Day 44: Sarajevo!

Sarajevo was yet another must-see on my Balkans tour.  I wanted to learn more about the four-year siege that the city withstood from 1992-1995, and I also wanted to see how the situation was today.

The bus ride from Mostar to Sarajevo was a good one along turquoise rivers and lakes, through narrow valleys and past some massive snow-capped mountains.  After about three hours we arrived in Sarajevo, which from a distance looked like a huge alpine village with lots of red-roofed chalets scattered on all sides of the deep valley.  The commie-style ugly concrete apartment blocks near the centre of the city sort of gave the game away though…  I got a dorm bed at a hostel in the old Turkish Quarter, which was great for a wander with its handful of mosques and lots of small shops in the alleys selling local artisan’s stuff.  Alo nearby was the infamous Latin Bridge, where the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot along with his wife by Gavrilo Princip to kickstart the First World War.

   
Scenes from the Turkish Quarter: the marketplace, and Muslim graves.

The Latin Bridge where Archduke Ferdinand was shot.

I took a tour around the city to learn more about the war and the siege.  With the predominantly Muslim city down on the valley floor it was all too easy for the Orthodox Bosnian Serbs to surround the city in 1992 with their tanks and artillery on the high ground.  They weren’t able to surround the city completely however, as the UN guarded the airport at the end of town.  The sneaky Bosnian army dug an 800m tunnel from their position on the far side of the airport to the Sarajevo side, and this tunnel was used to resupply the Bosnian army in the city, to provide some humanitarian aid, and to allow civilians to escape the city.  We were allowed to visit one end of the tunnel and walk a short length of it still standing – an ingenious feat!

The still simmering tensions were clearly visible when I went to catch my bus out of town.  I was headed east to Serbia (and onward to Bulgaria) but when I rocked up to the main bus terminal I was told that all the buses to Serbia left from a different bus station outside the city in a Bosnian Serb enclave – how ridiculous!

The bus ride out of the country took me through some beautiful mountainous areas, but it was all too evident that I was on the Bosnian Serb side of the country.  I didn’t see a single mosque still standing (but a few in ruins).  I also started seeing a lot more Cyrllic writing (which I never saw on the Bosnian side – although the languages are the same the Bosnians use the Roman alphabet) which was quite a shock for me – I realized I’d never been in a country which uses the Cryllic alphabet and it was quickly evident that I didn’t have the foggiest idea what anything said!  At least with the romantic languages you can give it a red hot go…