By Scott Shephard
June 15, 2009
For several centuries, Mostar was a place where people with strong ethnic and cultural differences could live, work and worship in harmony. But in the 1990s that tolerance unraveled and buildings as well as people became victims.
This mosque, for example is one of only ten surviving houses of Muslim worship in Mostar. Before the war there were over thirty. The rest were intentionally destroyed, as was the famous bridge called Stari Most that spanned the Neretva River.
The bridge has been rebuilt and the mosques are active places of worship again. I think that tolerance has returned but everywhere there are signs of the war including shelled-out buildings and bullet-riddled walls.
The heart of Mostar is a beautiful place to visit and while the people seemed friendly and eager to please, I got the sense that people are still recovering from the pain and hardship of living in a war zone.
Click here for more photos of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Deb and I were enjoying our last evening strolling the back streets of the small port village of Vrboska, Croatia, when this man spotted us. He spoke very little English but tried to talk to us anyway. At one point, he signed for us to come inside his shop, the floor of which was covered in piles of fishing nets. He said, "I am professional" and sat down and began to show us how he fixed nets. His pride and his desire to demonstrate his skill were clearly apparent.
This cemetery is in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina. After visiting the famous Stari Most, which was destroyed in late 1993 during the war in Yugoslavia, Deb and I wandered off the beaten path. We ended up in a cemetery. This one is the final resting place of young men who died in the Yugoslavian war in the 1990s.
Driving south from Zagreb, you start to see the impact of the 1991 war over what used to be known as Yugoslavia. Near Slunj, Croatia, we encountered this place, which was a collection of weapons, generally of Soviet make, that were used and/or captured during this war. Nearby was a memorial for the local people who had died in the war.
Our flight landed on time in Zagreb yesterday afternoon and after picking up our rental car and checking in to our hotel, Deb and I headed to a . . . . cemetery?
Don't strain your eyes looking for body parts, but most of the people in this photo aren't wearing clothes. You've got to love those free-spirited Europeans and especially the Germans, who outnumbered other nationalities on this beautiful little beach. How do I know? Research.
This is what I look like when I travel. I think this is a flattering view! Behind me is the little grocery store that was just down the road from the hotel my wife and stayed at while visiting Corfu, Greece, in 2006. The store had a little bit of everything but was so small that three or four customers would have challenged its aisle space. But the store owner was friendly and thought big: on the awning the store proudly announces itself as a "Super Market" (in English)!
I'm embarrassed to admit this but one of the pleasures of visiting Delft last summer was standing in the very spot Scarlet Johansson stood in "Girl With a Pearl Earring." I like Scarlet but I don't think she likes me. This building, incidentally, isn't far from the spot she stood and is pictured in the movie.
One of the highlights of our trip to Japan in 2004 was a visit to the Japanese pre-school my son Brian worked at. The children we saw that morning behaved much as you'd expect children to behave anywhere, though I saw one big difference - these kids didn't appear to be as fearful or suspicious of strangers as our kids seem to be.