Day 3 : Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

From Mostar, we took the 7.55am train (the other train is at 6.30-ish pm) to Sarajevo. The train is relatively comfortable and clean (cannot expect it to be as good as the London-Birmingham Virgin Trains or London-Paris Eurostar). 

The 2.5 hours train journey itself is to enjoy. But don't expect too much from it. A friend said that you should not sleep and enjoy the scenery but from my experience, you can't sleep because being an old train going trough tens of tunnel, it's not a quiet ride.

Arriving in Sarajevo, we were lost when trying to find our hostel. The description was to find a hospital but in sarajevo, there were 2 hospitals and was pointed by locals towards the wrong one.

Note : never be too confident. Ask the tourist center for a map and directions

We had to take the taxi from the wrong hospital. Since they do not have a meter, we were charged 5km (or €2.50). If it's the official rate, we say thanks to the taxi driver but if not, we are still glad to pay the price.

The accommodation details is

Property Name: Hostel Ami

Address: Gorusa 2a, Sarajevo, 71000, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Website:http://www.hostelbookers.com/hostels/bosnia-herzegovina/sarajevo/76996/

There's not much to do here. We wanted to visit the Tunnel of Hope but we can't find any public transport to ho there. The only option is to join a €20 tour. Again, we decided not to join and just visit the old town where several other attraction is located (we are not cheap but on a budget).

We had a Bosnian lunch. It's different that what we are used to.

It might not be as interesting as Mostar but maybe that's just me since I rarely enjoy a city/capital (except for Rome, the best city i've visited so far). 

I don't have any video to recap our visit to Sarajevo, sorry guys. Day 4 is going to be a long day. Hopefully it's going to be worth it for Day 5~

Day 2 : Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

From Dubrovnik, the was no direct train service to Mostar. So we had to buy a bus ticket ( run by Eurolines, so it's clean and comfortable) for roughly 110,30kn.

The bus departs at 8 am and it was a 4 hours journey, crossing 3 times the Croatia-Bosnia Herzegovina borders ( atleast they only check the passport not our luggage, it would be a hastle to do it 3 times). In the travel forum, it was suggested that we seat on the driver side so that we can see the great scenary. Only after a while I remembered that we were seating on the wrong side of the bussince  we are in Europe~

Around 12pm we arrived in Mostar. It was nice that the bus station and the train station is next to each other. If you did not book any accomodation, it won't be hard to find a place to stay as the locals would wait at the bus station with signs "Room €10". They would also help with direction to your hostel without having to ask. We went to check the train to Sarajevo for the next day ( there's only twice daily train for Mostar-Sarajevo : 7.55am & 6.30-ish pm).

Our hostel is only 5 minutes from the stations and rougly 10 minutes walk to the old town where the old bridge is located:

Property Name: Hostel Miran

Address: Lazetica 13, Mostar, 88000, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Website:http://www.hostelbookers.com/hostels/bosnia-herzegovina/mostar/16560/

The owner is friendly. He also run a tour for €20 pp if any of the guest is interested. 

Our arrival was welcomed by the calling for prayer from the nearby mosques. Our 1st stop was the Koski Mehmes-Pasha's Mosque. We planned to follow the Jemaah prayer there but only to find out that the mosque has been turn into a museum. They only perform the Friday prayer there. But Muslims are allowed to pray the ( we performed our jama' there after the having a chat with the caretaker).

Note : entry is 4,00mark or €2 pp. There's also a donation bucket inside the mosque if you want to donate toward the restoration and maintanance of the mosque.

He told us his experiences during the war time. He said that about 10% of the Muslim population was lost due to the war. The city was severly destroyed during the war. Some of the building has not been rebuilt while some is still full of bullet holes. I can't really re-tell the story but if you visit the mosque, have a chat with Anil

The old bridge is just a few minutes away

There's a memorial museum next to it that showed how the bridge was destroyed by rockets.

If you are in luck, you can watch the local collecting money and in return, they'll jump off the old bridge.

In just a few hour we covered the main attractions (if you went for the 3 hour tour from out hostel owner, he'll bring you to the bunker and other war memorial).

We even tried the Bosnian's meat pie

It tasted like the traditional Malaysian currypuff (karipap) without the 'curry'.

The city has become on of the main tourist spot in Europe but Mostar rely heavily on tourism. To my friends, if you have the chance, visit here, we can help boost their economy. The city is still recovering from the aftermath of the Yugoslavian's war.

Note : A short trip or transit to Mostar would be enough. Is you arrived here at noon from Dubrovnik, you can catch the 6.30-ish pm train to Sarajevo.

This video recap our 2nd day in Mostar

http://youtu.be/X_IOANkWzCE