Blogs from Bosnia & Herzegovina, Europe - page 14

To get to Sarajevo from Belgrade a 7 hour 6am bus trip was in order. I had gone far too long without an early start in my entire holiday, and the several 6am-ish starts i have had in the last few days have more than made up for this. The bus was very Balkan, with stops an unannoying every half hour or so. Then a ride on the public trolley bus to get to our Pension. Luckily the weather has been very mild in Bosnia & Herzegovina, a chilly 30 degrees most days, getting down to a freezing 15 degrees at night sometimes. Almost enough to get my cardigan back out! Sarajevo is a stunning city to drive into, with houses perched on hills surrounding a city in the bottom. A bit reminiscent of Hobart, except ... read more

We met the correct van this time at 7:45, and picked up the rest of the group for Mostar. 9 including the driver: couple from Australia, 2 young women from Canada, and a mother/daughter from Russia. We headed off to Bosnia-Herzegovina and the famous city of Mostar. Our tour guide Antonio was excellent. He knew how to manage a group. After an hour, we stopped for bathroom and white coffee in a tiny village of Slano. It was tiny, with a nice little harbor, a 5 star Admiral Grand Hotel ($500 pernight), Hotel Osmina ( very nice for $50 per night). I would think about staying here for a beach holiday and visit Dubrovnik. The value is much greater… Dubrovnik is extremely expensive even for locals. Next we went through border crossings. First we went into ... read more

K- We visited Sarajevo in late May and found it a real multicultural city with an actual demarcation on the pavement in the Old Town (Stari Grad) between "East" and "West"! The 15th Century market area in the "East" town of (Baščaršija) originally had over 12,000 shops crammed in to a tiny area. There are still several hundred today along with many restaurants selling the local speciality foods such as cevabi (spiced meatballs served with flatbread, sour cream and onion). In many ways we got the East meets West flavour we had expected in Istanbul but didnt really get - probably because Stari Grad is much smaller and more compact. For many years Sarajevo was of course infamous as "war torn" or "beseiged". It is easy to see why it was possible to beseige the city ... read more

Notre 2e et dernier arrêt en Bosnie a été à Mostar. C'est une petite ville très touristique qui est connue à cause de son beau pont et la belle rivière bleue-verte qui passe en dessous. C'était vraiment beau et comme les 5000 autres touristes qui sont passés par là en même temps que nous, l'activité principale consistait à traverser le pont plusieurs fois et se photographier avec de plusieurs points de vue :) On a réussi malgré tout le monde... et on n'était même pas dans la haute saison.. je ne veux même pas m'imaginer c'est comment en juillet-août. Vous remarquerez que Nellie n'apparaît pas sur plusieurs de nos photos... c'est qu'elle dormait confortablement dans sa poussette (ou le porte-bébé) la cocotte! Il y avait aussi beaucoup de marchands d'artisanat mais il y avait tellement de ... read more

The people of Sarajevo endured the longest siege in history during the course of the Yugoslav wars from 1992-1995. This is an historically significant European city, and her 300,000 citizens lived a life of hell for four long years under relentless shelling and small arms fire from enemy forces, who occupied strategically important hills surrounding the city. They also had to deal with ever vigilant snipers who wreaked a deadly toll on those brave enough to run the gauntlet of sniper alley. Sarajevo has been the recipient of a massive reconstruction fund since the cessation of hostilities in 1995, however it's painfully obvious with thousands of bullet holes violently impacted on building facades that the city was shot up all to hell in the war. As a result of being besieged during those bleak years the ... read more