How not to Bridge Jump in Mostar, Bosnia & Hercegovina

July 8th, 2008
Mostar, Bosnia & Hercegovina
(Day 'unknown' of 116)

Ok I know this is getting a bit backlogged (even more now), but I'm really working on it.

At first I had some serious doubts and some worries about traveling through Bosnia. I really had no idea what to expect some almost 2 decades since Bosnia tried to leave Yugoslavia. What I didn't expect was that most things in Mostar would be relatively unchanged since the battle in Mostar during the mid 1990's. Entire buildings along the main street/tourist avenue still condemned, barring any person to walk through them or even park cars inside them. Buildings that have been repaired seem to have only patched the bullet holes in the street-facing wall, leaving a distinct "Bosnian" trace of it's history.

Mostar Bridge - probably the most famous bridge in the Western Balkans (and gracing the front of the guide book) was a very cool sight. Destroyed by the Croat forces in 1994, it was rebuilt mostly by European donations soon after. Without this bridge, I don't think any reconstruction (and certainly any tourists) would have arrived.

There is a famous bridge club comprised of locals who jump the 22-25m tall bridge into the river below. Probably doesn't look scary until you're on the other side of the railing. The club goes around asking for money before one of their members jumps, sometimes waiting 30 minutes, or sometimes giving up and walking back to their clubhouse with other people's money. - Matt and I were around the city and heard the signature 22m splash and then applause multiple times, but we did not ever see anyone jump.
On our last day though, we made sure we would see someone jump - we waited by the river and waited till someone would make the move. This time it seems like it was an oldtimer local who just thought he was some sort of bad-ass like the old Indiana jones or something.

Either this man was wrong or Indiana never jumped from a bridge that high.
The man jumped from the bridge, and following the applause, sort of failed to swim to the shore. The club members came down to the river and helped him to a lawnchair while they diagnosed what was wrong with him. From where we were, about 50m away, it looks like he definitely broke a leg... or definitely broke an arm. He definitely did one but he was still moving, which is probably the important thing.
Lesson learned. He is not a bad-ass.