One of the few images I remember from the Yugoslavian war was the bombing of an amazing old bridge. I never really knew where the bridge was until we got to Mostar and I saw pictures of it, and then the bridge itself. The bridge was shelled until it fell down to the sound of celebratory machine-gunfire in 1993, and has been completely rebuilt using traditional techniques to be re-opened in 2004. It's pretty amazing to think that the original bridge was completed in 1566, as it's a huge single arch spanning the Neretva River. The local men traditionally dive off the bridge to impress the ladies, and there is a diving competition held each July. Outside the competition there are a few guys who jump off the bridge, but only once the tourists have crossed their palm with sufficient silver (about 25 euros). We saw a couple of guys jump which was cool, as we didn't pay a cent.

We visited the bridge museum which detailed the history of the settlement at Mostar and the role that the bridge played in peoples life over the years. It also takes you through the foundations for the current bridge, where they found evidence of two bridges on the same site before the current one. Then there was a couple of videos; one showing the rebuilding of the bridge; and another showing some history of the bridge, as well as footage of it being bombed and falling down.

The hostel we stayed at was really just someone's apartment that they rented out beds in. The woman who runs the place's mother lives there and she cooked us soup, made us drinks, and gave us cake. They also do day trips from the hostel. We went to Blagaj, which is home to a Dervish house right at the source of a river. A dervish house is the equivalent of an islamic monastry, and we did a bit of a tour inside (once Zilla had a longer skirt and head scarf on).The river comes out of a cave in the side of a huge cliff, and the house is right next to it - very pretty. We also sampled some Bosnian coffee here, which is served in a cool little copper cup and is pretty strong.

On the Saturday night we were in Mostar there was a concert by the water next to the bridge. No idea who the bands were, but the locals seemed to like them. They were playing some hip-hop/punk music which was mainly sung in Bosnian, but with a few English bits to keep us interested.

Tomorrow night we're flying to London from Split so we can go to the Goodwood festival of speed, which I'm really looking forward to. We're also going to queue for tickets to day 1 of the tennis at Wimbledon.

Bye for now, Paul.