Last week we took our first big roadtrip out of Serbia to explore other parts of the region. While the trip wasn't without its challenges (Andrew caught a bad cold and we learned never to trust a GPS in Bosnia), we saw some of the most beautiful landsacpes and historic sites imaginable.
After a 9+ hour drive through a rainy, but breathtakingly beautiful Bosnia, we arrived late Wednesday night in the small Croatian coastal town of Soline, just outside Dubrovnik. We stayed in an apartment right by the sea and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon at a nearby beach. The mornings were chilly, but the sun soon warmed us up and, as you can see, Eden and Fox were undeterred from getting in the cool water.
Dubrovnik is called the "Pearl of the Adriatic," and you can see why. The walled old town has been perched over the Adriatic coast for centuries. Even in the off-season, there were a lot of tourists. Still, we enjoyed lunches, ice cream, and just soaking in the ambiance of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. The pictures hardly do it justice; it's something you really have to see for yourself.
After Croatia, we returned into Bosnia. Actually, Hercegovina to be precise. Unlike Bosnia proper, which is characterized by lush green mountains, Hercegovina, though mountainous as well, looks more like the southwestern States, or southern Italy or Spain. The dry mountains are accented with shrubs and beautiful emerald rivers and streams. We visited Mostar, another UNESCO site, renouned for its bridge and old town, as well as several historic mosques. The bridge stood for five hundred years until Croatian forces destroyed it in 1993. The remnants of the original bridge lie beneath, but it was rebuilt in the exact design as the original a year later. The kids had a blast crossing and recrossing this and other bridges, exploring the coble streets, climbing a minaret, and picking out a souvenir from the local vendors.
As beautiful as Dubrovnik and the Adriatic are, I think Bosnia and Hercegovina wins the prize for the most beautiful country I've ever seen. We snapped a few pictures from the car as we careened through the narrow, winding mountain roads (there are no other types of roads in Bosnia). I felt like we were on a model train table display.
Unfortunately, the beautiful landscape is still scarred with tragic reminders of the wars of the '90s. Eighteen years after the Dayton Peace Accord, you still see entire villages bombed out. Even in Mostar, as you can see in these pictures, you see houses and buildings that were shelled and pock-marked with bullet holes. Still more tragic was seeing a cemetary where all of the tombstones were marked birthdate-1993.
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