Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TV. Seeing how former enemies find ways to overcome their animosity and heal; enjoying
the new energy that teenagers—whose parents did the fighting—bring to the streets; and
observing combatants who followed no rules now raising children in the ruins resulting
from their mistakes, all leaves a strong impression on any visitor.
Looking for a change of pace from Croatia's Dalmatian Coast, I drove from Dubrovnik to
the city of Mostar, in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Almost everyone doing this trip takes the scen-
ic coastal route. But I took the back road instead: inland first, then looping north through
the Serb part of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
While Bosnia-Herzegovina is one country, the peace accords to end the war here
in 1995 gerrymandered it to grant a degree of autonomy to the area where Orthodox
Serbs predominate. This Republika Srpska, or “Serbian Republic”—while technically part
of Bosnia-Herzegovina—rings the Muslim- and Croat-dominated core of the country on
three sides.
When asked for driving tips, Croatians—who, because of ongoing tensions, avoid
Republika Srpska—actually insisted that the road I hoped to take didn't even exist. As
I drove inland from Dubrovnik, directional signs sent me to the tiny Croatian border
town…but ignored the major Serb city of Trebinje just beyond. Despite warnings from
Croats in Dubrovnik, I found plenty past that lonely border.
