I will start off by saying that I think that Bosnia & Herzegovina is one of my new favourite countries! The cities are scarred by terrible events from recent history but the people are welcoming and friendly and the landscapes are incredible! The title of the blog came from a t-shirt that I saw a local wearing, I loved it!
I also probably enjoyed Sarajevo so much because this is the part of my trip that Michael finally got to join me for ;-)
We both arrived in the afternoon and were keen to have a wander around the centre of Sarajevo. Pictured below is Michael in front of the Catholic cathedral and the Eternal Flame, which is a memorial to the victims of the WW2.
From here things actually took a pretty somber turn as we decided to visit the Srebrenica Genocide Museum. In order for this to make any sense I will have to explain a little of the history behind this exhibit and the war history in this country - my understanding is obviously very basic! First of all Sarajevo is well known as the city in which Franz Ferdinand (the Austrian heir to the throne) was assassinated, kick starting WW1. This region has since been involved in both world wars as well as the Bosnian War.
So back in the day Yugoslavia was comprised of a bunch of countries in south/eastern Europe and was run by Tito, when Tito died things pretty much fell apart as many of the countries that made up Yugoslavia decided they wanted to declare independence. Slovenia and Croatia both declared independence, among others. When Bosnia decided to declare independence things started to get pretty out of control, Serbia was annoyed as they believed that Bosnia had claimed land that was rightly Serbian land and to make a long story short, this was the beginning of the Bosnia war, which saw the country of Bosnia and city of Sarajevo almost completely torn apart.
From the years of 1992-1995 Sarajevo was under siege and surrounded by the Serbian army, who had basically taken over the Yugoslavian army when this empire fell apart. This was the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare and meant that a lot of residents fled and those remaining were left to live in constant terror. The city experienced constantly bombing and warfare and snipers were positioned in the mountains of Sarajevo, willing to shoot anyone they saw fit. The Serbians often targeted schools, markets and other places which civilians would gather, this meant that almost 5,000 civilians were killed during this period. This is something that Michael and I found really difficult to comprehend as this is a war that was fought during our childhoods, it is really frightening to think that something like this could occur in modern times. Everywhere you look the city is still scarred with bullet holes and ruined buildings that have yet to be repaired from the damages caused by the war.
The Srebrenica Genocide Museum commemorates an event that occurred in Bosnia during the war, outside of Sarajevo in a small town called Srebrenica. This event involved the genocidal killing of more than 8,000 Muslim people, mainly men and children, by the Serbian Army. In a way this was a similar thing to what happened in WW2 at the concentration camps, thousands were killed and buried in mass graves around the country, in an attempt to cover up what had happened many bodies were moved several times. Even today people are still searching for the remains of loved ones so they can give them a proper burial, it is a truly saddening and horrific thing to have happened to the people of Bosnia. Above is a really powerful photo of some of the bodies being recovered and prepared for burial.
Ok, time to take a break from the somberness.
After witnessing some pretty intense things Michael and I decided that some traditional Bosnian food might brighten up our evening. After seeing a recommendation we stumbled upon this little gem of a restaurant.
It was kind of like having a picnic in a restaurant! This place was pretty far off the beaten track but a really good find and Michael got to sample a tipple of Bosnia beer (which he says is pretty good if anyone is wondering). This is where we realised how affordable Bosnia is! For a meat a cheese platter, drinks for two and two main meals the total bill came to £12 WOW!!!!
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The following day were were up bright and early and ready to to hiking (well kind of, after I slept for almost 2 hours in the car). We were picked up by our local guides and after a long (loooonnnnng) mini-van ride we finally arrived in Sutjeska National Park!
Once we arrived in the national park we began the 5km hike into the national park, with the intention of arriving at Lake Trnovacko.
Fortunately, we were surrounded by beautiful scenery and amazing views for nearly the entire way, although Michael's face doesn't exactly scream 'amazement' in the above photo, hopefully in my photo below I am doing a better job haha!
After spending over a year living in London it was amazing to be out and exploring the great outdoors that this amazing word has to offer! Bosnia, in particular, has amazing mountains and outdoors to explore. The city of Sarajevo is surrounded on every side by mountain ranges that the locals, especially our guides, love to explore!
On our way to Lake Trnovacko we passed through a dry lake bed and were surrounded by the three biggest mountains in Bosnia, the guide said the names so fast I can barely remember all of them but I do remember the the biggest mountain in Bosnia was called Mount Maglic and is on our left in some of these photos.
Some more amazing views of the mountainous scenery as we hiked through Sutjeska National Park.
Finally we arrived at Lake Trnovacko! It was beautiful, albeit freezing cold and surrounded by mountains. Most of the rivers and lakes in Bosnia are filled by water that comes down from the mountains after the snow melts in winter and was a result the water temperatures are freezing - it sort of started to rain so I was definitely not feeling an icy cold swim.
While stopped at the lake we had a delicious picnic provided by our lovely guides, it turns out Bosnians really know what they are talking about when it comes to smoked meat and cheese - yummm!
After spending a while hiding from the rain that seemed to have set in, we made the trek back to our starting point, not too much of a strenuous hike but just over 10km altogether! It definitely felt great to be getting some fresh air and exercise in the great outdoors!
That night we were taken to a small campsite where we were to stay before rafting the next day - both rafting and hiking were in a similar area so we thought it would be easier than making a 4 hour round trip back to Sarajevo for the night.
Above are some pictures of our little camp, our 'bungalow' on the left hand side and some pictures around the campsite on the right. The picture in the middle is of the super high tech hot water system - they re-stoked the fire with coals every now and then so if you were lucky you would get a burst of hot water!
The next day the sun was shining and we were ready to raft! We headed off in a very crowded mini-van and actually crossed the border into Montenegro, which was where we started our day of rafting from.
As you can see, the helmets and life vests we had to wear were super flattering! Fortunately the river was so beautiful that it didn't matter! We were rafting on the Tara river, which is the second biggest canyon in the world behind the Grand Canyon, which makes it the biggest canyon in Europe at 1,300m in length.
We jumped on board with our Bosnia rafting guide, who spoke about 10 words in English, including; "left, right, let's go, stop and beer" - I guess those were the only vital words when it comes to white water rafting! You might be wondering why beer is an important word? Well because he was having a little tipple (and a smoke) while we rafted! Only in Bosnia!
Unfortunately the Tara river flows the slowest in August - although this kind of worked for me as I am not much of a dare devil. The guide was telling us (thanks to the translation of a friendly Bosnian on board) that the fastest and most dangerous time of the year for rafting is in May, as so much snow has melted down from the mountains - he also added that at least one person dies every year when rafting during this time of the year! Crazy!
The rapids were hardly crazy but they were fun and definitely enough to keep me entertained and get me very wet! If nothing else we were on an absolutely stunning river with a bunch of friendly people!
Michael, clearly putting in the hard yards!
After about 2-3 hours we stopped for a break, Michael got a beer - have you seen anyone happier to have a beer?
While we were on our short break our guide took us to this small waterfall, the water was supposed to be even colder than the Tara River - I saw people coming out of this shivering and Michael wasn't brave enough to go in past his waist!
Michael was daring enough to go for a swim in the freezing cold water, like I said earlier the water mostly comes down from the mountains and is very cold, the day we rafted we were told it was approximately 14 degrees - I wasn't quite brave enough to jump in, however beautiful and alluring it looked!
A group shot, minus myself, of our rafting crew, we met some really lovely people and had a fantastic day rafting!
Just to top off an already awesome day we were treated to an amazing lunch after our rafting adventure! This is traditionally cooked Bosnian food, everything is placed in this huge metal bowl/wok and left for hours to slow cook. The result is delicious and the food was not only delicious but incredibly filling and we didn't have to eat much for the rest of the day!
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The following day, our last before leaving Sarajevo was spent doing some more exploring of the city itself. We had originally planned on getting an 8am bus but decided we couldn't leave without seeing the city!
First, after a long sleep in, we headed for the Yellow Fortress, an old defensive wall in Sarajevo. This involved a lot of walking up hills and stairs but we were rewarded with a pretty cool view of the entire city. In the photo on the top left you can see the huge cemetery? Sarajevo is dotted with mass cemeteries for all the victims of the Bosnian war.
At the top of the Yellow Fortress with the city centre of Sarajevo over my shoulder.
This seems like a really boring photo but I decided that I wanted to include it, this is an apartment building that is still standing from the Bosnian war - if you look closely (which I know is difficult thanks to the dicey picture quality of this blog) you can see all the damage done by the war - it is covered in bullet holes on each little section of concrete and a lot of the windows and balconies are badly damaged or don't match as they have been replaced. Very surreal.
A few random shots around the city of Bosnia, top right shows the big woks/metal pans that the Bosnian's cook traditional meals in. Bottom right shows Pigeon Square - the main square in the Old Town of Sarajevo. Bottom left shows the main market place of Sarajevo, this was attacked and bombed during the Bosnian war and a lot of civilians were injured or killed - there is a plaque on the side of the building that lists all of their names.
After wandering around the city for a little while longer, we jumped on bus organised by our hostel to see two more important places. Sarajevo is very spread out so both of these locations would have been very difficult to access on our own (public transport is not so great in Eastern Europe).
First stop: The Tunnel Museum.
This tunnel is otherwise known as the Tunnel of Hope. This tunnel was built by the Bosnian army during the Siege of Sarajevo in the middle of the Bosnian War. During the Bosnian war the people of Sarajevo were surrounded by the Serbian army on nearly all sides, the only Bosnian held land was on the other side of the Sarajevo airport. The Serbians were aware the the airport was separating those living in Sarajevo from access to supplies from the outside world so the airport was patrolled fiercely and many were injured, arrested or killed trying to pass through it. The Bosnian army build a tunnel that went underneath the airport in order to access Bosnian held land and gain access to important supplies such as: food, medicines and weapons. The people of Sarajevo believe this tunnel is what caused them to hold of the Serbians and win back their city, hence the name "Tunnel of Hope."
In the above photo is what ware known as "Sarajevo Roses" - this is remnants of when a bomb or grenade had gone off. Instead of covering it up or re-paving the street or sidewalk, each of these scars was painted red (to represent blood) and they were given the nickname "Sarajevo Roses."
This photo is taken outside the Tunnel Museum, as you can see the building is covered with bullet marks and there is a "Sarajevo Rose" on the ground. This building was supposed to appear to the an ordinary house in order to conceal the tunnel being built underneath.
A few photos of the tunnel itself, it was very narrow and very short, it would not have been enjoyable for people to pass all the way through! It was a really cool piece of history that we had the opportunity to experience.
Second (and final) stop: The abandoned bobsled track.
Fun fact: in 1984 Sarajevo hosted the Winter Olympics! It's hard to believe that only 6-7 years later it was a city under siege. Since the war began so soon after the Winter Olympics were held, this mountainous area of Sarajevo was soon occupied by the Serbian army and after this it was completely abandoned and left to fall into ruins.
It makes for a pretty awesome, albeit slightly creepy, place to visit. It has literally been left in complete ruins and aside from a few budding graffiti artists it is like visiting a ghost town.
We took lots of photos, the graffiti looks really amazing and creates such an eerily atmosphere.
We are obviously walking down the abandoned bobsled track but there are lots of other abandoned sites, such as aerial skiing and snowboard areas - they are all on different mountains though so I think you can only really get to see one, unless you have a car and are super keen!
After this it was getting pretty late in the day and definitely time for us to get on the next bus and head to our next destination.
Bosnia is definitely one of the most interesting and beautiful places I have ever been fortunate to visit and the people are insanely friendly! Everyone we met would go out of their way to be helpful and make sure we were having a great time, which is a really amazing thing! Hopefully one day I will be lucky enough to return, maybe next time in winter =)
Now, onto Mostar!
xxx
