The ride from Mostar to Sarajevo was simply breathtaking. I had never expected Bosnia to be so beautiful. There were dramatic mountains and cliffs on both sides of the narrow road we travelled, and we followed to my favorite green river for a good part of the journey.
So when we actually arrived in Sarajevo, it was a bit underwhelming. Of course, this was through the outskirts of a poor and recently war-ravaged city, it was an unfair judgment. Sarajevo is attempting to reinvent itself as a thriving, cosmopolitan city but the scars of war are still literally visible. One of the most startling is the Sarajevo Rose. These are the impressions left behind of mortar explosions that resulted in someone's death. (This picture was taken from Wikipedia).
There are also visible "pockmarks" on many of the buildings, some more heavily than others. For example, the Holiday Inn in Sniper Alley was shelled quite extensively.
There's also some formerly glorious buildings, like the Town Hall/Library. It was once a gorgeous, Moorish-looking landmark but was bombed during the war. Apparently, there were papers blowing around everywhere afterward, remnants of the once-impressive library it contained. Now it is sadly boarded up and in disrepair, along with many other buildings.
Although it's not our usual practice, Jon and I decided to take a local tour. We asked about seeing the difficult-to-reach Tunnel Museum at the travel agency next to our hostel and booked the one about 20th Century Wars. It (supposedly) included a visit to the Tunnel Museum and some other information about the Balkan conflict of the 1990s, which we remembered very little about. When our guide came to meet us however, he told us that it wasn't possible to do the War tour and the Tunnel Museum because of the amount of waiting time at the tunnel, so we had to choose only one. So we decided on the 20th century tour.
Our guide was very insightful, if not entirely impartial. He referred to Bosnia as the "Palestine of Europe," a place where Jews, Muslims and Christians lived in harmony until the Serbian aggressors came, hell-bent on annihilating them. (His description of the Serbs made me think of Lord of the Rings' orcs who had no other mission but to destroy the world of men.) He took us to Sniper Alley, showed us the (in)famous Holiday Inn that was home to the likes of Christianne Amanpour during the early 90s,
and the apartments on the other side of Sniper Alley, from where the snipers holed up and launched their shell attacks. (Visible just beyond the facade of the National Museum)
It was extremely interesting, if unbelievably depressing to listen to his stories. He talked about ordinary people, not military men, fighting for their survival. (Young civilian men battling to save the existence of their city again evoked images of Tolkien and the Battle of Helm's Deep.) He said that while some stayed to fight, many fled and that to him, it was one of the worst forms of cowardice. He sees many young men now in the city who are healthy with no signs of war injuries and wonders about where they were during the war and why they didn't stay to defend their home. For us in the western world, the Balkan conflict has ended. We have moved on to wars in different parts of the world, and have mostly forgotten about the siege of Sarajevo.
While the city assuredly shows signs of recovery, our guide warned us that it was a very fragile peace. "Another war could happen in 48 hours," he told us, the Serbian border was moving ever closer to Sarajevo and he pointed out mountains in the distance that were actually Serbian territory. Serbia has always believed Bosnia to be part of it, not unlike the Russians with Georgia. He was angry and upset at the ineffectual EU and how they have delayed talks with Bosnia and done nothing to preserve the peace. Bosnia currently has three presidents - a Bosniak, a Croat and a Serb who serve rotating terms to maintain the balance of power. While he believes none of this was effective, he did actually praise the United States for their role in the war. The United States was the closest thing Bosnia had to a friend, he remarked especially when the US bombed targets in Serbia. It took me aback for a moment, because no one has had any kind words for the US foreign policy in quite a few years, particularly when it involves the bombing of another nation.
We ended this tour at a scenic but melancholic view of the city. The beauty of the natural surroundings contrasted with the ruined buildings and an disproportionate amount of graveyards for a city of only 300,000 (11,000 of whom were killed during the war). While the remnants of the siege are unavoidable, there's a lot more to this fascinating and poignant city, which I'll write more about in my next blog.
It was a relief to leave the tourist hordes of the Croatian coast behind for the somewhat sleepier town of Mostar in Bosnia. Our lovely Croatian host family sent us off with a wonderful breakfast ("You cannot go hungry!" she said). Full and loaded up with burek for the three hour trip, we were ready to go. The bus ride was hellishly warm, the a/c never did much more than "leak air," as Jon put it. I was never so happy for a bus stop as I was here. We paid a ridiculous amount of money for cold water and were ecstatic for any air we could get. The worst part was we were driving by the sea for most of the trip, tantalized by the thought of a cold swim and fresh sea breeze.
When we thankfully drove into Mostar, the first thing we noticed was the war damage. There were scores of signs reading "Dangerous ruin: Do not enter!"
There were other reminders of the destruction of the 1990s. At one graveyard, virtually every year of death was between 1992 and 1996. It was heartbreakingly sad to see the pictures on the stones of men in their 20s and 30s who had died before their time.
We were unexpectedly met at the bus station by a guide from our hostel. We stayed right in the center between the bus station and Old Town, so it was a perfect location. The only downside was the shared bathroom which was outside of the building. But for $15/each a night, we couldn't complain too much!
I was immediately struck by the Turkishness of the town. The little bazaars and multitude of mosques that lined the narrow, cobblestone streets were simply lovely. It felt both exotic and familiar to hear the call to prayer again after so long.
We immediately set out to view the famous bridge for which the town is named. It is a very elegant arched bridge (and wonderful to see that it wasn't completely mobbed with people a la Charles Bridge in Prague.) I was also taken aback by the beautiful green hue of the river. I felt like I'd been transported to some fairy tale kingdom. Unfortunately the color doesn't come across as strongly in the photos.
The next day we hit the Turkish tourist sites, two historical Ottoman houses. The first was a tour-on-request with a rather reluctant guide. But we had the place to ourselves and a very intimate viewing. The second was the more touristed Turkish house where we got sandwiched between a large group of Russians, Germans and finally Italians. But the view was lovely. We tried to escape the group tours and went back to the bridge.
The bridge is known for its divers. I had seen this on a Travel Channel program and was hoping we'd get the opportunity to see one in action. The next morning we again went to the bridge for a last glimpse when we saw a guy in a speedo standing on the railing. Excited, we made our way closer to the bridge. We stood around for 15 minutes or so but the guy just kept pacing back and forth. Finally a woman (his PR agent perhaps) said that we had to pay in order to see him jump. We were tight on cash since we needed to buy lunch before hopping the bus to Sarajevo. Surprisingly no one else was coughing up the cash either so finally we left, disappointed that we had apparently missed our chance to see the Mostar bridge divers. As we headed back to the hostel, we glanced back one last time to look at the bridge. Our timing was perfect. Just as we turned, we saw the reluctant diver take the plunge and jump off the bridge. It was a perfect way to leave this memorable and picturesque town. I didn't manage to get a shot of our diver but here's the postcard that shows another one.
Our flight was from Prague to Split, then the next morning we hopped a bus to Dubrovnik. Since our outgoing flight was also from Split, we figured we'd spend our time there at the end. After some initial bad luck (at the airport there were 1000 people waiting to pass thru passport control and only 2 people on duty, then Jon's ATM card got eaten, our hostel host texted us to tell us to take a cab to his place since he couldn't wait to pick us up any longer, the cabbies pretended they didn't know where the hostel was, the hostel was a bit meh but was to be expected since it was only $22/night, we almost got kicked off of the local bus heading to the center since one of our tickets didn't validate, then there was no time or place to find coffee). And all that happened from 9pm the night before til our bus at 11:30am.
The bus at least offered some relaxation from the dramas of the previous 12 hours. It was a spectacular ride along the Adriatic coast although it was difficult to stay awake for some of it due to my lack of coffee. It was about 220 km (140 miles) and we expected it to take about 4 hours because their roads aren't very good. Unfortunately for us, we hadn't factored in the extra bus stops (which could be anywhere at any time along the "highway" we travelled on), and also the fact that we somehow crossed the border three times despite the fact we were going from Croatia to Croatia. There was a small part of Bosnia that we had to pass through, yet we still got checked more than what it should add up to.
When we finally arrived in Dubrovnik, there was a horde of little old women outside our bus, ready to offer us a place to stay. We had pre-booked a guesthouse already, so we followed the host's directions to a bus stop where his wife waited for us with her baby daughter. The host family was wonderful to us throughout our stay. They gave us ice cream when we arrived, wine at night, other assorted treats during the day and were always super helpful with directions, even offering to walk us to the places we were trying to find. If anyone is planning a trip to Dubrovnik, I highly recommend them! (Family Glavinic guesthouse)
The highlight of Dubrovnik, apart from the charming Old Town and gorgeous rocky beaches is undoubtedly the city walls. They charge you 50HRK to walk around them (about $10) but you do get lots of wall for your money. It took us about two hours to make the loop around the 2km length. Apart from the unbelievably pretty views of the Adriatic
and the red roofs (all of which are new. They had to be replaced after the Balkan wars since Dubrovnik was one of the most heavily bombed sites. There's virtually no reminders of that now, except for a map that shows where the city was hit),
,
the most interesting part was to see how integrated the houses are with the wall. As we made the trek around, we were literally in people's "backyards." You could see laundry drying
and people cooking inside their houses. As the city booms with tourism, so too do these citizens lose their privacy. Although they can probably make a killing renting it out to foreigners on holiday.
The Old Town is simply charming with its marble-esque streets and impossibly narrow alleys.
There's the Rector's Palace,
the D'Onofrio fountain, a godsend of cold, clean water on the 90 degree days
and assorted churches
,
fortresses
and harbors.
After a day at the beach (which was hidden among a labyrinth of twisty streets), we were ready to move on to our next destination, the UNESCO site of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
