None other than the city of Mostar in Bosnia & Herzegovina
Visiting the country of Bosnia & Herzegovina was originally not on our list, but while in Croatia we were told by our Croatian friends to consider visiting the city of Mostar. We had heard mixed opinions about venturing into Bosnia & Herzegovina, but we are thankful to have visited, definitely worth the detour. We cannot begin without saying how welcoming and friendly the people of Mostar are. We don't realize our own cultures growing up back home shape our views of other cultures, whether we realize it our not. It is why venturing into other countries like Bosnia & Herzegovina help us widen our perspective of the world while learning so much about humanity. When diving into other cultures, you get a real good idea how much life varies around the world.
When arriving in Mostar we stayed at the Downtown Villa in the center city, a 5 minute walk away from the old cobble stone streets which lead you right into the old village. The old city within the city of Mostar has many shops with affordable trinkets, along with restaurants and bars. The old bridge is where most of the tourist will roam across, up and down the cobble stone streets as they search for bargains on Bosnian jewelry and even carpets. Just a cool atmosphere where you can enjoy the Bosnian culture, foods, Rakija and it's people.
You can't miss the famous old bridge called the Stari Most, which is probably the most popular tourist site in Mostar, and is rich in history. You can cross the bridge and check out the Neretva River running below, from a bridge which stood for 427 years until it was destroyed in the Croat-Bosniak war in 1993, which was eventually rebuilt and reopened in the early 2000's. About a 5 minutes walking distance is the Crooked bridge, seen in the middle picture below, which was built eight years before the old Stari Most bridge and was said to be a trial bridge for the old bridge.
After a day in the old city, the following day we decided to educate ourselves more about the war to better understand what took place here in the early 90's. We decided to check out the Museum of War and Genocide Victims 92-95 located in the center city as well. We definitely recommend checking the museum out while in Mostar, although it can be overwhelmingly depressing, it is something we do not regret doing. Shortly after the museum we took "The War Tour" which was quite the experience and opened our eyes on what happened here not too long ago. The tour picked us up at our hotel and started the tour off visiting numerous war sites in and outside the city still sacred with bullet holes to the day from the war. The tour also took us into the underground secret airport hanger tunnel which was built to withstand a nuclear blast. We strongly recommend this tour if you want to really learn about the Genocide war.
All in all we can confidently say we loved Mostar and surely we recommend visiting and exploring the Bosnia & Herzegovina region. A single day is all that is needed to see the city of Mostar. There is much more to explore through out the country, like the Pliva Lakes and the city of Travnik to name a few. We do get people asking us if Mostar is safe and we do feel it is quite safe. There are areas in the ruins with landmines still in tact but these areas are sealed off or noted as keep clear, and we honestly never saw any of these areas while in Bosnia. We feel just having the normal self awareness of travel is enough for Bosnia & Herzegovina. The people of Mostar are trying their best to upscale their tourism, and since 2017 the tourism rate has sky rocketed to 1.3+ million visitors a year and we are told that number is increasing every year. The city of Mostar is one that took us by surprise.
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