Thoroughly Modern Michelle: New Country for 2015: Bosnia and Herzegovina

When I was planning my time in Dubrovnik, I had originally thought I would want to stay in the city the entire time. On a whim, I decided that I wanted to explore a bit more of the region and take a day trip to one of the nearby countries. Generally, there's a few locations nearby that tourists head to: Montenegro (a country, I'll admit I didn't know existed) or Mostar, Bosnia Herzegovina. I spent a lot of time and energy trying to figure out which sound be better. I ended up choosing Mostar because I'd heard that it would be pretty different from Dubrovnik, while Montenegro was more similar.

I am so glad I chose Mostar. It was different from any place I'd ever really been before. I read up on the history of the city before I left, but had no idea about most of it. I signed up for a day trip with a local company and it worked out great. I usually hate tor groups, but this one was small and not overrun with annoying people. We left early in the morning and it took about three hours to get to Mostar. We did stop a few times along the way. First, what's crazy is that the Croatian/BH border makes little sense. There are areas where we needed to cross the border just to get back to the Croatian road we needed to be on. The guide said this is pretty annoying for locals because you may have to leave the country just to get to and from work. She said that they have been told by politicians every election that there were promises of a bridge being built, but it's never actually happened.

Before getting to Mostar, we stopped off at another BH town. It had air of stone houses and a Mosque. The region has a big influence from Muslim religion and culture. It was a bit touristy, with little shops and women selling fruit.

Once we arrived in Mostar, we had a guided walk of the town. It was fairly small. It's an interesting place that has influence from Catholics, Serbian Orthodox and Muslims. Since the Ottoman period, Mostar was literally where East met West, and for years they lived in relative peace (what a concept). You can see their influences all over the town. I was really fascinated by the religious tones. Churches and mosques side by side. I also didn't realize that there are liberal Muslims, who don't believe in all the traditional "media" view of the religion.

Right off the bat, you could see reminders of the 1990's Yugoslavian war. I actually think this is the first war I remember being confused by. I had read a book called "Zlatla's Diary" about a girl in Sarajevo who had written a lot her experience during the war. I was probably about 12 or 13 when I read it and it really stuck with me. This visit made it all the more real for me.

Buildings in all areas were covered in bullet holes, you could see where bombs blasted and there were even a few buildings still in ruins. We were told that Mostar was lucky because it had at least been rebuilt, which wasn't the case for a lot of towns. For the most part, Mostar had been blasted to the ground. It started with conflict between Croats/BHers and Yugoslavian fighters, but ended with a war between Croatia and BH. That was when the Mostar Bridge had been blown down.

We also visited a mosque (a first for me) and a traditional Ottoman style Turkish house.

After the tour, I wandered a bit by myself and came across a cemetery that was filled with people who had all died in 1993. It was an intense realization. Almost an entire generation of this town's young men had died. Very sad.

I learned a lot from our guides. BH has a 50% unemployment rate that has stayed fairly consistent since the war. People believe that they were better off before as the standard of living has gone down. Many people who left as refugees have never retuned because the conditions can be bad. It's sad what war does to a country, especially when it becomes a forgotten news story worldwide, even though it will always be a part of these lives.