Mostar Bridge

bridge- /brij/ noun, verb, bridged, bridg·ing, adjective –noun 1. a structure spanning and providing passage over a river, chasm, road, or the like. 2. a connecting, transitional, or intermediate route or phase between two adjacent elements, activities, conditions.

Mostar. Think bridge. Think UNESCO. See the divers jump from the Bridge, Stari Most, in an amazing display of antiquated sport. See tourists cross bridge. Oh, wait. Bridge is blown up by Croatian nationalists. Bridge is restored with millions of American dollars and Turkish lira. Bridge becomes UNESCO site.

Bosnia is a patchwork fulfilling that cliche on ethnicity, yet it makes for one uneven rough, threaded, tattered quilt.

Herzegovina has holes all throughout its canton. The shrapnel has littered and pock-marked every surface-- on the Bosnian side of Mostar--if it hasn't blown out entire facades altogether. This town is appopriate for Westerners' fascination with multi-ethnic, internecine war. So you will venture to see this surreal town with its winding river and awe at the bridge. Germans, Australians, Japanese, and they will take pictures from that bridge and stand atop and maybe for just a moment they might feel shivers looking down, imagining a plunge. Not one of us can fathom that water was once red.