... i Hercegovina (February 25th-27th)

Every story has a beginning. And this one started one month and a half ago, in the Dalmatian coast. But this time it has nothing to do with Split. The place was Crikvenica, near Rijeka, and the excuse was something called On-Arrival Training. There I met other volunteers from many parts of Europe (mostly France) who are "working" in the Balkans. For 5 days we share laughs, songs, beers, feelings... and more. We said See you soon in different local languages with lots of kisses and hugs.

The second part of this story took part last weekend in the sunny capital of the sunny Hercegovina, called Mostar. (Yeah, right, the one with the bridge, that one). One Belgian girl called Charline (aka Chica) hosted another Flemish (Pink Martijn) in Bosnia, a French crazy girl living in Serbia (Amélie), 3 more Frenchies living in Macedonia (Tonio, Pero and Juliette), and an Italian (Francesca) and an Spanish (me) living in Sarajevo. All these bastards mixed with Hercegovian and Bosnian people, like the great Jasenko. A Balkan EVS cocktail.

We all arrived on Friday night to Chica's place and we had a great party there. The world is so small: I've met there Biljana's best friend, who was working in my office till 2 months before I came. We all sleep in the house, 11 people. Great "communistic sleep", as Martijn would call it.

Saturday morning, time to know the city. First we went to the Partisan Memorial, the monument for the dead yugoslavian soldiers in the Second World War. It's a strange hybrid of a cathedral in ruins and some sort of socialist architecture. Unfortunately, the local authorities don't care about it and it is in a deplorable condition. Besides, youngsters come there to drink and have fun without caring of the trash they leave. A shame. Anyway, it worths it: you can see the whole city below you.

After the Memorial, we just keep on walking to see the city in the Bosnian way: easy easy. Stopping here and there for a coffee.

Mostar is divided by the Neretva river in 2 sides: the croatian (catholic) and the muslim. Close to the river, where the frontline was during the war, you can see the scars of the war. Many buildings are still in ruins. But in some of them you can still feel the old splendour, like the hotel in the muslim part. I must say that I like very much the sense of humour of the people in this town: we saw some funny graffitis like "The aliens distroyed the bridge" or "I work in black and I spend the money in white".

Some curiosities for my Spanish reader's: one of the biggest squares of the city is Španski Trg, remembering all the Spanish soldiers that died in Mostar during the war. And you can also find some places like El Manjo. Note: in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian "nj" has the same sound of Spanish "ñ".

In the afternoon we finally went to the old town. This place doesn't seem real. You see the cobblestoned street with the tiny old houses, painted in different colours. There you have lots of craftwork shops, perfect for the lots of tourists. And of course the amazing Stari Most, the old bridge. When you are on it looking at Neretva green water, you feel like time can just stop and everything will be perfect. And I also can't believe that people really jumps from this 24 metres heigh to the river. So I have to come back to see that!


Next to the bridge there is a stone where it is written "Don't forget '93", refering the year where the bridge was distroyed. I won't forget it.

At the evening, we went to Abrašević, a youth center, were it was a 70's party. Disco music and youngsters dressed like Tony Manero were dancing and kissing each other in a very free sharing way. Then we went to another club to see Let3 concert, a rock band from Rijeka. What to say about these guys? They are the craziest band I've seen in my life! The concert was amazing, we enjoyed it very much! And of course we made a lot of Hercegovian friends that were jumping with us since the first riff came from the guitars.

Sunday was a day for relax. Martijn and Jasenko left in the morning, and the French council went to the climb club to practice a bit. So Francesca, Chica and me went to Blagaj, to see the Dervish house there. Beautyful and peaceful place, the perfect one if you need to disconnect from the rest of the world. These dervishes were clever guys.

Our trip finished in the train station, where we met all the Frenchies back from the climbing sessions. See you soon, guys. It was amazing. We have to repeat that. Definitely.

BONUS TRACK:

Intensive course on Balkan way of life in only 5 hours: from Mostar to Blagaj and back

We took a cab in Mostar to start this adventure. As soon as the driver realised that I was Spanish, he asked me if I liked football. Then which is my favourite team. My city's one, Elche C.F., I replied. I know, it is in 2nd Division now, he said. Wow. Then he told me that he went to school with Meho Kodro, former striker in Barcelona and Real Sociedad and Bosnian national team coach nowadays. Wow again. But still the best was yet to come. I like Barcelona, he said, because Real Madrid was Franco's team and Barcelona was the team for the people who wanted democracy and social rights. Wow, wow and wow.

Since there was no cabs in Blagaj, we stopped a car and asked the driver if he was going to Mostar. Then we agreed a price and we got into the car, a Volkswagen Golf 2 (like 1 out of 2 Bosnians). Mustafa, the guy, was talking about the history of the fortress, smoking a lot, laughing, and sometimes looking at the road. Just sometimes.

OST Somewhere beyond the sea (in a strange instrumental way on Radio Sarajevo)