15 Mar 2021
Without spoiling anything, as we approached the town of Jablanica nested between mountains and on the river Neretva, our guide Miran sprang into a dramatic retelling of the local partisan history led by Tito - explaining all the factions, all of the moving parts, and bringing this important slice of the 20th century to life. Miran's historical knowledge, passion, and interesting perspectives were present throughout the full tour, and we will be recommending iHouse to friends who plan on visiting Mostar.
As well as his encyclopedic knowledge of the events, Miran is just a really nice, funny guy who instantly made us feel at ease; he went above and beyond to talk us through the tour, but also was a great conversationalist who gave us a local's perspective on cultural life, film, and music of the former Yugoslavia - and even followed up with an email of the things we discussed.
Now, the ARK Bunker: this is one of the few facilities (and probably the only working one) in the world that you can actually visit. It's claustrophobic, eerie, and fascinating. An excellent local guide will walk you through the bunker itself, and the existential strangeness of the location is definitely something to be experienced.
We felt that we had learned so much by the time this tour came to a close, and we're planning to also take the Death of Yugoslavia tour offered by Miran and iHouse, which we're sure will also be excellent.