Blogs from Bosnia & Herzegovina, Europe - page 33

Well, this is definitly the hardest entry I have made yet. I returned late last night from a 4 day trip to Sarajevo and Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and although it was a fascinating trip, the entire thing seems a little bit surreal right now. I could go into a lot of detail, but I will spare you all and try to give the gist of it the best I can! A group of 6 of us took the night bus Wednesday and after a long and bumpy 13 hours we found ourselves droopy eyed and seriously lacking sleep in a dreary, raining, foggy Sarajevo. After a short ride (with a man I decided I was 75% sure was going to drive us down a strange alley and kill us all), we arrived at our fairly dingy ... read more

Hello all, So Bosnia. What a country. Or should I say countries? On the train from Zagreb to Sarajevo we passed through the northern part of the coutry and then headed south by bus through Mostar to Croatia. The geography is so different. The north is really green. Many fields, all growing corn by the looks of things, with the very occasional forested hill standing out. I would say it wasnt so much different from the south of Slovenia except Bosnia is more wild. It gives the impression that if the people were to leave tommorow it wouldnt take nature long to come and reclaim the land. The south, from Sarajevo, is much drier and the trees are slender and grow from the steep rocky mountains that are huge. Towering over wide flat valleys, like Mostar, ... read more

Last day with Roland unless we go back with him to Dubrovnik, we have 2 other options, Sarajevo or on to Montenegro as planned for our second week. I like to play things by ear, if we don't get up by 5am Dubrovnik is out. The bar is still empty, see same photo and imagine it a bit later. Went to eat on the Muslim side (it is only fair). Way too much food again so I fed a kitten, another came, and Roland said it was only fair to feed the other also, big mistake. It decided as kittens do, to jump up and grab my hand, hopefully I don't catch anything. There are 2 main bars where we ate, both outside next to each other playing v.load music, we seemed to be the only ... read more

Did a day-trip to Mostar in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Easiest border crossing ever, just had to flash your passport to the local police. There now exists a relative truce between the 3 ethnic groups - Croats (Catholics), Bosniaks (Muslim) and Serbians (Orthodox Christians). However there is a pseudo head of state from the European Union who has right of veto over any national matter. The Muslim-Croat forces had won back Mostar from the Serbs, however they could not decide who would lead the town. So started a bloody war in 1993 between previous brothers-in-arms. Mostar is a beautiful little town with a 21 metre high bridge that's been there since the 16th century, now restored since the war. There are stark reminders everywhere of the war with a lot of buildings still lying in ruins. There ... read more

Hello! We are currently in an internet cafe in Sarajevo, just over the bridge from the spot where Princip assassinated the heir to the Ausro-Hungarian throne, thereby (intermediate steps skipped) indirectly sparking World War I. Finding the spot is a somewhat difficult exercise, however, as almost all evidence of this fact has been eradicated. Princip was a Bosnian Serb nationalist, you see. And Serb nationalists are not that popular around here. Apparently there are moves to reinstate the former museum which marked the spot, but as far as I can tell, these have gained little traction. All there is is a simple plaque, and for the time that we were there we were the only tourists to go there and look at it (and I haven't noticed anybody looking at it subsequently). You can hardly blame ... read more