Mostar (Bosnia-Herzegovina)

I remember seeing, as a child, a photograph showing daring young Yugoslav men jumping from a bridge into impossibly blue water below. It struck me as very exciting and must have made quite an impression on me as I told myself that one day I would see it for myself. The bridge was in Mostar which is now in the independent country of Bosnia and Herzegovina; more specifically, it is the regional capital of the province of Herzegovina in the south west of the country. There is a bridge there today but it is not the original; that was blown up by a Croatian rocket during the Bosnian war but after ... more

Writing any article on Mostar is very difficult for me as every time I think of this city in Bosnia Herzegovina I feel very emotional. I have only visited twice but the whole city and people left a great heartfelt impression on me. I am not sure if it is because of what happened to the town in the Bosnian War, where families who had lived together side by side for centuries suddenly started killing each other, or whether it is the destruction of the houses and buildings, and the famous old bridge or perhaps it is just because the town overlooking the river is such a beautiful, tranquil place ... more

I wanted that title to be as crass and tasteless as possible, for reasons I hope will become apparent later. It's taken me two months to get down to writing this piece, because no matter how I re-wrote it, the original article just ended up sounding like Beer Tears. Mostar lies three hours inland by coach from the seductive tourist trap of Dubrovnik, across the border into mountainous Bosnia-Herzegovina. Both cities suffered devastating sieges a decade ago, but since then, their fates have been so different. Dubrovnik basks on the Adriatic coast, smug as only a chic, cosmopolitan tourist haven ... more

Mostar has a famously tragic history, which should never be forgotten, but you shouldn't let the shadow of the war in the 1990s from overpowering the fantastic experience you will have in Mostar. It is true that bomb-damaged houses dot the streets of the city, a constant reminder of the horrors which the Bosnian people suffered; but, in a symbolic juxtaposition, alongside the destruction the city seems to be redeveloping, modernising, awaking from its war-induced slumber. The old bridge over the Neretva (a river of the most startling shade of pure turquoise, quite unlike the many polluted ... more