May 25, 2024

 Sitting on the bed in our TINY room in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina typing this on my lap.  LOL. This room is the smallest we’ve had so far and yet it has a character all its own.  We are directly across the lane from an Irish Pub where the singing and carousing goes on late into the night.  We were super grateful to discover that the windows on our room when closed virtually lock out ALL the noise!  Our two tiny beds are each against a wall and there is just enough room between them to side step to the end where you can actually turn around.  Yep….it’s pretty small!  And the other interesting thing here is the shower (which is also tiny) where the shower head is stuck to the wall at about hip height.  What kind of tiny people stay here!? LOL. Alls well that ends well though and we can both say that we are clean (enough at least)  Oh ya….and the stairs up to our room are just one flight but….it is like a ladder with rungs that are double height.  I actually have to come up with my hands on the stairs ahead of me.  The steps are so tall there is no way I can heft myself up that far and there are no railings so coming down is a whole other story.  Good thing there are no video of any of this!  Knees and hips are working great but still have a ways to go with muscle rebuilding I guess.  LOL

But I’m getting ahead of myself…..we started our adventures in B & H in the city of Mostar where our accommodation was also right beside the old city centre and up another flight of effing stairs.  We’ve been soooo fortunate with our locations!  We didn’t arrive into Mostar til 10 pm so it was the next morning when we first caught sight of the old city skyline and it literally took our breath away.  It felt like we were in a storybook!  

Getting to Mostar was an adventure in itself.  We caught a bus in Makarska (Croatia) and guess who else was on that bus???  A young couple we’d met on the train from Budapest to Zagreb, Travis and Isabel from Australia who are travelling for a couple months before heading to Greece where they’ll get married in June and then relocate to England for a year or two before settling back in Oz.  What are the chances?!  Of all the buses on all the days that we’d all be on this same bus together.  We had lots of time to catch up too as there was quite a long stop at the border crossing into B & H where we all had to disembark, visit the passport window one at a time and then leave our passports with our driver who at the next stop a short distance away would finish the admission process for us.  There was one young woman who had to get her bag off the bus and go inside with the border control staff so that also gave us more time to visit.  Eventually though we were back on our way - even if it meant we’d arrive about an hour behind schedule!  

Before we got to the border there was another whole adventure on this bus!  The day prior we’d been out with a taxi driver who’d showed us nearby towns and while there Lynda spied a highway high up the mountain side.  Our taxi driver explained that this was the road he’d normally take to go visit his family in Bosnia but it was unlikely that our bus would take that route so not to worry as it didn’t look like a road we wanted to be on from the vantage below!  There had been some discussion the day before about possibly hitching a ride to Mostar with a friend of this taxi driver as he had to go to a place near Mostar to pick up a part for his car.  We were kind of glad that it wasn’t ready and so the possible rideshare fell through once we saw that road high on the rock face of the mountain!  But guess what….our bus did take that route and holy crap was it high!!!  It would not have surprised us if we’d seen a plane flying by at our same height!  We did live to tell the tale and what an exciting several minutes it was!  So exciting in fact that there were a couple of women across the aisle from us on the bus who prayed and went through their rosary non stop from the time we started up that mountain road til we were back into what seemed to be more ‘normal’ levels.  

Coming down the mountains into Mostar in the black of night felt pretty sketchy too as the road was completely under construction and was steep with hairpin turns like I’ve never seen before!  And….it was pouring buckets!  It was as though the sky had opened up.  There was one taxi at the bus station and Lynda made a b-line for him while I got our bags from under the bus.  The driver agreed to take all four of us (Travis and Isabel too) and we were off.  Not everything goes as planned though and this damn driver totally ripped us off.  With the lateness of our arrival and the pouring rain and him being the only cab in sight we had neglected to get a firm price from him before we left the station so he promptly took advantage and charged us 20 euros for what should have been a 5 mark (2.5 euros) ride.  Bastard!  I hope he didn’t get much sleep that night!

The old city of Mostar was as I said straight out of a fairy tale.  We wandered the streets till our feet hurt.  We even got lost once.  LOL!  We drank so much coffee and watched locals jump off the Stari Most bridge into the Neretva River 25 meters below!  Stari Most is so famous because it has no foundations on either side….it is said to be held up by metal pins and egg whites and was built in the 16th century.  Go figure!  While wandering the old city….we actually bumped into Isabel and Travis again - twice!  It’s not that the city is that small and it’s certainly not for a lack of other people….the place is PACKED and its not even yet the busy season!!!  On the final time we bumped into them we decided that we had to exchange email so we did….maybe one day we’ll see them in Canada as that is on their “want to visit” list too.

During our three days in Mostar we also took a side trip to visit Blagaj about 20 minutes by taxi away.  It is home to one of the few Dervish sect holy places and followers still practice their faith there today while many others make pilgrimage to the place.  We didn’t get to see them in action but we did get to go into the buildings of the space and see the source of the river Bula.  The water here is also drunk freely and so of course we joined in too.  This place is GORGEOUS!  We spent most of the day just exploring the area and sitting by the river with coffees and over another delicious Bosnian meal.  We are both pretty certain that by the time we leave the Balkans we will be completely addicted to coffee and smoking about a pack a day (via second hand smoke). In B & H people still smoke inside buildings including restaurants!  And…..almost everyone smokes!

Mostar to Sarajevo was via the most beautiful train route in all of Europe according to many and I’d say they are right!  Gives the Rocky Mountain Rail a run for its money for sure.  Met another interesting young woman on this train journey.  Oya (from London) has taken a year off to travel the world and she’s doing it all solo.  What a lovely person she is!  I wonder if we will see her again in our respective travels?

Here in Sarajevo we’ve explored every inch of the old city (which is also just steps from our accommodation), we’ve dodged rain drops as it has rained a couple of times, we’ve used the local tram as a Hop On Hop Off Bus to tour the city, and we’ve eaten and drunk our fill every single day.

The Irish Pub outside the window is playing their music super loud now so it must be getting late.  LOL. It seems that 10:30 is the time to crank up the volume.  LOL. But not to worry….these magic windows will take care of any noise they’re making once we close them.  Last night we were part of the noise at that fun Irish Pub and it is where we met Benjamin, a young man from South Africa who is here in B & H for the past six years studying medicine.  He is just a couple months away from finishing his studies after which time he will relocate to Belfast to continue his education to become a Paediatric Surgeon.  Interesting young man and it is thanks to him that we have a ride set up to get all the way from Sarajevo to Cavtat (near Dbrovik in Croatia) tomorrow for a total of 250 euros.  That might sound like a lot but compared to the very very long bus ride and transfers we were going to have to make it sounds like a hell of a deal to us!  The journey tomorrow will take about 4 1/2 hours of driving time plus stops for lunch etc so for Kamel (our driver) it will be a long day.  

There aren’t a lot of places that serve liquor here in Sarajevo so the Irish Pub is quite the little gathering place.  It seems to be home to a lot of characters who’ve either recently or not so recently found themselves staying here.  Mario the bartender is one of those characters….his life story is pretty dark but he is a shining example of how to choose a different path than you’ve been dealt.  He just completed his masters in English and has applied to do a PhD.  Yep….interesting characters, a lot of whom are very well educated.  B & H is one of the cheapest places in Europe so travellers find themselves staying here longer and if they’re able to work from afar they stay even longer.  That was another young man we spoke with last night…he’s here for as long as he stays and is teaching all levels of English online to Italian students.   He figures when he leaves here he will go to the Middle East where he’ll “sell his soul” (his words) as the money is too good even if their practices don’t align with his values.  He is from England and would like to be able to go back and buy a home so teaching in the Middle East is a way for him to be able to do that. It’s crazy interesting the people you meet on the “road”.

We’ve spent some of our time here reflecting on the fact that this entire city was under siege and the site of terrible genocide not that long ago and yet today it is functioning just like everywhere else we’ve been to date.  You can still see the signs of the devastation mixed in with the new buildings but life has gone on, they’ve repaired and rebuilt, and recovered as best they can.  It is very different to be in a place where war memories are so recent and evidence of conflict is still very visible.

On a much happier note….tomorrow Lynda will celebrate a big birthday (75)  so Happy Birthday Lynda!  We’re going to have a great day travelling back down through B & H and into Croatia with Kemal before he drops us off in Cavtat where we are booked for three night into a monastery there.  Yep….sounds like the perfect spot for us to spend a few days.  :-)

So till next time….

L & L