Hello Everyone,

So here it is our final blog (and hopefully the final set of photos will be following shortly). We have decided to head home a little earlier than planned as, now it is July, Europe is getting very busy and very expensive and after so long on the road we are getting very tired. We are waiting for our flight home from Sarajevo this afternoon which gives us a perfect opportunity to update you on the last few days.

Bosnia is stunning and tragic in equal measures and that one country could suffer so much and still thrive with vitality is astounding. We spent the first few days in Mostar, the beautiful town which is home to the famous bridge. The bridge which was their biggest attraction was destroyed in 1993 during the war but luckily rebuilding was completed in 2004 and has again begun to bring tourists back to the area. The small town was home to large Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim communities so it is no wonder that the war between the three was fought so heavily here. The former front line runs parallel with the river and most of the buildings along it (mostly peoples houses) are still rubble. Everywhere you look there are bullet holes or blast damage and it really brings it home how these people where fighting with their neighbours in their own homes.

From Mostar we headed to Sarajevo which as you can imagine is no less humbling. Sarajevo's major sights, despite being a beautiful and culturally rich city, now centre around the history of the seige - sniper alley, the yellow holiday inn where the journalists stayed and the old library which was destroyed along with 2 million books and a cultures entire history and still remains a ruin due to lack of funds.

Yesterday the girl from our hostel took us for a drive around the city to show us some of the remnants of the war. First we visited the 800m hand built tunnel which was used by the Bosnians to pass under the airport out of the surrounded city and into free Bosnia to get food and weapons. The tunnel emerges in the ordinary house of an extraordinary family who have now turned their house into a museum to help people remember how one city survived because of the tunnel.

Just a few years before the war began Sarajevo hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics so next, in what was one of our most surreal experiences, we walked down the Bobsleigh run which was destroyed by the Serbs and is surrounded by warning signs for land mines in the area.

Perhaps the most moving part of the day was when she took us to a viewpoint over the city used by Serbian snipers during the seige (there where still bullets scattered on the ground). When Anessa was asked how far a sniper could shoot she pointed to a block of flats about a km away at the other side of the valley. She said, so matter of factly, that that was where her father and brother had been when they were killed by snipers aiming from the spot where we now stood. Anessa is now only in her mid twenties and passed through the tunnel herself when she was just eleven and is a clear example of how these people have suffered and how they have survived the death of 200,000 people in their country.

Not content with playing a pivotal role in just one war, Sarajevo is also home to the famous bridge where Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his pregnant wife were assasinated in the moment that started World War I. Coincidentally the day we visited the museum was the exact day, 94 years later, of the shooting.

So there it is, the end of a fantastic trip. Thanks for reading and we will see you all very soon.

Over and out

Laura and Gareth