After the easy and rich surroundings on the coast in Dubrovnik, arriving at the desolate bus and train stations in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina was a bit of a confrontation. Sheets of opaque plastic covered missing panes of glass and the concrete walls were covered with pits left from bullets. Outside paced a scruffy man and two young dreadlocked daughters eating ice cream. It's safe to assume the dreads were not the family's effort to romanticize themselves as hippies, since we saw the father starting their campfire behind partial building remains early the next morning.
There isn't a block throughout the city that doesn't have a blunt reminder of the war that took place there in the 90's, from bullet-pitted walls, shell-scars in the sidewalk pavement, and entire burned-out buildings, to graveyards filled with gravestones all sharing the same years. As our senses acclimated over our 24 hours in town, this sad backdrop gave way to thriving street life and we realized a day wasn't going to be enough time to spend in this surprisingly beautiful city.
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