"When you spend a night in Mostar, it is not the sound that wakes you up in the morning, but- the light. I know this from my own experience. It was the light that welcomed me when I arrived, it followed me from the morning to the evening, and when I left, that light forever stayed in me as the main characteristic of my memories of Mostar..."
Ivo Andric, Nobel Prize winner
I think Ivo Andric’s description are one of the best words I’ve ever heard spoken from a human tongue…I for sure was knowing that Mostar is a magnificent city but when I also visited there, I remembered Ivo Andric’s this description…
Mostar is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mostar is the biggest and the most important city in the Herzegovina region and the center of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation. Mostar is situated on the Neretva river.
When we first arrived to Mostar, I clearly understood the different weather of Mostar. This difference wasn’t caused by the normal weather. Imagine Mona Lisa’s Picture and as we know when you look at her face carefully you can clearly see one part of her face’s as crying and the other part as smiling…Mostar is a city like that also. Because when you start walking from the bus station to the old part of the city you start to think “oh where are the people of Mostar…I hardly see them” but when you reach to the around of the Old Bridge; you see a different world...a great movement of people (most of them tourists) dozens of restaurants etc…
I also would like to mention about probably the most important symbol of Mostar. As you guess The Old Bridge (Stari Most);
Stari Most is a 16th century (1566-1567, after 10 years of hard works, the construction of the famous stone bridge was completed by architect Hayruddin) Ottoman bridge in the city of Mostar that crosses the river Neretva and connects two parts of the city (so in this case it looks like Budapest’s situation). The Old Bridge stood for 427 years, until it was destroyed on November 9, 1993 during the Bosniak-Croat War. But fortunately after the end of the war, plans were raised to reconstruct the bridge. The World Bank, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization which is known as UNESCO, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the World Monuments Fund formed a coalition to oversee the reconstruction of the Stari Most and the historic city centre of Mostar. The funding was provided by firstly Turkey, Croatia, Italy, the Netherlands and the Council of Europe Development Bank, and of course Bosnian Government.
In October 1998, UNESCO established an international committee of experts to oversee the design and reconstruction work and after that it was decided to build a bridge as similar as possible (when I asked this new version of the bridge to the some inhabitants of Mostar, they claimed that the new one seems much better than the old one) to the original, using the same technology and materials. The bridge was built with local materials…Reconstruction commenced on 7 June 2001. The reconstructed bridge was consecrated on 23 July 2004…
And I have just finished my Bosnia and Herzegovina trippin' memories...It was like a dream...
Many thanks to all those who have contributed in many different ways to helping make this all a reality!!!
For sure I am gonna come back...
