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I can't remember if i mentioned in my last post if Bosnia was a mostly Muslim country. There were more than a few mosques back in Sarajevo and many more in Mostar. Mostar is a much smaller town to the south of Sarajevo in Bosnia that was, as a result of the war with Serbia 13 years ago, badly damaged by grenades and gun fire. Mostar means bridge keeper in Bosnian and is a truly beautiful town. Its old streets are confined to a small cluster of dwellings on either side of a bright blue rushing river connected by its famous bridge. The Bridge has a delicate Gothic arch that characterizes most Islamic architecture and its sand colored stone looks from a the high hills above to be a dried wishbone balanced above a miraculously turquoise river. The town itself has smaller rivers running underneath it that join with its main artery in dramatic waterfalls along the cliff sides. These smaller waterways are built into the towns architecture to reveal themselves as they emerge from under sidewalks to form boarders of courtyards and many flowing pools connected by polished stone walkways and terraces. The sound if the water's turbulence is audible from anywhere within the old town making even sitting on a curbside an entertaining event. More incredible than the fact that this was all built at one time by hand, quarried by hand, designed with paper and pencil, and lived in for centuries by an extinct empire is that only 13 years ago it was all but reduced to rubble by the Serbian army , and in the last ten years been rebuilt to its original state.

Short historical aside: In an attempt to stop Bosnia from leaving the Kingdom of the Serbs, aka Yugoslavia, the Serbian govt went to war with Bosnia and tried to cleanse the country of its Muslims, which thanks to the lions share of the Yugoslavian military hardware they had at their disposal, they pretty much did.

Bosnia is now a recovering country that has managed to rebuild the historical sites of its cities, but has yet to mend its outlying areas. A quick walk outside the tourist areas of the historical districts of both Sarajevo and Mostar leads to buildings turned into what look like paper mache models of walls, pitted and pocked by bullets and grenades. No windows, no roofs just two or three sided structures looking like they were eaten away with acid. I spoke to two people at length about what had happened there just so I could know a little bit about what happened there. Both men, one was the owner of a hostel and the other a salesman in the market, seemed eager to explain things to me but the would each reach a point after a short time where they couldn't speak about it any longer. I guess Im way off the deep end here but there was a lot of emotion close to the surface with these two men and could be felt in the streets themselves. In an attempt to explain what the Bosnians think in terms of living in a city where there is an Orthodox Church, a Catholic Church, Mosques and Synagogues all within the same square kilometer the carpet salesman said to me, "I don't care how you talk to God; all I want to know is if you're a good person." He reminded me that Sarajevo was one of the only places in the world where you'll find those houses of worship so close together with the exception of Jerusalem.."and Brooklyn!" I said. "Dont forget Brooklyn!" Its fitting that I get to spend my last night in Bosnia, after a sun kissed day on the river, under a crescent moon and a starry sky.

ps. Traveling alone is great when there are some people to hang with...when you laugh the world laughs with you kind of thing, but there hasn't been a soul to be hung with for the last week so send me an email, I'm gettin lonely!