Union.

Our meeting for today was not scheduled until four in the afternoon. I had slept in, but then Marissa and I had quickly realized that most of the group had already left to explore. We got up and got ready and then headed to the city, we decided to eat cheap so we looked for the nearest Pekara (bakery) . After our lunch, we walked around the streets of Mostar. We saw various mosques, and browsed the small shops lining the streets. We then decided to stop at a café by the bridge. We enjoyed watching two people jump from the top of the bridge. After the first person jumped we immediately thought of our friends Keith and John who were quite the daredevils. Then speaking of the devils, they walked down to our table. They told us that  in order to jump you had to be part of an elite diving group, and you had to collect 50 Euros prior to plummeting in the cold water. If you did not follow these guidelines there was a hefty fine.  The boys were a little disappointed they couldn’t jump you could tell they wanted to try. (Below is the picturesque bridge, the boys wanted to jump from.)

After our quick snack, we headed back to the inn to prepare for our meeting. We walked in the opposite way of old town to the Croatian Democratic Union. The walk was saddening. Many of the building were shelled out, or closed because there was too much structural damage. Unlike Sarajevo, you could tell there was little funding for repair of this city. The differences between buildings were stark, and were a grim reminder of the war just 20 years back.

We were able to meet with the President and Vice President of the Croatian Democratic Union (CDU). They said that their party was made up of 27,000 of the most active Croats in the region. This country has about 300,000 Croats, and the rest are part of the other 5 Croat based parties. Because of the divides it makes it hard to elect one unifying leader for their people. The two went on to discuss how the country was ethnically torn, and how both the Serbs and Bosniaks had areas where the majority of their people resided (Banjaluca for the Serbs and Sarajevo for the Muslims).

The two went on to further discuss their radical opinions. First they talked about the flawed system of elections.  They discussed how since they were the minority that the other majority parties play a large role in selecting the Croat President, which really upset the young Croats. Next, they talked about how ethnic tensions were still on the rise, and how they saw no unified Bosnia & Herzegovian identity.  They had quite the extremist ideas, but it was interesting to hear their point of view.

We headed back down to the old part of town for dinner, and to watch the sunset once again. After dinner we went back to the inn and got ready to go out. Since it was a Thursday night we figured it would be better go to the club (which was pretty cool, because it was inside of a cave), and we were going with the majority of the group. The night turned out well despite some torrential downpours.