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Tourism: East, Balkans in top 25 National Geographic

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, 20 NOV - National Geographic Traveler has included various places in Central and Eastern Europe and in the Balkans in its new "25 most exciting destinations" for 2020 list, published online. At the top of the list of the best places to visit next year, the Bosnian town of Mostar, which marks "25 years of peace," National Geographic wrote. "Partially destroyed during the Bosnian War (1992-1995), history-rich Mostar still bears scars of the past" but the city today is largely reconstructed, "with local and international artists regularly decorate the abandoned structures with colorful murals." "Mostar's most tangible image of peace is the 16th-century Stari Most (Old Bridge), rebuilt in 2004," the National Geographic recalled. On the list also the so-called National Blue Trail, in Hungary, "a dream hiking destination" made by hundreds of kilometers of "wonderfully diverse web of paths labeled with white-and-blue-striped waymarkers." Originating in 1938, the Hungarian trail is recognized as Europe's first long-distance track. National Geographic Traveler suggested to travel also to Telc, a town called "the Czech Florence" for its Renaissance architecture and to the Bialowieza Forest (Belarus/Poland), a "UNESCO World Heritage site" that "protects remnants of lowland Europe's last remaining primeval forests." The forest is home to 250 bird and 59 mammal species, including the European bison. Finally, one can choose to "drive", preferably renting an electric car, "to views once accessible only to mountaineers" on the Grossglockner High Alpine Road, in Austria, surrounded by 37 peaks and 19 glaciers. (ANSA).