Balkans Tour - Bosnia and Herzegovina

A long drive day through the mountains, leaving Montenegro and entering Bosnia and Herzegovina. Two nights in Sarajevo is a bonus. Incredible place. We are staying close to the old city, with lots of mosques, eateries and bazaar style stalls. It's a city in the valley surrounded by mountains, and all the associated winter sports activities.

But everywhere you look there are signs of 1992-1995 conflict - the seige of Sarajevo. Many buildings still bear the scars. It's difficult to see Sarajevo as an Olympic city.

The library, which was bombed with incendiary shells designed to create cause maximum destruction by fire thereby obliterating the recorded history of Bosnia has since been rebuilt.

We did a tour with a guide who was a young boy during those years. He explained some of the background and events of the war years and related stories from his own childhood. We visited a section of the tunnel which ran for 900m under the airstrip - can appreciate how important this was to the people of Bosnia. It was chilling!

We remember hearing news reports of Balkans war in the nineties, but really makes you appreciate how lucky we are to be born in Australia.

Even spotted a very shy hedgehog at the Tunnel Museum.

We finished off the day with a visit to the local brewery - well the brewery bar, for some research, and then a wander around the local markets before enjoying a great steak for dinner.

Bib supplied. To go with the sizzling steak.

 

Off to Mostar tomorrow, and the famous Mostar bridge.

Another fabulous drive through mountainous country to Mostar, on a public bus. But we managed to grab front row seats in a double decker. Pity the windscreen was so dirty, but Lex loved it. I travelled some of the way with eyes shut, but all good.

Really nice hotel, great rooms, welcome chocolates, small communal balconies with view over some nearby ruins. Seems familiar.

Group orientation walk went past Crooked Bridge, a smaller version of the famous Mostar Bridge, then through the meandering highly polished cobble stone streets to 21m Mostar Bridge. Lots tourists, and tour groups everywhere.

Divers were up on the bridge, ready to jump when they collected the required $25 from onlookers. I missed the jump, caught on the wrong side of a very steep, slippery road. Very slippery, well worn and polished stones.

We watched a short video of the bombing of the bridge during the 1993 Bosnian-Croatian War. Just unbelievable to see this 400 year old bridge blown apart, and fall into water below. Unimaginable and I think it was UNESCO listed some years earlier.

Mostar was the scene of the greatest devastation during the Bosnian War. Many buildings bear the scars, but its difficult for us to imagine such a situation. And it's also very complex, as to who were the aggressors, who were allies and who were combatants.

Also incredible to see how they co-exist now. A political system with three presidents, from each of the main ethnic groups, who take control for successive 6 month periods. Wow....recipe for success or disaster - time will tell.

We enjoyed a group dinner at a fantastic spot with bridge views. And followed it up with a few drinks, chatting, and much laughter on the shared balcony. How lucky are we. Living the dream for sure.

Interesting currency in This country. Unlike some of the others, many places take euros as well as local currency, Konvertibilna Marka (KM). Naturally, we found ourselves frequently using the abbreviation, but calling them kilometres. So a beer was 3 kilometres. ;-). But just when you wanted a late night ice cream at a local market, and only euros in your pocket.... They only traded with KMs, which we didn't have, deciding not to exchange too many. Oh well, didn't need that ice cream, did I.

Interesting markets....

 

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Balkans Tour - Montenegro.

Montenegro - one of the tourist spots on the Adriatic Sea. Not the actual high season yet, but still lots of people everywhere. Beaches are packed, even early evening. But our understanding of 'beaches' is quite different to anything we will see on this tour. No sand, just pebbles. Water is lovely - clear and only slightly cool. But you definitely need a sun lounge to enjoy sunbathing here. And the 'beach' areas are packed - row after row of sun lounges

Another border crossing, and interestingly we were not stamped either in or out of Albania, which is not in the EU. But now on to Budva, Montenegro, a coastal city, surrounded by mountains. Very picturesque. There are some lovely places along the coast, obviously used by the rich and famous.

Like this place which apparently will cost 4 digit figure per night. Nope, we are not staying here!

Two nights in the one place is always a good thing. Time to unpack a little, and get some washing dry. We can get washing done in many of the hotels along the way, but when it is priced per item, it soon becomes very expensive, even for a small bundle. So we generally do some hand washing.

The usual orientation walk included the 'beachfront' with numerous bars and restaurants all along thr waterfront, as well as the old walled town, which is apparently a replica because the original was destroyed by an earthquake some years ago. The old town is quaint, but the wall around the city is inhabited by cats and is less than pleasant.

Next day we took a short bus ride to Kotor. Beautiful bay surrounded by high mountains and a walled old town, Stari Grad, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We wandered the labyrinth of cobbled streets after climbing the stairs to the ruins of the fortress above the old town. 1350 steps up. Bit of a climb, but legs feel ok, even the day after, so guessing all that training in Spain has been worth it.

The scenery from that height was spectacular. We watched several large passenger boats come into the bay.... and saw plenty of large groups of tourists in the old town later!! Boat tourists stand out as being different from adventure style bus travellers like us - better class of clothes, shoes, hats and handbags. Obviously a bigger wardrobe to choose from! So pleased we got there earlier.

The fortress walls are really extensive. We only saw a small part of it all. Quite incredible.

Enjoyed a couple of beers after the walk down. Well deserved by all. In Spain we noticed lots of people drinking beer with solo, but here we have found bottled beer - with lemon, or grapefruit. Tasty and refreshing.

Gotta love wifi here... Even on the beach! Australia - get with it!

And another Pilgrimage ..... Not quite as we were able to take the bus all the way up, thanks to one frail, elderly looking passenger. Before leaving Montenegro we visited the Monastery of Ostrog - a monastery of the Serbian Orthodox Church, situated on an almost vertical rock wall in the side of the mountains. It's a very sacred place, where pilgrims walk barefoot up the mountain to the church.

The narrow road zig-zagged up the mountain. We often had to reverse back to let another vehicle pass. Steep drop off the side.... I sat on the aisle side of the bus.

But the place was indeed special. We went into one rock cave church, which held the body of Saint Basil of Ostrog. But the other cave church, higher up on the wall had more frescos painted on the cave roof, but also darkened by smoke from candles. No photos in these places, and of course respectfully dressed.

Spectacular drive through the mountains..... Stunning mountain views, as well as views of the Piva River, the Piva Canyon, alson the Tara River and Tara Canyon. Not sure where one stops and the other starts. The road winds around the mountains side along the river and canyon for many miles. Absolutely beautiful scenery. We stopped, and slowed a number of times for vista snaps.

Through several tunnels ..... Just rock!

A large dam.... That looked like this on one side....

And this on the other...

Stunning.

 

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