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The 9hr train ride from Hungary to Bosnia was amazing. We had to pass through Croatia and then into Bosnia so went through loads of passport control and immigration. The train slowly chugged through great mountains and followed along rivers and local villages. Everybody has their own veggie patches and the funny Cousin It looking hay bails. When the train got to a road it would beep its horn manically and stop and check if there were any cars before carrying on, this obviously made it quite a bit slower. We went past a crazy industrial town which looked like it was hell, with high rise blocks for all the poor people that worked there. We arrived into Sarajevo at night in the dark with no money and no cash machine to be seen. Luckily there was a nice guy out the front of the station handing out leaflets about walking tours who directed us to the cash machine. It was pretty scary as there was not many street lamps but we managed to get some money and navigate our way to the city centre with help from the tram guy. Our hostel which ended up being a hotel was really
Canned Beef, Sarajevo
This is a sarcastic tribute to the foreign aid provided during the war in the early 90s. They say even dogs and cats would not eat it. nice and in a great location.
We got up in the morning with no idea how beautiful the city was as we had arrived in the dark. Sarajevo is nestled in amongst huge mountains and has pretty red tilled roofed houses dotted all up the sides and with mountains with snow capped peaks in the distance. It was Js birthday so we headed into the Turkish quarter for some traditional Turkish coffee with a big lump of Turkish delight on the side. We decided to have a lazy day and just wander the streets. The Turkish quarter is made up of old wooden shops selling lots of copper goods, jewellery, clothes and food. We were pretty taken aback by the buildings still showing the scars of the war with so many bullet holes like Swiss cheese. We had read in the Lonely Planet about the local food to try, we found a cafe full of locals so thought we should go and see what all the fuss was about. We managed to point at other people eating and order. It was a big pitta bread with lots of mini sausages like kofta kebabs in it with onion, chillies and a
garlic cream curd on the side. It was pretty damn good and so filling. Obviously as it was Js birthday we went for some beers and did a bit more wandering. J had read about a restaurant in the hills with amazing views so we decided as it was his birthday we would give it a go. We caught a cab up into the mountains which was mega cheap. Biban was perched on the edge of the mountain with panoramic views over the city. It was pretty breathtaking. We had a really nice three course meal and lots of red wine and enjoyed sitting outside watching the sun set and all the twinkling lights of the city.
Our next day we got up late and went for a traditional breakfast of spinach and cheese rolls in filo pastry with plain yoghurt on top. It was pretty yummy but very full of fat like most of their food. We had arranged with the guy from the train station to take one of his tours and met him at 11. The tour was definitely worth doing. It was for nearly three hours and he showed us all the main sites and gave
us a really good insight into the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was 8 when the war started and he explained to us how they managed to survive, it is pretty horrid to think that people of our age had to go through that. Everybody we met in Bosnia was really nice and couldn't have been more helpful. He showed us where to have dinner and explained more of the local dishes, so for lunch we went and had stuffed peppers, onions and cabbage rolls. Again it was delicious. That afternoon we enjoyed the sun and went for mega cheap pizza for dinner and then thought we would try dessert and got some really hard nougat type thing and a kind of crushed up nut paste thing which was very weird.
The next morning we had a 5am start to catch the train to Mostar. It was a 3hr trip, 160km through mountains with snow capped peaks, following an amazing turquoise green river with fish farms and huge hydro electricity damns. We thought that the first train trip was amazing but this one blew it away.
Mostar is a really pretty town centred around the Stari Most bridge
which got blown up in the war but they have rebuilt just as it was. The streets are all cobbled stones and with old buildings some destroyed from the war. The bridge is also known for the divers who jump off it into the amazing green river below. We luckily managed to see a guy jump but later found out you have to pay them to do it so no wonder we only saw the one guy do it. We decided to try and post some little presents back home for people so went to the Post Office only to be told that Bosnia is a special country and unfortunately we couldn't send them as they contained metal, like on the magnets. We will try again in Croatia, they might not be as special!!. We splashed out for dinner and went to a restaurant near the bridge and got a platter for two which contained the stuffed veggies, meat, potatoes and Bosnian cookies. One day was enough to wander the streets of Mostar and take in all of its sites so we decided to catch the local bus to Medugorje on our second day. The bus wound its way up
the mountain and through the wine region of the Bosnia to Medugorje. This town has got on the map since a group of teenagers said that the Holy Virgin spoke to them in 1981. Medugorje has been transformed into a pilgrim centre with people who believe it is a place of special worship, but with a massive cash in tackiness. J and I couldn't believe the amount of shops selling all our favourite religious goodies. We refrained from going straight to them and went off to check out the Jesus statue which miraculously weeps a colourless liquid from his knee. People queue to wipe his knee with special 3 Euro tissues as they think it is special holy water. I was amazed at people crying and draping themselves over the statue, it was all a bit weird. We then made the pilgrimage walk to the top of a mountain on the outskirts of the town where another statue but this time of the Virgin Mary stands. People sacrifice themselves and make the walk up the sharp rocky hill in bare foot, again a bit more weeping and religious prayers taking place. J and I were a little disappointed by the
little statue but felt we deserved time to go and spend some money in the thousands of little tacky religious shops.
We left Bosnia and Herzegovina the next day and caught the bus to Split in Croatia.
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