Saturday, April 28, 2007

Mostar, Bosnia

From Sarajevo we took the Swedish-donated Bosnian train (most infrastructure items in Bosnia have been donated) south to Mostar. Yet another highly scenic trainride complete with hairpin turns, switchbacks, mountains and a feeling that you riding in the clouds.

Mostar is most famous for one of its bridges, Old Bridge. The Bridge is suppose to represent peace and unity among the B0snian people.

Throughout the city there are many bridges, as Mostar is situated on yet another too-blue-to-be-real river. Why can't we manage to have any of these in Canada? Like Sarajevo, there is evidence everywhere of the recent war. Bombed out, bullet-ridden buildings are everywhere yet the same as Sarajevo, people remain resiliant. The main floors of destroyed buildings have been turned into cafes or flower shops,

and the old town (stari grad) which was previously destroyed has been almost completely rebuilt. Daniel and I have seen many Stari Grad's in our travels around the Western Balkans and we quickly agreed that Mostar's was the most beautiful. Although we only visited two cities in Bosnia we found the Bosnian people to be so warm, the food to be delicious (though lacking in tangible vegetables!), the country to be beautiful and the cities to be among our favourites. What a beautiful country.

3 comments:

Judd Blitt said...

These pictures are seriously off the hook...I am loving it!

Anonymous said...

The Bosnia pictures look pretty awesome. I also love that Daniel is growing a beard.
Believe it or not, Canada does have bright blue lakes and rivers; Daniel and I saw them in the Yukon.

Daniel said...

the beard is getting really good now, by far the most beard I've ever been. It's going to last another 3 weeks or so, I'm going to shave my head and face before we get to India. It's crazy hot there!