Mostar, a city in southern Bosnia, was reduced to a pile of rubble in the Balkan war fought in the 90s. One of the reasons we visited the city was to try and understand why the war occurred here and what happened.

I gained a better understanding of the war on my first trip through Europe. I visited Sarajevo which received the most press at the time for the devastating siege that killed thousands of innocent citizens and what was the last straw in terms of NATO involvement. A huge highlight of my last trip was visiting Kosovo where I stayed with a family for a week. This was in 2004 before Kosovo was even a recognised country and it was being run by the UN. I was told many first hand stories of the atrocities that went on.

The complicated war is almost impossible to understand and harder to summerise. But basically the previous communist state of Yugoslavia was crumbling. Already Slovenia and Croatia had gained independence with relatively small wars. Other parts of the Yugoslav pie wanted to be sliced off to become their own states too. The problem in Bosnia was not everyone wanted their own country, some wanted to continue as part of Serbia.

So rather than have a chat over a nice cuppa the two sides blew each other up in the cities they lived in, killing thousands. What makes the war even more complicated is after a couple of years, the Bosnian's started fighting amongst themselves. So instead of fighting united for their own free country against the Serbians a complicated religious war between Christians and Muslims went on at the same time. Mostar was one of the cities where this went on.

My main worries as a young teenager were whether Micheal Jordan would win another NBA championship or if I would be lucky enough to go on a holiday to Queensland. Young blokes my age living in Mostar worried about whether their house would be hit by the constant shelling or if they might be picked off by a sniper on their scurrying journey to find some food.

Mostar is unique in that it is was the limit of the Ottoman (Turkish) empire so the city is full of mosques, some which are 500 years old. It's also full of christian churches. Basically this was ok until the war kicked in. The historic (world heritage) part of the town contains medieval Islamic buildings including a famous bridge. The bridge, built an incredible 460 years ago, stood withstanding earthquakes etc until 1994 when it was blown to smithereens for no apparent reason during the conflict.

We saw countless scars of the war including small craters in the footpaths and blackened crumbling shells of buildings. Grave yards full of new tombstones all with war year dates chiseled next to pictures of young men.

In 2004 the bridge was rebuilt along with some if the buildings. (The bridge is the photo for this post) But it will take a long time for the lives of those affected to be repaired.

Anywho, enough of war and history...

We then popped back over into Croatia to the old (everything in Europe is old) port/fort Dubrovnik. A very cool place with plenty of rich blokes walking around with their Ralph Lauren sweaters over their shoulders as if they are the captain of the Queen Mary. But behind ever rich bloke was another stone alleyway to a church dedicated to a saint then another alleyway to the ancient maze of the town. It was great wandering around. One alleyway led to a little door through the city wall and we found ourselves perched in a little bar outside overlooking the peaceful Mediterranean sunset - nice.

At 7:00 in the morning I watched the best most nerve wracking grand final of all time. I know the Pies wont let me down next Saturday.

The next stop down the coast was in the country of Montenegro. Kotor (with of course another medieval old town and wall and castle) was more a spot for some natural beauty. The bay is surrounded by massive mountains creating more of a fiord than a bay. The mountains are dotted with monasteries shrouded in swirling mist. We stayed in a cheap dump with post card views of the bay and the nicest local family who provided great broken English conversation and of course beer...

We are now in Sofia the capital of Bulgaria after some mammoth bus trips through Kosovo and Macedonia. Tonight it's an overnight bus to Istanbul - can't wait...