July 18 - 19, 2012: Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

July 18, 2012: Our trip from Athens to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina was long -- there are no direct flights from Athens to Sarajevo so we had to fly there via Vienna. We therefore arrived late at night. Sarajevo is a much smaller city than Athens so it was not difficult getting a taxi from the airport to our hotel which was located next to the "Old Town". Our taxi driver was quite proud of his country and as we drove through town, he would tell us the names and a bit of history about each building/site we passed. One thing that the taxi driver was particularly proud of was the racial harmony within Bosnia. There are three primary groups in Bosnia -- Muslims, Jews, and Catholics, and our taxi driver was very proud that all three groups get along. In fact, he pointed out that every five years during elections, three presidents are elected and the three winners (one from each of the groups) take six month terms at running the country! Frankly, I find this a bit surprising since how much can a president do in such a short term? I asked him the difference between Bosnia and Herzegovina and he guessed at the answer -- Bosnia in the east has more Muslims and Herzegovina in the west is more Catholic.

Sarajevo, like Athens, seemed to come alive at night and people were milling the streets when we arrived at our hotel -- it looked like there would be a lot to see and do. Since we had not eaten dinner yet, we went to old town and ate a very interesting sausage in a pita type bread. The food looked very interesting to eat and the menu had many new types of food to explore.

July 19, 2012: Our itinerary was to leave Sarajevo to go by bus to Dubrovnic, Croatia in the afternoon. On July 23rd we would be returning to Sarajevo and could pick up where we left off sightseeing Sarajevo. So, we had just a few hours to go through old town now.

The thoughts of our taxi driver the night before were reiterated by the girl who prepared breakfast. She was particularly proud of how harmonious the people of Bosnia are. And, she was very proud of all the things there are to do in Sarajevo -- Sarajevo was definitely becoming more modern. She also told me of her dreams of being able to travel: As a child of 5, she had seen a picture of the Eiffel Tower and decided then and there that she would live to visit that tower. Finally, many years later, she came upon an offer for a round trip ticket to Paris from Croatia for 49 euros and decided that the time had come. Her plan was to go to Paris, take a taxi to the Eiffel Tower, go up in the tower and have a cup of coffee, descend the tower, take a taxi back to the airport, and then fly back home. Several of her friends told her that they would go with her but wanted to stay in Paris for a few days to see other sites but her mind was made up -- she wanted ONLY to see the Eiffel Tower and that was all, so that's what she did -- by herself!

After breakfast we walked through Old Town Sarajevo. The town had a definite different feel to it -- indeed one could feel the different types of people in Sarajevo through the buildings we passed -- mosques, Catholic churches, shops selling intricately designed copper wares, stores selling beautiful silk scarves worn by Muslim women, very interesting foods with varying recipes of yogurt and pita type breads and hummus. Here are some pictures of the things we saw:

men drinking coffee at a cafe

Bascarsija (Main Square)

Sebilj (fountain) at Bascarsija (Main Marketplace)

Brusa Bezistan (Market hall)

Coppersmith's Street

Closed Copper Shop - note stick denoting that the shop is "closed"

Coppersmith's Street

Gazi Husrev Bey Mosque

Gazi Husrev Bey Mosque

Gazi Husrev Bey Mosque

Gazi Husrev Bey Mosque - men getting ready for prayer. There was another area for women to pray

Gazi Husrev Bey Mosque cemetery

 Some of the streets we passed through were reminiscent of those I went through in Budapest:

Catholic Cathedral

street scene - note mountains surrounding city

Kursumilja Madrasa - new school for Muslim learning

Kursumilja Madrasa

Thus ended our first chance to explore Sarajevo before we boarded the bus going to Dubrovnic, Croatia. With all there is to see in Sarajevo, I was looking forward to my return trip to explore even more.

The bus trip to Dubrovnic was very scenic. I was surprised by the number of mountain ranges we went through and over. I guess I shouldn't have been since the Winter Olympics were once held in Sarajevo, so there certainly would be mountains there. Here are pictures of our rest stop going over the mountains:

The rest stop also featured a very interesting restaurant where they were roasting pigs outside:

Continuing the trip, we passed other beautiful scenes:

Old Fort outside Mostar, Bosnia

We eventually made it to the Dalmatian Coast, a very scenic coastline (think of Highway 1 in California). The scenes were quite spectacular, but unfortunately we were to meet with tragedy during the last "hour" of our journey. Traffic came to a standstill and after one hour we learned that there was a deadly traffic accident (motorcycle crash with two automobiles resulting in two deaths) which closed down the entire highway (Again, think of what would have happened should something similar take place on Highway 1). We were delayed three hours altogether before we arrived in Dubrovnic at 11:00 p.m. Fortunately there was an ATM where I could get some money to pay for a taxi to take to our hotel. Fortunately I took out enough money from the ATM to pay for the taxi since the cost was $45! I was stunned to pay such an exorbitant rate for such a short trip by taxi, but what is one to do at 11:00 p.m. in a country where I don't know how to get around? This was a rude awakening to Croatia where I found the costs of just about everything to be quite high compared to Greece and Bosnia! At any rate, we had made it to Dubrovnic and looked forward to seeing more beautiful sites the next day.