It has been a long time since I have crossed a border and had to stop and show my passport in Europe. We left Croatia and drove to Mostar in Bosnia & Herzegovina. I didn’t know much about Bosnia & Herzegovina before my arrival, but driving through the countryside you can see it was hit pretty hard in the war. Many villages were demolished by rockets. The war ended almost twenty years ago but most people have not returned. Mostar was one of the most damaged cities in the war.
Mostar is most famous for it’s old bridge. It was originally built in the 16th century. One side of the bridge was the Muslim side and the other side was the Croat side. Even after the war, it used to be that nobody would cross the bridge. Buses only drove on one side of the river. The Muslim side was almost completely destroyed in the war. The bridge was destroyed in 1993 and not rebuilt until 2004. Today, there are stones that lay close to each side that say Don’t Forget 93.
I took some photos to show the war scars that are still evident. They are still rebuilding the city but a lot of houses still have artillery damage to the exterior. People still live in the some of the houses with damage. Mostar really opened my eyes to view a city in a different way. I have been to cities that have experienced war, but those wars were many years ago. This was the first time that I could walk down a street and see the evidence of the sad reality of what I heard about in elementary and middle school.
Fletch Travels 