An Interesting and Informative Visit
Bosnia was never on my travel list,
but I managed to visit Mostar, the economic, political and cultural city of
Herzegovina. Today Bosnia and
Herzegovina are one, but that was not always so. I am not an avid historian,
but I learned from our guide that Turks arrived in the late 14th century
and occupied the area for 400 years. In the 19th century a national
revival movement started. During 1875-76 the Austro-Hungarian Empire took over.
In fact WWI started because a prince of the empire was shot in Sarajevo in 1914. In 1941 Bosnia Herzegovina was part of Croatia. After
WWII it was part of Yugoslavia.
The ethnic makeup was 50% Serbs, 30% Muslim and 20% Croats. All got along well until 1992 when the Homeland War started. Serb men and boys
were rounded up and in one day 8000 were executed in a small town in Herzegovina as
the international community looked on.
From
Dubrovnik and the coast we followed the Nevetva River driving east. The river
divides Mostar east and west and is the river that the famous friendship bridge
spans.( a previous blog post) The city
has a hot Mediterranean climate and the name
Mostar means keeper of the bridge.
Entering the city, after-effects of
the war were obvious. Many buildings were burned out and abandoned. Some
building walls were pock-marked with bullet holes giving them the appearance of
Swiss cheese. It’s hard to imagine the terror the shelling caused. We joined up
with a sweet local guide who happened to be Muslim, so we got a lot of
information on the Muslim culture. My first visit to a mosque was most interesting—details
on that in a later post. We also visited the home of a well-to-do Muslim family
where we had more things explained to us. After a visit to the famous bridge
and a walk through and some shopping at the bazaar we had an excellent meal at
a local restaurant. The pastas we had were different but very good.
We found Bosnians to be friendly
people with a big heart. People were helpful and English was widely spoken.
Although long, it was a most interesting and informative day.
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