EUROTRIP 2012 - PART 7 - Introducing Mostar 1/2

This place is definitely one of the most beautiful places in Europe. The bridge "Stari Most" was built by the Ottomans in the 16th century and it crosses the river Neretva and connects two parts of the city. The Old Bridge stood for 427 years, until it was destroyed on 9 November 1993 during the war. Subsequently, a project was set in motion to reconstruct it, and the rebuilt bridge opened on 23 July 2004. :) That was also the first time when we went to the Mostar!

And the water is +9 degrees warm... :D We still swam in it!

Bosnian flags :)

River Neretva, a heart of Bosnia, look at that water... It´s just amazingly beautiful, and that Neretva canyon... :) I love it, this is definitely where my heart and home is!

Pure beauty!

You can eat them everywhere... :D

Fresh fruit stands... We had to buy some! The taste of fruits is so different in there than in Finland :)

Winery! And look at those paintings... in the middle of this street...

Views from the bridge. :) So damn beautiful, and the wind was just perfect in that heat.

And then it was time for boys to start their practice jumping... :D

That smile.. they were so terrified but excited... :D

And the stream is really powerful.

Four out of five had the guts to jump and put their name in the official Mostar bridge jump book! This one is Stefan!

Happy faces... but bruised asses. :D Jaidan, Stefan and Sam.

Like I said... Mark experienced Mostar...

Jaidan still having adrenaline kicking on... :D ...And Dam's knee was a bit twisted.

Our trip to Mostar began with Eveliina arriving to Split one Saturday morning. We were both, Evi and Herminica, actually panicking about whether Eve would find us on that congested bus station or not, but luckily she did. We even had some time to introduce her to a Croatian version of cevapcici. Our six hours drive began before noon. Luckily the six hours passed quite quickly because of the gorgeous view and by getting to know our new Australian and NZ friends.

We met these three Australian guys, Stefan, Sam and Jaidan, who were also heading to Mostar for a one day trip and they were planning to jump off the 25m high Mostar bridge. That's when we decided that we weren't going to miss that and that we should be their local tourist guides. :D Soon they all noticed the burning heat that is typical in Mostar. It´s the most warm city in entire Europe! Even then it was +47 in the shadow... and the water was +9... So I can tell that the dipping and swimming in Neretva wasn´t that easy to do but it was the only way to cool ourselves down!

It was a long time ago when we had visited Mostar last time, so we were little lost in the beginning, but we found our way quite fast. It was so hot that all we could think about was the cold river flowing beneath us. But first we had to find out who to contact about the guys wanting to jump off the bridge. There was this jumping club that we found quite easily next to the Mostar bridge and they promised to take care of everything. The guys had to pay for some jumping lessons that we headed out to do first. We girls Eve, Evi and Herminica were all jealous because the guys got to fresh up in the river before us... It wasn´t easy to watch. :D It´s like someone takes your ice cream from you... Well at least the atmosphere was right and we all loved being there! That was also a reason why we decided to make another trip to Mostar a little later! :)