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.
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| 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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