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| bosnia-hercegovina |
| sarajevo, mostar |
| Sarajevo was one of my favourite cities on the trip. It was such a strange experience to wander the streets and see the bullet riddled walls and shell blast splash marks on the pavement, reminders of the war were everywhere. The people were great, the city was alive, there were cafes and bars and restaurants and the streets were full. I stayed in the Turkish quarter, Bascarsija and spent most of my days there. It's hard to believe that only ten years ago, the whole city was surrounded by Serbian forces and held in a medieval siege for four years, from 1992-1996. |
| Sarajevo |
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| Bullet holes in the side of a building and (right) Bascarsija plaza, with the Gazi-Husrevbey Mosque in the background. |
| The 'big, yellow box' Holiday Inn, wartime home to foreign journalists and (right) a burnt-out building gives you an idea what most of the city looked like immediately following the war. |
| Children feeding the pigeons in Bascarsija square and (right), a skeletal indentation called a 'Sarajevo Rose' marks the spot where a shell exploded. |
| The Jewish cemetery with it's damaged headstones sits high above the city along 'Sniper's Alley'. Serbian snipers would sit here and shoot-to-kill men, women and even children below. |
| Ferhadija Catholic Church. In it's surroundings lies the Gazi-Husrevbey Mosque, an old Jewish Synagogue and an Orthodox Church, the only place on earth where these four religions co-exists in such a small area. |
| This small farmhouse is now the War Museum. The tunnel though which food and weapons were smuggled in and out of the city during the siege is in it's cellar and runs under the airport nearby. |
| Everyone from the hostel out for dinner. |
| A Bosnian coffee. Served thick and black, like Turkish Coffee, in a small metal flask with lokum (Turkish Delight) and sugar on the side. |
| The Miljacka River runs through Sarajevo. |
| A beautiful, tiny medieval town in the Nereta River valley south of Sarajevo. Mostar is famous for its most or bridge that was destroyed by Croat shelling in 1993. It's now been rebuilt and the river it crosses marks the border between the Muslim and Croat sections of the city. |
| Mostar |
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| The Stari Most Bridge over the Neretva River and (right) the Karadzozbeg Mosque, the top of the minaret was blown off during the war and has been rebuilt. |
| Simon and Elias, met them in Sarajevo. |
| A view of Mostar from the top of the Karadzozbeg Mosque minaret. |
| (Above) A shell blast indentation in an old building and (below) all that remains of a shelled house. |
| A craftsman in Kujundziluk, the cobbled old town of Mostar. |
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