Mostar

Today was spent mostly on a 8 hour bus ride traveling from Kotor, Montenegro to Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.  It was a pretty ride along the coastline and through the mountains.  The old section of the city is very scenic but the majority of the rest of the city is still recovering from the war.  Many buildings are still bombed out almost 16 years after the end of the fighting.

Mostar is a very unique city due to its tumultuous history in the last 20 years.    During the Yugoslav Wars from 1991 to 1995, Mostar served as one of the central areas of intense fighting between three different armies.  One side of the city was held by the Bosnian Army, the other side by the Croatian Army and the hills surrounding the city based the Serbian Army.  During the course of the war, the historic centerpiece of Mostar, the Stari Most bridge, was destroyed.  Following the conflict, the bridge was rebuilt of over the course of 7 years and now stands exactly as it was built in the 1600's.

 
And a closer view...

No rest for the weary though, tomorrow morning I will be catching a train to Sarajevo to explore the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.  Another post to come then.