While I would have much rather had a sunny day, the rainy dark day was very fitting for the town we visited. Today we crossed the border from Croatia into Bosnia-Herzegovina.  You don't realize how blessed you are or how sheltered a life you lead until you visit a country that was in war.  Our wonderful guide, Alma, lived there her whole life and shared with us a wealth of infomation about the war in the 90s.  It is too detailed to share here but it was overwhelming. I don't have words to describe being there and hearing the horrors.  Here are a few pictures from the day.

Rements of a building that was bombed.

 Bullet holes remain everywhere you look.

The entry to old town.

This is the Old Bridge.  It was attacked by missiles on 9-11-93 and brought down.  After the war it was rebuilt in the same style, with the same materials.  It's reopening in 2004 was an event attended by many dignitaries from around the world.  We got to watch a video that a local had taped as it was hit and fell.  Devestating...

Before the war this was a park.  During and after the war it became a cemetary.  Our guide told us that the cemetaries were on the outskirts of town, not in the middle of town.  During the war it was impossible to bury the dead there for fear of one's own safety.  So, when people were killed they would form a casket out of ruins and keep it in the ruins of a building until nightfall.  Then, cloaked in darkness and silence they would go to the park and bury them.  It was eery to see the year 1993 on all the headstones.  She said that there were serveral of these parks turned cemetarys in town.

One of the Mosques we visited.

The door to a church on the other side of the boulevard, away from the Old Bridge. One side has depictions from the Old Testment, the other side the New Testment.  Great detail.