Here are my top recommendations for Bosnia & Hercegovina:

• Enjoy some rahat lokum (Bosnian sweets, much like Turkish Delight)


• Check out Islamic culture and the Turkish souvenir shops while strolling along the old cobblestone streets of Mostar

Looking for the perfect hookah?

• Drink some Turkish coffee (Move over lattes, this stuff is strong as sh*t!)


• Eat some Bosnian meats, grilled and served up with hot ajvar, a delicious relish made from peppers and eggplant. Milk and meat are Bosnia’s principal agricultural outputs.

Tasty Bosnian grill. Mmmmmmmmmm..eat!

• Drive through the countryside, and marvel at its mountainous backdrop and blue-green rivers.

The Neretva River cuts through the countryside around Mostar.

• Watch crazy people jump off a bridge! A local tradition that continues today is to jump off the Old Mostar Bridge. Even after the bridge had been bombed in the 1990s, contestants jumped off of what remained. Brings new meaning to the saying “If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?”Apparently, in Bosnia & Hercegovina, the answer is YES!

Adventurous I am…but not enough to jump off a bridge!

Kristen

How did I get here, you might ask? Well, quite literally, it was a crazy journey from Seattle to Chicago, to Galway (Ireland), to Dubrovnik (Croatia), to Serbia & Montenegro, and finally here. Trust me when I say my return journey was just as long!

Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting stories from all of the above-mentioned places, but thought I’d start here.

Not many people I know (Americans in particular) have been to Bosnia & Hercegovina. The images we receive from our national media do not portray such a nice place. I would like to share with you what myself, and my sisters who travelled with me, experienced on our trip.

First of all, yes…there are visible signs of recent warfare. Bullet-strewn buildings and blown up bridges are still in a state of disrepair. On the market streets you can buy an interesting array of war-time paraphernalia. However, the country has done much to re-build and grow, and it truly is a beautiful place.

Scars from bullets during the war of the 1990s.

The Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina was formed after the break-up of the former socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and following the wars that took place from 1992 to 1995 among Bosnian Muslims, Croats and Serbs. The country was devastated by three years of violent inter-ethnic fighting.

With aid from the international community, major reconstruction has taken place since the advent of peace in 1995, and despite the problems it continues to face, Bosnia is generally considered a post-conflict success story.

In 2005, The Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar made it onto the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Mostar’s Bridge Over the Neretva: A Muslim and Croat symbol of reconciliation.

We should all take the time to learn about, and learn from, the history of this fascinating place. And most of all, to not forget.

Piece of shrapnel on a simple memorial.

Adventure on, with an educated mind and respect,

Kristen