DAYS 222 - 227: BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
M O S T A R , B O S N I A
This is a big world. And traveling for a year translates into a lot of decision making. There is the big stuff - Where should we go? For how long? And all the details - How to get there? Where to stay? And of course, what to do? By the time you pull the trigger for one destination, it is time to start researching the next.
We’ve gotten pretty good over the year about managing all the decisions. I generally take lead on the logistics, like where to go and how to get there. If we relied on McKenzie for getting to the airport or bus station on time with both passports, I don't think we'd have found our way out of America yet. Likewise, if she relied on me to book lodging or to figure out what to see and do, we’d have stayed in a lot of terrible hotels, ate mostly Americanized food, and spent the entire year climbing.
We've learned to make hard choices, impacting which countries we ended up visiting, over a cup of coffee. And we have changed or added cities after 15-minute conversations with total strangers. But it always seems to work out in the end. I don't think either one of us would change any of our passport stamps.
Due to dwindling time, we nearly cut Bosnia and Herzegovina entirely out of our travels - which in hindsight would have been a terrible mistake. It ended up being one of our favorite places we've visited.
Bosnia is an epicenter of world history and has been strategically important going back hundreds of years to multiple great empires. It is where WWI ignited. Had its day under communism. Was occupied by Nazis and then liberated in WWII. It hosted a remarkable Winter Olympics. And all of this for a small country of fewer than 4 million people.
It is said that the capital city of Sarajevo is the place where the east meets the west. Where the people and religions of these worlds mix. Where synagogues, mosques, churches, and Orthodox cathedrals share the same city blocks. And trying to understand this small country's rich, diverse, and beyond complex past has taught us more about the world than any course in college ever did.
A walk down Sarajevo's Farhadija Street feels like walking along a real life timetable. You stroll past 16th century Ottoman Empire architecture, then through elaborately designed Austro-Hungarian buildings, and end up in a stretch of modern day skyscrapers. All of which are tucked inside a picturesque mountain valley that reminded us of Aspen or Vail. It’s absolutely beautiful.
Unfortunately, what Sarajevo is most known for back home is the horrific war headlines from the mid-90s. While much of the war damage has been rebuilt, there are still visible scars throughout the city - artillery spayed walls, grenade damage on sidewalks painted red, known as Bosnian Roses, and condemned buildings. Walking over a grenade scar in front of a market says a lot about the victims of this war - they were school teachers, neigbhors, elderly, children...who had become trapped in a city engulfed by war and had to do their best just to survive. It is impossible to begin to imagine the atrocities and the struggle that took place within Sarajevo and the greater region during this period.
We were lucky to have some Bosnian friends to help plan this part of the trip. They made we sure tried the best food and ate at the nicest restaurants. It was the first country visited where every single meal we had was amazing. Our friend’s cousin hosted us for a fun night out. We finished the evening at Sarajevo’s only craft brewery, where the master brewer upon learning that we were from Colorado wanted to know that his beer passed the international test. It did.
We also attended our first football match where security and anti-riot police outnumbered the fiercely fanatical fans that chanted, danced and set off occasional fireworks from the stands. We walked along an eery stretch of the 84’ Olympic bobsled track that served as artillery base during the war that now acts as graffiti artists’ natural canvas. And visited museums to attempt to piece together this country's complicated history.
We also traveled to Mostar, Bosnia's fifth largest city, where we enjoyed meals from the steep banks of the Neretva River. Watched bridge divers jump from a 16th-century old bridge that arches eighty feet above the emerald swirling river connecting two fortified towers and the town's old town. The same bridge was destroyed during the war but has since been rebuilt.
In short, we are sure glad that we didn’t cut Bosnia out of our travels. Sarajevo in particular will be one of my favorite cities. I loved the food. Enjoyed learning about its past and recent histories. It was very economical, friendly, and so welcoming.
-Brad
