I have been to Sarajevo before. The lady that ran the hotel knew someone (her son) that ran van tours. Nrpptism aside, It was a good tour. He was old enough to remember what it was like living under the 4 year siege in the 90’s.
We visited the supply tunnel lifeline under the airport. The Latin Bridge where Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated to start WW1. And the bobsled track remains of the 1984 winter Olympics. It was pretty thorough so I didn’t need to do it again.
Instead, I just walked around and took in the rhythm of the city. As much rhythm as a parade of pre partying soccer fans can muster. I was tempted to go to a local soccer. It was a pretty low level of temptation since I really have no interest in soccer. Hearing the firecrackers, singing and stomping with riot police oversight, I thought at least something interesting was finally a possibility at a soccer match. But it was still a cold winter afternoon. Sports riots are fine. Cold Riots suck so I headed back into town and found myself in a very peaceful gondola car heading to the top of the mountain that overlooks Serajevo.
There is a little restaurant at the top with a view of the valley. Once you take in the view, there isnt much reason to be there. I went looking for a reason. I found some trails that went further into the mountains and set out. There was snow and icy mud so slow going but at the end of the short trail I found a crowded parking lot and a pretty nice boutique hotel and restaurant complete with boutique hotel and restaurant prices.
I continued on up a trail and found the remains of the bobsled run that I saw on the van tour. We were limited to what we could see because there was landmine removal efforts going on. Hoping they were successful, I walked along the bobsled run.
I was surprised by how much was still there. I ended up walking the full run. I had a round-trip ticket on the gondola so walked back up to the top and rode back down. Good exercise that day.
Sarajevo is an interesting city but I ran out of things to do. At the end of day 2, I was pretty glad to be heading out the next day. And really happy that I was able to catch the bus from the city bus station rather than the bus station in the Serbian proxy country I came in. It was an easy walk even with getting run into by one of those stupid electric scooters. Poor girl. She learned the hard way that a pizza and pasta diet makes for a pretty immovable but bouncy object. She went sprawling but got up and rode away in a daze.
My hulking fat ass was no worse for wear and tear. I
⁸ hopped on the bus to Mostar about 2 hours west. I was looking forward to repeating the bus ride that I took the last time. The road follows a river through a long gorge. Very pretty. There has been some road construction and rerouting since. I didn’t find it to be as cool of a trip this time. Still good but not as good.
Mostar has changed too. It was so demolished from the war the last time Inwas here, I thought it was just a city that was letting abandoned buildings decay while waiting for new investment. It was totally surprising that the locals would be living amongst war rubble 20 years later.
It has going througha growth spurt of renovation since but the stucco walls are still pock marked from the bullets. Buildings in the core are still half blasted away.
The famous bridge there spanned the river for over 400 years until the locals used it to move military equipment during the war. Making it a target. It took more than a couple missiles to do it but it was.blown to bits in 1993. It’s has.been rebuilt and is now the main attraction in town. Mostar is well worth a visit. Probably a day and an evening to see it in daylight and spotlight not to mention have ample opportunity to get trampled by tour groups on day trips from Dubronik.
I stayed a couple of nights to get a non tourist feel for the place. Not much to really report and I was there on a weekend. I suggest just one night is plenty.
There weren’t too many options for a next stop. Winter season and lack of tourists closes most of the bus routes through the mountains so It was an easy decision at the ticket counter for the next bus to Dubrovnik.
Photos are in this stack somewhere. I don’t have access to any of the previous trip’s photos at the moment. I’ll find them and load them when I get back.