Home » Bosnia-Herzegovina » Pondering the war

Ok, so the bus to Mostar was the jolt we needed. As soon as we crossed the Bosnian border, the effects of war were very much evident. The first town we stopped in was full of bullet-scarred tower blocks, and cracked pavements, and these things accompanied us for the remainder of the journey to Mostar.

Pondering the war

Conor_purcell
2005-11-18 15:56:06

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some way to restoring things to their old order.

We were really looking forward to the train journey to Sarajevo, recommended in the Thomas Cook book as one of Europe's most scenic rail routes. So we were naturally dissapointed when we learned we'd have to disembark halfway due to maintainance work on the tracks ahead. No bother, the first half of the trip was still beautiful, the railway line hugging the river, and proceeding through many tunnels, and over many bridges until our stop. The scenery in Bosnia is lovely, however, thousands of un-checked mines mean hikers will have to wait many years before heading into the mountains.

So we arrived in Sarajevo by bus, and as always, were approached by a woman offering a room. But this one had an ace up her sleeve.

"Excuse, you are Irish?"

What? Who told you?

"No problem, you stayed with my cousin in Mostar, and she rang me last night to let me know about your arrival in Sarajevo. You come with me, I have apartment near centre, you mind sharing with two Canadian girls?"

And so, we headed into the centre, following our new highly-strung land-lady Jasmina. The apartment was in bad shape, but the price again was good, and talking to our new Candian roomies, who had come from Beijing on the Trans-Mongolian, gave us a few ideas for the next few weeks.

Sarajevo was under seige for almost 4 years, during which time over 11,000 people died. Again, looking at the outskirts, it's clearly been in the wars, but downtown you could be anywhere. The main shopping streets are packed with young people, through which only the occassional veiled head and bearded face appear. Although majority Muslim,
Very typical of the mosques found in Mostar and Sarajevo
it's very secular, with once again, Churches and Mosques standing together. It seems the people of the city are not interested in dwelling on the past, ...