Who even goes to Bosnia? That's kind of what we thought when our two travel buddies (George and Matti who we met island hopping in Greece in 2017) suggested we'd jump on a bus from Split to Mostar in Bosnia. Don't get us wrong, it's not like that put us off, the total opposite actually. We love to go to strange and a bit more unusual destinations and after a whole week in Split it was about time we gave our livers a rest.
We arrived in the city of Mostar and checked in to our hostel, another joke of a hostel, haha! George and Matti booked a hostel which was a bit more expensive but we decided to get the cheapest place we could find, so we ended up booking a hostel for 5 euro a night. Perfect, we thought. We arrived to a tiny little place up a steep hill and it looked pretty good until we came in to the room. We didn't really take in to consideration that it was the middle of summer and about 35 degrees and of course managed to book a place with no AC and only a small half functioning fan. GREAT! Luckily we didn't plan on spending much time in the room anyways, but omg it was unbearably hot in the night. We stayed for the two nights we prebooked but the last night we had to admit our defeat and checked in to an 8 euro/night hostel with AC. Oh well!
Mostar is famous for its 24m high bridge which lots of tourist come to attempt to jump off of. We did not haha. We've jumped off a hanging bridge in New Zealand which was 14m and that was incredibly scary, adding another 10m didn't feel like something we wanted to do. Although, we stayed and watched a couple of locals collect money from tourist and when they gathered 30 euro each they took a leap and jumped in the freezing water. It looks super scary but very cool even though we're sure a lot of people get hurt doing it. Maybe next time! ;) If you don't feel like jumping, the bridge makes for perfect photos and we stopped for a little Instagram session. Well, more like trying to snap a photo of the boys in between their silly dance moves and just in general acting like retards 😂.
We strolled around the glowing blue river and found an abandoned old building that we sneaked in to and walked the stairs all the way up to the roof and got amazing views over the town, river and surrounding mountains. You can also climb one of the mountains but in all honesty it was wayyyy to hot and we were both feeling a bit sick after our crazy party week in Croatia.
As the sun set behind the mosque and the mountains we made our way back to the bridge and watched the gorgeous colors play out over the sky. It was such a magical sunset and an amazing first night in Mostar with our besties George and Matti and also a new found friend from their hostel, Zoey. We'll let the photos talk for themselves!
The next day we woke up bright and early, at least some of us, George and Matti apparently likes to sleep in. The plan was to take public transport to the famous Kravice Waterfalls but after a few google searches and asking some locals we understood there was no public transport there and we would have to go on a tour or pay for a taxi. We're not big fans of tours since we prefer to decide ourselves when and where to stay and paying for a taxi (over 100euro?!) was out of question. A few obstacles along the way has never stopped us before, so we asked pretty much everyone we saw to help us get there. We were in luck and a girl that worked at the boys hostel managed to get her uncle to drive us to the waterfall for only 10 euro each. How nice!? Sadly we were a bit late to the falls and it was crowded to say the least. Luckily we have perfected our Instagram photography skills and in the photos it looks like we were the only ones there 😂
We spent about two hours splashing around, swimming and trying to find a spot to lay down between the crowds before we decided to head back to town. Kravice falls is definitely one of the most beautiful waterfalls we've seen but 100% go early in the morning. Your best option would be to rent a car and drive to get there just as the sun comes up, we're not exaggerating when we say it was hundreds of people there at once with new people coming in with tour buses every other minute.
We came back to town and found a little beach along the river where we enjoyed the last rays of sun of the day before we went home to shower and get ready. We all met up by the bridge which is like the center of the town and went for our first restaurant dinner of the trip. Bosnia is super cheap so a big vegetarian meal and a drink was only about 6 euro. After dinner it was time to hit the bars and surprisingly there was a lot of young travelers out and about. We met a big group of Danish guys and had beers with them. Beers at the bars estimate at 2 euro per pint. There's also a club in the town called Ali Baba but it was super crowded.
After two days in Mostar we felt like we had ticked of everything there was to do so we jumped on a 10 hour bus to Montenegro. If you spend 10 euro more than we did, you can get a private shuttle to Montenegro for 35 euro and it only takes about 4 hours. However, if you're on a super tight budget like us, you can pay 25 euro and sit in a bus for 10 hours with no AC. Up to you haha!