A Visit to Mostar and Half Island Camping
Keith and Jenny Dear Summer 2014
Visit the Half Island Camping Website: http://camping-buna.com/?page_id=102 This was a short trip
into Bosnia
on the way up from Dubrovnic last summer. We had read in the latest edition of
the Lonely Planet for Croatia that a train service connected the Croatian town
of Ploce
to Mostar
in Bosnia, and eagerly approached the station only to find it somewhat crudely
locked up and looking like a bomb had hit it. We were then told that the last
train had left the station some two years ago, due to government cut-backs. A
move not appreciated by the locals. So we drove to the border and bought third
party insurance for around £20 for one week. We then enjoyed a pleasant drive
to Mostar, checking out the excellent
Half Island campsite as we went in towards the town.
We were astonished at
the war damage in Mostar, but noted that the average tourist would probably see
none of this, as the bridge, and the cobbled streets leading to it, have been
fully restored. But it was all extremely interesting and the camp site owner
(who goes by the name of 'Gaga')
and his mother were wanting so much to enhance our visit, and couldn't do
enough for us. Gaga was a worshipper of 80's British music and taught himself
English through his passion for this. We considered it a wonderful experience
to have met him.
Next day we left Bosnia
and found a 4-hour queue at the border, due to the cussedness of the Croat
border police we were told. But as the sadly recently deceased Mandy Rice Davies once
famously said 'they would say that wouldn't they', singular being changed to
plural here, of course! So we took a
much longer route but it worked for us in that we got back into Ploce quickly
enough.
What a change from
British attitudes to visitors in this small town - we found a small car park
clearly labelled 'FOR TOURISTS ONLY'. So we stayed the night there!
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