WAR, What is it good for? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!

Stari Most at Night

Our travel down the Croatian coast ended with us travelling the short distance from Sibenik to Trogir, a small island city, famous as a Venetian outpost and surviving The Plague due to its isolation. A pretty little place that we had visited in 2006 with Pat and Belinda but Sandra didn’t remember so we returned. Our memory of this place will now be, in addition to the scenery,  the fabulous meal we had at “Kristian’s Pasta’ a trip advisor rated place in the old town that was great. And we were treated very well with a free appetizer and a free liqueur after supper. Just splendid!

Venetian island of Trogir, Croatia

But the theme of this entry is about War isn't it?  

Back in 2006 when we visited Croatia, we had heard one version of the truth about how the 1991 war started. 

And it was true in the small detail we heard, which was that the Bosnian’s entered Croatia at Plitvice Lakes and occupied it, as a Croatian National park symbolizing the takeover of the country. 

But there was more to the story, and Rick Steve has some good information in his guide book on the break-up of Yugoslavia. His entry link is here. https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/understanding-yugoslavia

From the Battle Ground - A true Story

In 2009 when sailing in the Broughton archipelago we met Zorana McDaniel, who was from Bosnia and escaped on the last plane out of Sarajevo, leaving

Bullet holes
evident today
1 block from our Pension

her husband and father behind to face the war. When escaping through a tunnel under the airport she and her toddler son were confronted by an elderly set of grandparents who held an infant child in their arms and pleaded with her to take the child to safety with her on the plane. 

Without knowing them; the child, or who would claim the infant when she got to safety, she undertook that selfless act. 

The sadness in her eyes and face as she told us that story which likely saved that child’s life, showed us that we didn’t know the damn story at all. 

Soon after Sandra and I would both read the book, ‘The Cellist of Sarajevo’, an amazingly well written novel by a Canadian author about the experiences during the Balkan war. If you haven’t read it you must. Its viewpoint is through the eyes of a sniper, and an old man, and the Will of a cellist who plays every day at noon in Sarajevo regardless of the consequence. 

Please see our Italian friend Mauro’s video footage on the tunnel in Sarajevo.  It is extremely well done. http://youtu.be/S9lsT3tNWVI

So here we are first in Mostar, whose famous landmark the ‘Stari Most’ bridge was bombed several times and finally destroyed 09.11.1993. Yes another 9/11.

Mostar by Day

Equally tragic for the people here. As we watched the home shot video footage of the bombing of the bridge , see footage here, https://youtu.be/_5tTbXAQ4uA?si=RldCntFNpyR9PnC- we were repulsed by the sheer stupidity of the action, which served nothing more than to demoralize the people of Mostar, a small city 126 kms from Sarajevo. The bridge, a foot bridge in the Old town served no military purpose.

The town is very much like Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic, a scenic river winding through the town, rushing fresh water in the mountains and a very ancient background. Beautiful in all aspects. 

I do not want to portray Bosnians as victims here, they aren’t, they perpetrated similar atrocities in Croatia. In 2006 many of the men we saw in Dubrovnik were without limbs, all very sorrowful looking. The mood is improving but it is only 20 years and it will take a generation to lose the feelings but hopefully not the memory of this wasteful effort. 

There was something more lost than a bridge, lives, and a war. The world lost a community of Christians, Muslims, and Jews that lived in harmony, that was fractured along ethic, religious, and political lines for nothing.

Medjugorje, Poticejl and surrounding area

Our second day in the area was to take in Medjugorje, the 2^nd most popular Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world, and another WHS, this time Poticejl, a fort, mosque and artist community on the banks of a river about 17 kms outside Mostar.

French Mass,
everyone is under the shade trees

Mass was being said in Slavic inside the church and in French at the outside mass site, with a beautiful singer. Truly a memorable event.

Poticejl is a fort and mosque built into a turn in the canyon the river runs through. At one time it was strategic for controlling movement up the river.

View from the Castle Tower