Neretva Gorge by Rail

As much as Bosnia and Herzegovina are still off the main tourist track, the train from Mostar to Sarajevo(the full length of which originates in Ploce, Croatia on the Adriatic Sea) could still be called a hidden gem. I understand that while the train's two rail cars were largely vacant only a few years ago, they are now full of local passengers and tourists in the summer. In most places I've been, a ride through terrain like that would be marketed as a special tourist day trip. Here it was simply transportation, but over the course of the two-and-a-half hour trip I could hardly look down at my book for fear I'd miss more scenery. 

 

 

The portion we rode leaves Mostar through a wide plain along the Neretva River. Heading north, it quickly winds into the deep Neretva River Gorge against the high rock walls that enclose the river. As the tracks climb higher into the gorge, they pass a dam behind which the river takes on a bright blue-green color. Towering jagged rock formations crown the gorge much of the way, revealing a new world around each bend. I didn't realize the Dinaric Alps were so dramatic.

After a lot of switch-backs, the route leaves the river and continues on to Sarajevo high over numerous valleys, passing through over a hundred tunnels along the way. Many of the valleys contain towns, and as we passed over and around them it felt like we were in an airplane preparing for landing. 

  

  

Mostar on the mend

Echos of the wars in the 90’s are seen in the burned-out shells of buildings still standing 15 years later, and in the extra-height church tower and cross on the Christian side of the city competing with the minarets on the Muslim side. But past the broken glass and EU police occasionally seen still on patrol, Mostar is also a shockingly pretty city.

Of course there is beauty in its namesake, the bright stone Stari Most, or Old Bridge, re-built several years ago in an identical form to its 400+ year-old original that was destroyed in 1993. There are also clusters of medieval stone buildings huddled on both sides of the bridge, and polished, multi-colored river stones making up the walking streets in these neighborhoods. There is the striking blue-green color of the Neretva River flowing through town, as well as high, rocky mountains rising on both sides of providing a wild, beautiful backdrop to the city in all directions.

 

  

The ottoman-style buildings and mosques sprinkled everywhere, the call to prayer occasionally echoing over the city from so many minarets pricking the sky, and the ever present smell of wood smoke and grilled meats, are reminders that the Turks were a little more successful here once upon a time than in much of Europe. Many Bosnians converted to Islam over several generations under the Ottoman empire, and as the easternmost remaining remnant of that culture, give the region a frontier feeling. 

The busy sidewalks and cafes we saw on a warm early November evening were an indication of how far Mostar has resuscitated from its recent past. Having fallen for the place so quickly, it was hard to return to our hotel room knowing our train left so early the next morning.

    

    

Mostar after the shock

After the easy and rich surroundings on the coast in Dubrovnik, arriving at the desolate bus and train stations in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina was a bit of a confrontation. Sheets of opaque plastic covered missing panes of glass and the concrete walls were covered with pits left from bullets. Outside paced a scruffy man and two young dreadlocked daughters eating ice cream. It's safe to assume the dreads were not the family's effort to romanticize themselves as hippies, since we saw the father starting their campfire behind partial building remains early the next morning. 

There isn't a block throughout the city that doesn't have a blunt reminder of the war that took place there in the 90's, from bullet-pitted walls, shell-scars in the sidewalk pavement, and entire burned-out buildings, to graveyards filled with gravestones all sharing the same years. As our senses acclimated over our 24 hours in town, this sad backdrop gave way to thriving street life and we realized a day wasn't going to be enough time to spend in this surprisingly beautiful city.