Bosnia and Serbia - part 1

By Deborah and Johan - We left Croatia just after Dubrovnik. The road was busy and the days hot. There was apparently an old rail trail from Dubrovnik to Mostar and you only had to be careful for the odd landmines that the tank sweepers didn’t catch. We read a few blogs to find more about it. The track is called the Ciro Trail and it was developed to get some more tourism back to the region after the war. -we thought it would be a great alternative to leave the busy coastal road so we headed the bikes up the hill for Bosnia. By the look of it Croatia claimed much of the coast from former Yugoslavia (fat cats). We found that old rail trail and thankfully I never needed to pee so stayed on the track 😃. I’m not really a war tourist but riding into Mostar throws you into that space. It’s shocking!! How can this happen in modern day? It set me trawling the internet to found out why, who’s responsible, wtf? It’s easy to say it was the Serbs against the Bosnians but that’s not it. It’s freaking complicated. This was a political war so who do they target? Civilians it seems. There were all sorts of side wars and targeted arsehole schemes going on. They wiped out treasuries of historical records, cultural treasures, old bridges, hospitals, schools... Once the shock of the shot up buildings ebbed, you can really see what they’re doing with moving forward. Bridges have been rebuilt beautifully, roads repaired (although if you’re elderly, you might wish they’d done away with the river stone cobbling) the future is showing itself and both Mostar and Sarajevo are amazing.  We stayed with a family in Mostar (not by design, trust me!) actually just booked a room with a shared bathroom. It turned out to be with an older lady. She’d retired but the pension is peanuts, her husband was killed by a grenade in 94. It was her kids idea for her to earn some side money because she had a place in the village to retract to if it was rented. But she was like “No way, people need to be greeted, taken care of” this seems to be a common theme across both countries - we stayed with a family in Serbia too. . Both equally lovely and overwhelmingly generous with their hospitality. I wish I could tell the whole story but this post is already long enough. There is never enough time to get to know a country when you are doing a tour like this but it’s so awesome to be able to see a few beautiful natural treasures and the best part of it all for me was the family stays - dare I say it. Hearing the stories, seeing how modern translation apps work so well - bridging the language gap so people can share these stories. 

We used the Ciro rail trail to get from Dubrovnik to Mostar. Great cycle trail that is mostly flat with a few ups and downs on the road bypasses if you don’t want to do some of the gravel and bat tunnel bits. The old rail track had clearly been strategic in the Bosnian war with bunkers evenly spaced and still some left over mine fileds. 

“If you find a land mine call the hotline number” oh my god I hope you have reception and 2 hands left at that point

The bunkers have turned into lovely Little Rock gardens in my opinion

The rail trail also runs through the beautiful wetlands of Hutovo Blato nature park. 

Mostar is mostly rebuilt but there are some eery reminders of what took place. Local artists have used some of the old shot up buildings to share their views. 

 

The scars of the war are still clearly present in Mostar. Allthough a lot has been rebuilt there’s a lot of worth in seeing the remnants from a very recent war.  You never want to forget this. Vahida, the guest house host we stayed with, showed us a book with photos what the neighbourhood looked like at the end of the war in 1995 and man it was really shocking to see those images after walking through the new rebuild city a few hours earlier. 

Sarajevo now. It struck me what a modern city it is. Before leaving I read “Goodbye Sarajevo” which describes a lot of the trials throughout the war. I couldn’t marry the two images up. We travelled from Mostar to Sarajevo by train for a day visit. Great way to do it. Early 6:30 train gets you right to the heart of the city and the 5pm train gets you back. 

In Sarajevo there’s a point where if you look to the right you are fully in the Hungarian/Slavic side of town. 

You look left and you’re in the Ottoman Low buildings, no alcohol side of town

The Serbilj water fountain in Sarajevo. I knew there was a legend in Sarajevo that is you drank from one of the fountains there you would return to Sarajevo - I didn’t know which one so I drank from them all.
 

On the left the public library that was bombed in Sarajevo destroying about 90% of their historical books and records... go figure as to why- that’s just arseholey

I love the contrast here with the Avaz twisted tower and the old house in front - yes bearing scars

The bridge of Mostar. Probably the most photographed icon in Bosnia. Rebuilt to match the original because it was bombed beyond repair during the war. 

The old town of Mostar is pretty magical in the evening. Absolutely worth a night time visit also because the evening temperatures are much more pleasant this time of the year than the afternoon heat.