Stari Most, Mostar

So I had to cut short my little trip to Spain in order to get back to London for my court date.  (Yes I finally got my day in court to evict my erratically paying tenant and his abusive sub-letters.  No, we lost. No, I don’t want to talk about it).

My tenant Syed Hassan, doing what he does best, a-lying and a-cheating

Anyway, all this left me stuck in London feeling bitter and resentful. Every time I had to pay rent for a hostel or for an Airbnb, every time it rained and every time I got charged £6 for a salad, I got more and more angry.

So I did what I do best in these situations; I headed out of the country to somewhere cheaper, somewhere where I’m not paying £35 a night for a tiny single room in somebody’s attic and somewhere where they don’t think that a plate full of rocket salad with one slither of something else on top constitutes a ‘meal’ worth paying £6 for (really, don’t get me started on this British obsession with rocket).

Due to other obligations I only had two weeks. Where to go for two weeks?

I googled ‘where’s cheap in Europe?’ There were no surprises in the results, basically the Balkans or the Baltic states.  The Balkans seemed likely to have the better weather so decision made and I have now disappeared off on a little Balkan road trip.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

I started in Dubrovnik, simply because I managed to find a cheap flight from London. One day in Dubrovnik was enough; it was ridiculously crowded. There were three cruise liners in port the day I got there and you can’t even begin to imagine how crowded that made the little city.  Plus I have been before anyway, relatively recently.

From Dubrovnik I got the bus across the border into Bosnia and Herzegovina. My first stop: Mostar.

The last time I visited Mostar it was still in Yugoslavia and had quite a hedonistic reputation.  Of course there’s been a war since then; the landmark bridge has been destroyed and then painstakingly rebuilt.

Another view of Stari Most

Mostar was also very busy.  I arrived on the day of the finals for the Red Bull Cliff Jumping.  This involved lots of people jumping off of the iconic bridge Stari Most into the waters below.

Limbering up..(or he might just like walking around in his speedos)

This is not something to be attempted by amateurs.  There is a 20-metre-plus drop from the bridge and the water below is icy cold.  Tourists can (and do) make the jump, however you have to undergo training first.

More on Mostar to follow……