Mostar, Bosnia

Day Six, 2.20.2009 We caught the 6 am train to Mostar, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful train rides in the area. Unfortunately, I drifted in and out of sleep for the duration of the 2.5 hr trip. (see picture). I did manage to wake up long enough to see the most dramatic scenery, lakes and mountains that rival the Swiss Alps in size and magnificence. The train was old and a gift from Sweden. Throughout the Balkans, trains and busses have been donated by wealthier countries around the world. The train stopped at every little village, and locals used it as regional transportation. They also smoked a lot on the train, which was pretty unpleasant, but by this point I was completely used to it (not to mention too tired to really care). We met Majda, the woman who owned the hostel we were staying at, at the train station, as well as an English guy named Pete. Pete had just moved into a hostel in Sarajevo for a couple months. He makes a living correcting English travel and business literature printed in Europe to make it sound less foreign and more proper. This allows him to work on the move and live and travel whenever he wants. Majda was extremely friendly and made us all hot drinks when arrived. Although no food was included in the 10 Euro price, throughout our stay she made us little meals and breakfast. We set out to explore the city. The old town is charming, with a famous bridge over the river. However, this town was the site of extremely heavy fighting and makes Sarajevo look very intact. There has been no money to really repair buildings, so many are left destroyed and abandoned. Lunch was more Burek, but this was some of the best food I have ever tasted and incredibly inexpensive. I won’t bother trying to explain how good and flaky and warm it was. We got coffee and made our way back to the hostel for a nap and dinner. We went to an Irish pub for a beer with Pete and a girl who was staying there. (I am now convinced that every Irish pub I go to was opened by Desmond!). The girl was from Holland and was conducting research for her anthropology thesis in a little town outside of Mostar. The town was tiny, she said, but drew tens of thousands of pilgrims annually. Her thesis was about pilgrimages and she explained some of it to us. The pub itself was weird. It had some of the standard features of n Irish pub, like signs all over for Guinness and an extensive beer menu, but they didn’t actually serve Guinness, nor most of the beers on the list. The also had signs for Corona and Heineken, but in an Irish theme. They didn’t quite get it right. Went back to the hostel for the evening.