A lovely time for a peaceful Sunday morning drive through the Bosnian countryside!
First stop was Mostar, a city in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, straddling the Neretva River. It’s known for the iconic Stari Most (Old Bridge), a reconstructed medieval arched bridge.
The nearby alleys are full of shops and market stalls, and the Old Bridge Museum explores the bridge’s long history. A narrow staircase leads up to the Koski Mehmed-Pasha Mosque’s minaret for panoramic city views.
The Siege of Mostar occurred during the Bosnian fight for independence in the early 90s (See more info). You can certainly still see evidence of the fighting on some buildings.
After leaving Mostar, I drove up the mountain on a steep road with many switchback turns. At the top, I reached a plateau to see another wide valley on the other side. Along that route there was also a memorial by the road to commemorate the assassination of Blaž Kraljević, a commander of the HOS, and his eight HOS members.
From web research: In August 1992, the assassination of Blaž Kraljević, a commander of the HOS, and his eight HOS members remains one of the greatest mysteries in recent Croatian history to this day. Their bodies were discovered quite by accident, in a van in Omiš. To this day, it has not been clarified what exactly caused the shooting between two sides that were practically fighting on the same side, in which all the passengers were killed, nor why the bodies were found a hundred kilometers away. The HOS (Hrvatske obrambene snage, Croatian Defence Forces) was a paramilitary wing of the far-right Croatian Party of Rights that fought in the Bosnian War, initially as an ally of the Bosnian Croat (HVO) and Bosniak (ARBiH) forces against the Serb forces. The assassination led to the HOS’s disbandment and the absorption of its remaining assets by the HVO and the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) as the Croat-Bosniak War began to escalate.
I then drove through Medjugorje (MED-joo-GOR-yay), another town in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It’s been an unofficial place of Catholic pilgrimage since the Virgin Mary allegedly appeared on Apparition Hill in 1981. There is a “Queen of Peace” statue marking the site of the 1st apparition and one in front of the St. James Church (below). Liquid has been said to drip from the “Risen Christ” statue near the church. A concrete cross also tops Cross Mountain, to the south. (More Info: https://www.catholicjourneys.com/the-spiritual-significance-of-medjugorje/)
The town was chock full of tourists and pilgrims since it was Sunday morning. But more than a hundred shops lined the streets near the holy sites hawking every type of religious memorabilia or other more secular souvenirs.
I also found a bakery to get a pastry and some bread. Delish!
It was storming when I arrived a couple hours later in Split, Croatia, with a very strong winds and a heavy downpour. I dropped my bag at my room for the night, then hit the neighborhood grocery for dinner items and snacks, and hunkered down to wait out the worst of the rain.
Speaking of my room… Tonight’s room was very small, but the attached bathroom was miniature! Seriously, I had to scrunch my shoulders in to stand at, or sit on, the toilet. I prayed I didn’t get stuck 😁 — that would have been an embarrassing predicament! Still, the room was clean, the grocery store was close, parking was only two blocks away, and I had a place to be out of the pouring rain. So dinner ended up as a repeat of a few days ago – breads, butter, jam, cheese, salami, prosciutto, etc. Can’t go wrong with that!
After the worst of the rain passed, I walked down to the Old City area and the waterfront. A beautiful, clean area with many shops and restaurants, and a lot of people, considering it was a dreary, rainy day.
Diocletian’s Palace is a monumental palace complex in Split, Croatia, built for Roman Emperor Diocletian in the early 4th century AD as his retirement residence and now forms the historic center of the city. The UNESCO World Heritage site is a “living museum” where ancient Roman architecture blends with a vibrant modern city, featuring shops, cafes, and apartments within its walls.
Before you go…
“The only normal people you know are the ones you don’t know very well.” — Anonymous
A Captain’s Adventures 