Mostar

The hostel I stayed at in Mostar was part of the "Balkan Backpackers", but after the awesome Franz Ferdinand with free eggs for breakfast I kind of had to get disappointed. So when I arrived, I already didn't feel like staying. Still I put my name on the list for a tour organized by the hostel, which is even recommended specifically in Lonely Planet.

Then I went to see the famous bridge of Mostar, which survived hundreds of years and two world wars, only to be destroyed in the 90s (it was rebuilt in the 00s). I wish I could tell you that it was breathtaking, but I wasn't really impressed. 

I went for a "cay", which turned out to be green nestea, and a tomato soup that probably came out of a can and was put in a microwave, waiting if I would see someone jump from the bridge. I didn't. I though of running away without paying because on top of all the service was terrible as well, but suddenly the grumpy waiter appeared again.

Oh, I also went for a short dip into the river that flows beneath the bridge. The more I think about how much trash I saw floating around in it, the more reasonable it seems to me that I might have gotten my stomach poisoned from the water that touched mouth. I mean, it wasn't super dirty like the Ganges, but it surely wasn't clean either :D (FYI, people swim in it all the time, it's not that I was the only one. But still..)

I left the old city again to join the free walking tour another girl had told me about. It was the worst tour I ever did, I'm not kidding. The guy talked while we were walking, so one could hardly understand him, and spent minutes on talking about how people used to live during Ottoman times, failing to explain how and when Ottomans even go here. I don't want to exaggerate, but I felt like he filtered out all the important information and left us with the little anecdotes that you tell in the end. The only interesting thing that happened was one of the guys jumping off the bridge. But I guess you can better watch that on YouTube...

Super frustrated I went back to the hostel and are something. In the meantime it got dark and I got tired, but I had to give this city one last try, so I went again.

The bridge was a bit more charming at nighttime, but I still don't understand how it could make it on the cover of Lonely Planet for Eastern Europe. Maybe it's the history then, of which I don't know anything, because the tour was so shitty :D

My evening still found a good end when I came across the small bridge that served as a model for the famous one, and a bar that had an excellent love band playing.

Nevertheless I felt like I had seen enough of this city, crossed my name off the tour list again, and headed to Žabljak, Montenegro, the next day.