Castle, cake and cemeteries

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Geo: 44.2223, 17.6651

Today I decided to go to Travnik, a town of 27,000 and former capital city. As seems to be the way here, figuring out how to get anywhere here is fun and games. Getting the tram this morning involved a lot of 'over there'/'that way' vague nodding and pointing. I arrived at what I thought was a tram stop- there are no official stops so groups of people seems to be the universal indicator, bought a ticket from the kiosk and waited for the number 5. About 15 minutes and 10 number 3s went past before I realized that actually the number 5 might not pass through this area at all. I asked around and was told the 3 went to the station so I hopped aboard. 10 minutes later and I'd spotted the station signs off in the distance- clearly this tram wasn't actually going there. So I jumped off, asked around, found no one who spoke English and decided to follow my nose. A 15 minute run and several wrong turns later, I arrived, bought my ticket, jumped on what I hoped to be the right bus and away we went.

Bosnian buses are very very nice. Set out around tables, they're fast and comfortable. Bosnia itself is also a beautiful country, very mountainous and with lots of typical villages. There's still definitely an 'old fashioned' culture here. 2.5 hours, after one confusing ticket check (the conductor jumps on the bus, shouts a lot, and jumps off 2 miles later,) and a nice guy telling me when to get off (apparently tourists don't really go down this route) later and I arrive in Travnik, a city which has retained a lot of its Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian culture,

A vague check of the map and I set off back up the hill to do some exploring. At the top I found a cemetery and a beautiful church which had great views of the town. Travnik is set in a valley with the river Lasva running through the middle. As is apparently normal in Bosnia, there was a lot of mist/morning fog so the view wasn't as nice as it could have been. From here I spotted the old ottoman fort which dates from the 1400s. and so went to investigate. What I hadn't realized was that it was the other side of a gully and to get there I had to walk through back alleys surrounding people's houses and so there was a plethora of chickens, pigs and dogs to navigate. The fort itself is really well preserved, I presume because the war didn't really affect this area. There was also a couple of canons and a nice museum about education in the area.

After this I went in search of lunch; apparently impossible in the area of town I was in so two twixs had to suffice (it's a hard life!). The afternoon was spent wondering through the town centre and buying Bosnian cheese (extremely hard, strong feta for those of you who are interested). Unemployment in Bosnia is generally around 25% and rises to 45% for those between 20 and 30. Even so I was surprised by the number of unemployment men on the streets of Travnik; they were in cafés, churchyards, the supermarket and a good number were very drunk. After accidentally boarding a bus bound for Budapest which the nice driver turned around to drop me back at the bus station, I headed back to Sarajevo. I have no idea how people understand which buses/trains to get on here; there are no signs or announcements. I think there's an unspoken code foreigners aren't parry to!

All in all, it was great to see some of the Bosnian countryside and a smaller town. The cheese was also an added bonus!

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