Bosnia and Hercegovina

HELLO CHUMS

I'm starting to feel the pressure, as we are leaving tomorrow for our place of potentially no wifi,

 so I'm running out of time to write everything that we have done so far.

Let's do it.

Ok, so we arrived in Mostar in southern Bosnia late in the evening as I mentioned at the end of my last blog post, and settled down for the night.

It was really quite cool arriving at night as you couldn't quite tell what you're surroundings looked like and therefore they appeared to us the next morning, and we woke up to a completely  new place that was extremely different to anything we had ever experienced before.

There was so much in the surroundings that showed the scars of the recent war all over the buildings, and the town had the weird feeling of being extremely quiet, even though there were people around and it was a saturday.

This is quite a famous bridge in Bosnia, as it is very beautiful, and I believe holds some symbol of resilience and strength. It was destroyed in WW2 and afterwards rebuilt and is the main tourist attraction of Mostar.

They sell this in the alcoholic section of the supermarket in Mostar, to our great surprise. 

It doesn't really look like a drink that someone over the age of five would want.

I bought one of these, and ate the whole thing. I don't regret a thing, but I don't think I can eat it for a while now either. 

I need a good break.

Not that it's bad, just that it is very strong in flavour.

We spent our two days in Mostar, exploring the old part of the city, and sitting by the river looking up at their impressive bridge. The people were kind and friendly as we have encountered everywhere we have been so far, and apart from the stalls selling war souvenirs from not that long gone, we had a lovely time exploring such a different place to our own home.

We decided to catch a bus up to Sarajevo earlier then we had planned, and I'm so glad we did; as we were able to see the amazing landscape that we drove through in daylight. We followed this river through massive mountains, and I was so shocked at the colour of the water. I don't know if it portrays it through these photos but the water was the most extraordinary colour. It was this light blue but murky as well (but in a nice way; it must have been full of minerals from the surrounding mountains). 

We arrived late afternoon in Sarajevo to find it considerably colder then we had expected. It almost felt like a winter day. 

It was beautiful to have that feeling of autumn in the air, which surprised me as I didn't think I was ready for more chilly weather.

Sarajevo had even more scars and evidence of the recent siege. As well as the remaining feeling of a former communist state. We arrived and went to find the train station to see if we could get a train to Istanbul (as it was our next destination), we didn't think there would be much chance that there would be a train, as we had checked at the bus station and found out that there was only one bus that went there and it left sunday morning. 

We arrived sunday afternoon, so unless we were happy staying in the capital for a week, we would have to find other options.

So anyway, back to the point, we went to the train station, which was the quietest and most deserted train station I have ever been to, at least for a capital city anyway ( and I'm comparing it to rural australian train stations). It was like walking back in time. We found out that it was virtually impossible to catch a train to another country and the women who served us at the ticket cubicles were sitting together, in the enclosed space, smoking away to their hearts content. It was very surreal.

It felt like we were back in Sarajevo when it was Yugoslavia. Which really was quite cool.

We were walking down the street when I saw this poster on the side of a building; and I can tell you it felt quite strange to be walking around a city so completely different from your own, and to unexpectedly come across something that epitomised the image that foreigners have of Australia.

This is Maria in the old part of Sarajevo, known as the old town. See the layers she was wearing. She unlike myself was not as happy about the autumn weather.

I think this gives you some idea of what it was like. If I may say so myself I do like this photo. They have these old old trams that carry you around the city and they are so unlike Melbournes Trams but have so much character. I think I would quite like to have a few more of these style trams running around in the city.

We were lucky enough that our hostel in Sarajevo was smack bang in the centre, meaning that we literally had to cross the road and we were in the best cafe/restaurant in the city.

It was called Metropolis and it was amazing.

Note: Funny thing about Bosnia, they are a little backward in time I believe as you are still allowed to smoke inside cafes and restaurants, and they have ash trays on the tables.

My Lunch

Maria's lunch.

This is a cute ass hat that I found in the old part of town, that I am going to knit when I get home. It was so cute!

Bosnian Harry Potter (I couldn't help myself)

This my dear friends, is Bosnia's native dish. It is little mince meat sausages in warm pita bread with onion and something they "call" cheese. Its very tasty but needs a lot of water to be consumed at the same time as eating it. 

This is the exact spot where Prince Ferdinand was shot, triggering the events that created WW1. I took this photo as I thought it was ironic how all those tourists were taking pictures of the photos and little movie about the site, not realising that they were actually standing in the exact spot where he was shot. Completely unaware.

In Bosnia, or Sarajevo I'm not exactly sure, it is illegal to kill the stray dogs, so the city is populated by these animals that are cared for and looked after by the general public. This is the most healthy and well cared for stray I think I have ever seen.

This was a sign on the door of the national Post Office in Sarajevo. It says something about how recent the siege was, it felt weird to be walking through a city knowing that nearly everyone that we passed that was around our age or older had been alive and experienced the war first hand. You are much more used to the idea that something as horrible as war is something that happened not in your lifetime, but in the life time of your grandparents and great grandparents, that to know how recently the city experienced these things was quite a shock to the system and an amazing thing to encounter.

This is a statue that stands in the park in the centre of Sarajevo as a memorial  remembering all the children that died during the Siege that captured the city for four years. The statue symbolises a mother protecting her child.

We spent our two days in Sarajevo exploring the city in mittens and scarves, eating cakes at their many cake shops and experiencing such a different culture then our own.

We did a free walking tour on our second day which was great and got a bit more of an insight into the city and its history from our extremely funny tour guide.

It was a wonderful experience and we left feeling a new sense of perspective for the world around us.

A favourite memory that I have is running down the stairs of our hostel and out onto the street below in my newly bought Bosnian slippers and running across the street and buying delicious icecream from Metropolis at 9pm. Before running back up the stair and shocking Maria who said in surprise "where did you get that from?"

We left Sarajevo for Istanbul from the quietest Capital Airport (if you can call it that) that I've ever been to. It was tiny and had about 8 flights all up the whole day.

I hope you liked that

Cheerio for now Chums 

Love Always 

Katie G xx