Croatia has a population of about 3.8 million and has around 20 million tourists a year. Tourism contributed about 11 billion euro to the Croatian economy last year.
Not many Croatians live outside of the cities. There is a general movement of its population towards the cities. The inland has a lot of steep mountains around 1900m high made of limestone, farming is difficult and is predominantly subsistence.
There is generally wide plateaus on top of the mountains.We passed a few interesting old buildings on our way to the border with Bosnia. First up was a 1700 year old aqua duct built by the romans to supply water to Split. It still supplies 30% of the cities water. Next was an old 4th century BC fort, Klis Fort, built by the Venetians to defend their hold on Split and the Dalmatian Coast from the Ottoman Empire East of the ranges in Bosnia.
Once we left the coastal area the country side was pretty much all the same, steep 2000m high limestone mountains with narrow valleys in-between. Lots of tunnels used in the highway (go through mountains rather than over them.)
We had a border crossing at 9:10am, after which we had entered Bosnia and Herzegovina. We were mainly in the Herzegovina region in the south. Bosnia and Herzegovina is made up of 3 main groups, Croatian Catholics, Muslims and Serb Orthodox. Integration between groups is rare. Each ethnic group has its own government, resulting in a huge public service and high taxes. A lot of corruption has resulted. This has caused a lot of emigration of young people moving to western Europe. Most of the people who live close to the Croatian border recognise themselves as Croatian.
Bosnia’s currency is the Convertible Mark’s, about 2:1 mark to euro conversion. In Bosnia VAT is 17%, 25% in Croatia. Fuel in Bosnia is around 1.3 euro a litre. Croatia average wage is around 1k euro per month. The biggest industry here in this region of Bosnia is Aluminium production, the factory is in the Christian area, and the Muslims control power supply, and prices!
Near Mostar we drove past Ottoman village, Walled with minarets 15th century, Pocitelj. We also past an impressive road and bridge construction being funded by China. There is a growing Chinese economic presence in the country with the “Road and Belt” economic initiative.
Our guide for Mostar was Dino. He explained the long complex history of the region. It seems all, or most of Europe, particularly eastern European countries have a complex history. Countries/Empires seemed to take turns in occupying neighbouring countries.
Recent turbulence in the local history began as the Berlin wall came down and Tito died with no successor, Yugoslavia started to break down, and Serbs asserted their dominance. All the former Yugoslavia states had their own government but Milosevic pushed for a greater Serbia dominance.
War in Bosnia started in 1992. Very high casualty rate in war. There was hand to hand combat in Mostar, along ethnic lines, as opposed to war from a distance in the majority of the conflict. Mostar was targeted by the Serbian forces, the term ethnic cleansing has been mentioned in relation to the war in this area.
The old town of Mostar was essentially destroyed in the 1990’s war. Only a few buildings remain,
and many of them have bullet and shrapnel markings on their walls.
These remain as much due to economic pressures as much as a reminder of what happened. There were many interesting tales of the old city, but none more interesting than the story behind how the “old bridge” came into being during the Ottoman occupation. 
It’s worth researching if you are interested. One of the stories related to the bridge, which stands 21m above the 5m deep river below, is that of an Ottoman offering children silver coins if they retrieved them by diving from the bridge as he threw them. Local men today pass the hat around the congregated tourists, and as soon as they have 50 euro, one of them jumps or dives off the bridge!
Mostar is now ethnically divided, Christian 55% Muslims 45% and each community has separate services based on ethnicity
The tensions are still alive and well today, as an example, at local soccer derby matches there are no spectators allowed because of fighting.
It is VERY complicated.
We had lunch in Mostar, and it was delicious. We shared, as usual, a Muckalica (a spicy beef stew with rice and potato) and a Mijesano Medo (mixed meat – chicken kebab, sausage, patties, chicken breast and chips and salad), followed by Baklava and a Turkish coffee. Yum. (the baklava took the edge off the coffee ) After lunch I went for a walk through the “old” town on the other side of the river. A few, well 4 or 5, tourist coaches had arrived while we had lunch, so the streets were getting pretty jammed. It was all new old buildings selling tourist trinkets.
But interesting in its own sort of way.
We left at 1212.pm and took the scenic route back, first step was to drive the switch back roads to the plateau at the top of the mountains, then it was a scenic drive through and past the small farming villages.
For dinner we went to local restaurant recommended by our hotel, SUG, a short stroll away. We had a delicious meal, we started with a cheese plate and finished with their signature seafood and pasta plate. 
All the seafood was cooked to perfection and the sauce in was in was so flavoursome. Just YUM!
