Thursday, October 4th.
We drove back to the Mostar Bridge area and had a wonderful two hour walking tour of the area. It sprinkled a bit, but was mostly a beautiful, warm sunny day. Our guide, Jasmina, was the best yet. She was seven when the Bosnian War started and her family were lucky enough to escape to Norway, where they lived for eleven years before coming back to Bosnia to claim their house. It took years in court to actually get it back. Many refugees from the war never returned, including many of her family and friends and are now scattered around the world.
She took us to a traditional Ottoman house, dating back to the 16th/17th centuries. It is one of only three such houses left in Mostar and the family who own it have set it up as a museum. It was quite beautiful and unique with its Turkish flavour and furnishings.
With our free time, we visited the Wartime and Genocide Museum, which outlines the history of the war and the atrocities committed when the Croates attacked the Bosnians. The pictures and videos were horrendous and reminded me of other human atrocities committed during the Holocaust and in Rwanda to name but two.
Until June 25th, 1991 the former Yugoslavia was known as the Social Federal Republic Of Yugoslavia ( SFRY) and was composed of the 6 republics of: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. It all changed when the dictator Tito died and other men scrambled to take control. It resulted in an ugly war between Serbians and Croatians in which the Bosniacs were caught in the middle. The UN, much like in Rwanda, were powerless observers who couldn’t be seen to take sides. It wasn’t until the western world media
became aware of the horrors being committed that the UN finally did intervene and end the conflict. According to Jamina, thirty years on, all is well with the people and religious leaders of the countries but the politicians are still talking about issues between the countries.
We had some lunch and gelato and headed back to the bus and recrossed the border back into Croatia. We stopped at a very pretty little town called Ston. It has obviously been rebuilt and has become a touristy little town with lots of restaurants and cafes. The town is protected by a wall built up and over the hills behind it and a medieval castle or fort. Both have been rebuilt and were here to protect the first industry in the area which was harvesting salt. We climbed part of the wall to get the beautiful view over the town and then went to the rebuilt fortress which was impressive from the outside but had nothing inside.
Then we went to see the salt pans. It is late in the season, which is April to October, and the pools are all full of water, so we watched a video of the process. A large area of shallow sea water is separated into five pools, each is used for a different part of the salt process. The salt is produced by the evaporation of the seawater, which then leaves the salt behind. Back in the day salt was as valuable as gold, and was often used for payment and for salaries, which explains the fortifications here. It is used for table salt and for wellness/spa type products. Ston and Dubrovnik were on the main trade routes of the day and salt was one of the major commodities traded. We finally got to our hotel in Dubrovnik at 6:15 and went to dinner in a local restaurant where we had a room just for our group. It was built to resemble a storage room reminiscent of the palace in Split.
Long wonderful day, as every one has been. Tomorrow, our last day, we finally get to explore Dubrovnik.
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