An early start with a fab brekkie, consisting of a personal buffet offering of cheese, meats, tomato, cucumber, olives, rolls, jams …and coffee. Followed by home made syrupy, gooey-sweet baklava.

Mostar, nicknamed the “City of Sunshine”, has a rich history characterised by the peaceful co-existence of three peoples: Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats. The city is most well-known for its iconic UNESCO-designated Old Bridge (Stari Most), from which local divers plunge 24 metres below into the icy Neretva River below (after collecting 100 Euro or so from the crowd).

The Old Bridge was commissioned by the Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent in 1557 when Mostar was a frontier town of the empire. Today, the bridge connects two distinct areas of the city: the Catholic Croat side west of the river, and the Muslim Bosniak side to the east.

Bazar Kujundziluk is an Ottoman-era market on either side of Stari Most – the cobblestone streets and ancient edifices are picturesque but jam-packed with visitors. Souvenirs range from textiles and tourist trinkets to beautiful lanterns, traditional tea-ware and ceramics.

A few minutes’ walk north of Stari Most on the Muslim side of the river, Koski-Mehmed Pasha Mosque is exemplary of Ottoman mosque architecture and dates back to 1618.

I decided I had to visit the Museum of War and Genocide which covers the history and atrocities of the Bosnia War of 1992-1995. With over 657 concentration camps; 120,000 civilian deaths; a few hundred thousands wounded; over 2 million displaced persons and refugees; 25,000 rape victims; 30,000 missing…this war was the worst since WW2. The museum is run by the victims of the war. We said ‘never again’ after WW2, yet genocide and massacres have continued around the world. Visitors have posted ‘peace’ and ‘harmony’ notes in one of the rooms.