Blogs from Bosnia & Herzegovina, Europe - page 3

Today is going to be smelly. We have run out of clean clothes and yesterday’s car troubles put paid to our laundry plans. So we will be driving to Sarajevo with the windows open. 3 things I know about Sarajevo; (1) Franz Ferdinand was assassinated here, an event which sparked World War I, (2) during the Bosnian War the city was under siege for several years and (3) it hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics. This morning entails another scenic mountain drive, much of it along the valley of the beautiful blue-green Neretva River. We stop in Jablanica, site of a WW2 battle where Tito’s Partisan forces took out a railway bridge to thwart the advancing Germans. The bridge still lies upended in the river as a monument to those who fought. On the outskirts of Sarajevo ... read more

Another beautiful day in Croatia. We were up and ready by 8:30 today. Our wonderful hosts were so kind and they helped us with our luggage to our pick-up point. Normally we would be fine taking care of it ourselves, but have you seen the number of steps to our place? They were so generous and their help was much appreciated. Especially because it was already so hot and Kirsten and Chester definitely over-packed. Damien met us at our pick-up spot just outside the walls of Old Dubrovnik. It was an amazing place to spend two nights right in the middle of the city walls. We were told it was a two-hour drive to Mostar, Bosnia. Chester slept most of the way and missed out on several conversations. For once, Kirsten was wide awake in the ... read more

Car hire was definitely the way forward for a day trip into Bosnia from Split. The bus, as usual, is a rather time consuming affair and car hire is comparatively cheap. However, a serious of tunnel closures, diversions and the absence of a sat nav and we became quickly unstuck. Instead of barrelling down the major inland conduit of the E65, we found ourselves hugging the coastline on the Route 8 coastal road. The scenery was moving sluggishly by as we went through the closely spaced seaside resorts along this route. Traffic stopping regularly at every crossing and road work. Fortunately the further along we went along Route 8, the more dramatic it became and we eventually started losing the signs of tourist industry over-development and the straggle of cheap pensions and motels. Time anxiety in ... read more

Any significant excursion into the Balkans would not be complete without a skiing expedition on Mount Vlasic, Bosnia. And the best time to visit would arguably be around new year’s eve when the place is packed with tourists celebrating in the newly fallen snow. The Vlasic mountain ridge dominates the area like a massive fortress, with numerous springs, forests, and pastures and it is a tourist attraction site of significant economic importance in the region. Significant peaks include Paljenic, Decani, and Galicia and each is well marked with numerous routes that are linked to Travnik city by some 25 km of macadamized roads. The nearest airport to Vlasic resort is Banja Luka International airport which is 75 km away. The Vlasic ski resort is located in Canton, Federation of Bosnia and the nearest town is Travnik, ... read more

Sometimes the journey is better than the destination and sometimes the journey just never seems to end. Let’s just say that we had an interesting journey from Zabljak to Mostar. It started well; we chose to start with the windy route through more of the National Park and it was lovely, more valleys and meadows. Then we continued the journey towards the BiH border, the problem came when we came to a junction on the Tara river; the gps was quite insistent that we turn right and the route we had looked at the day before said turn left. As we had neither a paper map nor access to the internet we decided to trust our gps machine. This was fine to the border then suddenly became not so ok; a narrow road in very poor ... read more