A country in which the spark for WW1 was lit and a century of turmoil is recovering nicely
Bosnia is a country with a long and storied history. From being in the Ottoman Empire, to the spark that started WW1, to the Yugoslavia days, to the war with Serbia….this place has seen its shares of ups and downs. Now I believe the country is on the up. This place reminds me of a more organized Albania. I have been been to a few places around here…
Mostar was a city that was heavily shelled in the war with Serbia in the 90’s. It is a beautiful little town with a nice walking street with alot of shops. The most picturesque part as you will see is from the bridge (that i tripped on many times) and the river. Sometimes on this bridge, people will have diving competitions off of it. The bridge has been rebuilt after being destroyed and it is a huge part of the cities identity.
Sarajevo I have been to twice and it is a beautiful city. The architecture has a lot of Ottoman style in it but also a hint of Austrian from the time it was ruled by the Austrian Empire. Literally you can walk through the streets and see it turn from the Ottoman style to the Austrian style before your eyes!!!! The streets are lined with cobblestone with many shops around. It still has a feel of it that things are not yet right and it will take some time for their economy to improve. I did go to the spot where Gavrilo Princip killed Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand to start WW1.
Finally, one of the last major places I went (besides stops for the afternoons in small towns) was Srebrenica. Anyone who has followed history, knows that in the 90’s the Serbs came in and pretty much tried to wipe out all of the men and boys out of this town. Somewhere around 9000 plus were killed in three days. This was just as bad as any atrocities during WW2. As I walked around the memorial, and going into the factory where many of them were kept, I could not help but shed some tears (as I never cry) seeing that this did not happen long ago, this happened in my lifetime, less than 20 years ago. It is a touching memorial, however they were still burying bodies of people they have discovered while I was there. Not a place to go for the faint of heart…..
