Bosnia-Herzegovina Road Trip

Bosnia wasn’t part of my plans. But then again we were three on the trip. So Sarajevo we had to go. We decided to fly from Zagreb after leaving Plitvice. I had stumbled across the Sarajevo Funky Tours website during the planning stages. They have a one way Sarajevo to Dubrovnik tour and I thought that would be an excellent way for us to get back to Croatia. They were awesome to communicate with. Not only did we book that tour, they customized a package for us that included airport pickup, hotel drop-off, and a quick walking tour of Sarajevo on the eve of our arrival.

Sarajevo – East Meets West

I don’t know what I was expecting from Sarajevo. I hadn’t given it much thought. But it was interesting, however brief the time we spent, getting an insight into this town. It certainly deserves a visit of its own. It is one of those places that you have to know the history to understand it. It’s not beautiful in the way one speaks of beautiful European towns. But it is special. For us, we were surprised to feel familiarity. The smells, the sights, the energy and the sounds that reminded us of Ghana/Nigeria. I mean there was grilled corn on the streets. Hello?! We ended the night with an amazing sunset while dining at Restoran Kibe but not before having delicious gelato at Marshalls.

• 

The Old Clock Tower in Sarajevo is in the center of the city next to the famous Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque. It is said to be the only clock tower in the world to keep lunar time. Walking through the market at  Baščaršija was nice. Would have been nice to check out the wares.

Sarajevo City Hall is a large building built in Austrio-Hungarian architectural style. Recently it housed a huge library of Bosnian rare books and manuscripts many of which were destroyed during the Seige. It has since been rebuilt and it is a national monument.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Sarajevo is the place of convergence for several religions. You can find Catholic churches, Jewish synagogue, Muslim mosques, and Orthodox churches. The Cathedral of the Nativity of the Theotokos is a Serbian Orthodox cathedral. The neo-gothic Cathedral of Jesus Sacred Heart is the largest in Sarajevo and is the seat of the Catholic arch-diocese. Novi Hram is currently a gallery but it used to be an old Sephardic synagogue built next to the Old Jewish Temple which is now the Jewish Museum.

• 

• 

East meets west at the Meeting of Cultures marker on Ferhadija Street. At this spot you can cross from the Ottoman/Islamic side to the Austro-Hungarian/Christian side. The Ottoman Latin Bridge is famous for being the site at which Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in 1914 setting off World War I.

Bosnia-Herzegovina Road Trip

Our drive from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik was very comfortable.  The scenery was breathtaking. We shared the tour van with a mother/son pair from New Zealand. Our driver and our guide made the trip pleasurable. I hesitate actually in using that word, “pleasurable” because the truth was there was a lot of heavy discussion of the 1990s seige, the Balkan war, and the aftermath.

• 

• 

• 

Pijaca Markale (Markale market) in the historic center of Sarajevo was the site of the two Markale massacres, in 1994 and 1995, during the Seige of Sarajevo that killed in total about a hundred people in purposeful attacks on civilians. This led to the involvement of NATO and eventually the ending of the war. The streets of Sarajevo still show visible blood-like stains known as Sarajevo Roses. Craters caused by shelling were filled with red resin as a reminder of the casualties suffered. Scattered across the country are buildings not rebuilt.

Bridge on Neretva near the town of Jablanica, Herzegovina. During the Second World War, the Yugoslav Partisans (Communist guerrilla) blew up this railway bridge in a ruse to outwit the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, their allies) then rebuilt it. Later on it was destroyed for real by a Luftwaffe air raid. After the war, it was rebuilt. Then in 1969, it was blown up for a movie to depict the Battle of Neretva.

Blagaj Tekke is a nearly 600 years old Dervish monastery founded at the base of a cliff during the height of the Ottaman empire. We ate at one of the restaurants lining the banks of the Buna river and drank the fresh spring water from the river itself. I’m not a great fan of fish, but I had to try the trout prepared the Blagaj way!

Old Bridge of Mostar was constructed in the 1550s by the Ottoman Turks. It was destroyed in 1993 by the Croatian army during the Bosnian War. It was reconstructed between 2001 and 2004 with both original stone and new blocks. It is a test of courage to dive into the river from the highest point of the bridge.

Pločitelj lies on the banks of the River Neretva about 20 kilometers from the border with Croatia. It’s a fortified medieval village that dates as far back as the 1300s. It is considered an endangered cultural heritage site and is under a government sponsored protection. It’s such a beautiful village with gardens where pomegranates grow abundantly.

Not only would I return to Bosnia-Herzegovina in a heart beat, I would certainly sign up for another tour with Sarajevo Funky Tours. The two Adnans, Faris, and Azda were absolutely fabulous people.