cheaper option and drove away from the scene.

Before long, we entered another village which contained many homes and watch towers splattered with bullet holes. By now, it was 6.30pm and Bosnia had been an insight; the devestation this beautiful country had seen was still apparent some eleven years after the ending of the Bosnian War. It started to rain, the weather reflecting the mood as we discussed what we remembered from the media coverage of the war. The sun struggled to penetrate the thin blanket of cloud overhead. During a downpour, we passed the town of Jajce, set in a valley with mist swirling down the hills above. This fortified town contained many graveyards and also featured a number of buildings bearing bullet holes.

The road to Banja Luka was dotted with towering cliffs on both sides and tunnels running alongside a procession of rivers. Later, we came to a beautiful meander in the river far below us. It was at this point, as we headed towards Banja Luka, that the road signs began to appear in the Cyrillic Alphabet; this made reading the map near impossible so it was important to double check the signs and map for possible similarities just to keep on the right route.

The Cyrillic Alphabet is an alphabet used for several East and South Slavic languages including Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian and Ukrainian. Many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe also use the Cyrillic Alphabet. With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union of January 1, 2007, cyrillic became the third official alphabet of the EU; Latin and Greek were the existing alphabets.

We reached Banja Luka at 8.30pm, amazed by how poor the people looked while a string of brand new mosques graced the surrounded countryside. The second largest city in Bosnia & Herzegovina, the streets seemed well maintained, with trees gracing the roadsides and a series of rapid waterfalls cascading pass the town on our right. As we neared the northern part of town, the road opened up into a dual carriageway littered with flats and buildings of a newness we hadn't seen in what felt like ages.

We sped onwards towards Gradiska which is located on the Bosnian-side of the Bosnia-Croatian border. There, we were greeted by border guards on both sides. However, on the Bosnian side of the border there was a ridiculous queue of trucks and we ended up getting lost when we tried to find a way to push past the queue of trucks. We approached a couple holding hands as they walked along the pavement and we asked if they could tell us how to get back to the border. The young girl, no older than 20, fluently instructed us on how to get back to the border check.

One hundred and forty kilometres along the highway and at 11pm and tired and cranky, we ended up at hotel Central, right outside Zagreb's main railway station opposite Tomislavov Square. We parked our car in a nearby underground parking facility and bought sandwiches from a 24 hour supermarket. Back in our hotel room, we drank Bacardi, ate sandwiches and what was left of the crisps while we watched US National Security adviser, Condaleeza Rice, batting her eyelids at the officials in Lebanon. In bed at 1am.

Day 9 - Zagreb to Helsinki

Our last day. Bree gently woke me up at 9am before proceeding to lick my ears. It made me grin! After breakfast, we returned to the room to wash before going for a walk into the same town we had visited on the first and second day of our trip; we were just passing time really until we needed to be at Zagreb Airport at 1pm.

When we arrived at the airport, we returned the hire car, checked in and then headed to the bar where we stayed until it was time to board our flight to Budapest. We boarded the executive-styled Bonbardier Jet for the short flight. We were served hot sandwiches, a chocolate bar, coffee and juice; once again, the service was amazing given the very short flight time.

We had two hours at Budapest before our connecting flight to Helsinki so, during that time, Bree read his book while I undertook some serious tax-free shopping; I bought booze, some deodorants, a Samsonite Laptop bag and a Universal plug set for my upcomng trip to Chicago (read about that here).

At 7pm, our Malev Boeing 737 flight headed towards the skies. I rested my headed against the window, looking out at the city below; very similar to Zagreb, Budapest's landscape was dotted with blocks of ugly, high-rise flats. But one thing for sure: this part of Europe had proven to be a land of contrasts. The north of Croatia bears no similarity to the Mediterranean of the Dalmatian Coast, which is rich with old world charm and tasteful tourism.

The detour back to Zagreb via Bosnia was an experience and added to my appreciation of what I had seen of the former Yugoslavia. It's shocking to think that not so long ago, this region had been the scene of the Bosnian War, but I felt honoured, as a tourist, to visit a country so close to home where every place seemed to have a story of its own. Like Italy, Croatia is a country of such rich cultura and I'm absolutely sure that tourists will flock in ever-increasing numbers to enjoy what it has to offer.