Sarajevo

It is fall break for most Budapest universities and public school districts, so we decided to take a trip! After looking at several different options, we decided to do a road trip through the Balkans, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia. We had nine days to try and do a ton of stuff, and I think we did a pretty good job squeezing in a lot of different unique experiences. We didn’t get to do it all, but that just means there is more left for next time!

We drove into Sarajevo Friday evening, getting there around 2 am. We had a car, but delightfully got upgraded to a more roomier sedan instead of an economy. It also had navigation, which I was so grateful for since our phones only worked in Croatia, not in any of the other countries so we didn’t have internet most days!

I kept watching the weather since it was supposed to rain the next two days. Since it wasn’t raining at the moment, Saturday morning we drove up to the old Olympic bobsleigh track. Instead of using my google maps we used the car GPS, which took us through really narrow roads in town before we got to this beautiful road and view of the city. We passed this burned out building filled with bullet holes, which is a huge testament to the recent history of this country.

It was walk through the woods to reach the bobsleigh from the parking area. At 9:30 on a rainy morning, we were the only ones there and only saw a few others the entire time we were visiting. The bobsleigh and luge track is on the Trebević mountain overlooking Sarajevo. It was built for the 1984 Olympics, but during the Bosnian war became an artillery position for the Serbian army. After the war it was abandoned and left to decay, with the forest quickly claiming back parts of the track. It is now a tourist attraction for those looking for unique and quirky sites to visit. We all really liked seeing it, and getting to walk on the abandoned track was a really cool experience. The track has been covered in graffiti (some better than others) but overall is pretty well-maintained and clear of glass or drug paraphernalia, which I was a little worried about.

We crossed the bridge over the track and took a detour to Bistrik Tower, an old outlook tower that was later turned into an astronomy tower before it was destroyed in the Bosnian war. Now the tower is just a shell of a building with more graffiti. This was a really cool place to explore, and the kids liked the opportunity to just run around and explore on their own. I was just nervous they would run off the edge of a wall!

We kept seeing these cute little lizards all over the forest. They were easy to spot with the unique black and yellow spotted body, and they moved pretty slowly so the kids were able to follow them around.

On the walk back it started raining in earnest. Ronin and Willow skipped down the path holding hands. It was super cute. I am glad they like each other!

Make it stand out

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

The rest of the day it sprinkled on and off, but the fog over the city was really pretty. The last picture is of our street that we stayed on. This is definitely a different type of city than I am used to. The roads were very narrow and I couldn’t really tell which was a good area and a bad area because the outside of the buildings were all a little damaged and worn with time, weather, and deterioration.

We then walked to the main bazaar area where the Sebilj Brunnen fountain is. Supposedly it is a famous fountain, but honestly wasn’t too impressive. What was impressive was the multitude of pigeons were hanging out. If you walked really carefully they would just move out of the way for you and then close back in behind. Willow looks like she is parting the seas! Then a guy threw out some bread crumbs, and the pigeons came flocking!

For lunch we had cevapi, which is a flatbread with grilled meat sausages. It was really good, and even the kids ate it. We then of course got some cake, and everyone picked out a piece. Walking through the bazaar it looked more like a middle eastern than European, which I thought was really cool. There was a lot of hammered metalwork, and JonPaul bought a small plate. I really liked these mosaic lamps, and after much deliberating decided not to buy one. Of course now I really want one and really wish I had bought it, particularly for the price.

After walking several blocks through the main street of the town, we came to this crossroads. On the east side of the crossroads the buildings are all of more of a middle eastern style with one or two stories with small boutique and handmade stores and the spires of mosques peeking up. On the west side of the crossroads the buildings are three to four stories with big box clothes and jewelry stores and Catholic churches. This shows the melding of two cultures—east and west.

Once on the western side we went into the Sacred Heart Cathedral. We couldn’t go into any of the mosques because they were having services. We then walked down the river and across the Latin bridge, which is where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, which led to the beginning of WWI. Making a circle around the town, we came back to the City Hall, which has a unique striped exterior.

From City Hall we walked up, up, up to the White Fortress and the Yellow Fortress. This went past a graveyard that I think is affiliated with one of the mosques. It was very pretty with white columns at the head of each plot.

We kept walking up to get a great view of the city. Up here there are fortress ruins, which the kids enjoyed exploring. We were the only ones here, so the kids got to run around and be loud. We made our way back down to the bazaar area to have dinner, again of cevapi, and to keep us entertained I took some pictures of the kids. Although we have to move through all of our stops pretty quickly this week, I was surprised with how much I really liked Sarajevo.