I have always wanted to visit southern ex-Yugoslavia countries, because of their culture, open minded people and because on some level i feel connected with them. I have a friend who has a house in Bosnia in Herzegovina. Idea was to visit him and his family and then travel with car to Srebrenica, Sarajevo, Mostar and Međugorje.

Theft is quite common in Bosnia, so i borrowed my parents car, since i don’t have full insurance on mine. First problem was at the gas station. It was time to fill up the car, but we couldn’t open the tank. French girls, who were watching us were having a blast. Three guys opening a gas tank, it doesn’t get any better than this. After reading the manuals we still couldn’t open the gas tank. Gas station employee came and opened it easily. You can imagine our embarrassment :).

“Unbreakable” lock

We began our road trip in Celje (Slovenia), drove through Slovenia almost whole Croatia until we arrived to the border of Bosnia which took us around 4 hours. Soon after the border we stopped to eat. We ate famous dish called “spikani cevapcici”, which were really good.

Cevapcici

We drove another 2 hours to Tuzla where my friend lives. Roads are not well maintained and you have to be careful how other people drive, because its quite chaos on the road. It took us 2 hours to drive 85 km so you can calculate average travelling speed :).

We arrived to my friends house where we were greeted by his family. They offered us strong spirit drink called “rakija” (made from plums) which is quite strong and you feel really good after a few drinks. It’s is common for women to do all the housework, so we just sat there enjoying ourselves while being served from front and behind. One day my friend and I did the dishes and prepared meat for barbecue. Women got really angry, because we helped, so we didn’t impose in house work anymore :).

Which car you own is the most important thing in Bosnia. If you don’t have German car (BMW, Mercedes, VW,..) you don’t have a car. 🙂 Renault, Citroen…aren’t worth mentioning. So you have to have a good car to get noticed. Since we had a Seat it was quite alright, but the problem was that it was dirty. Cars in Bosnia are cleaner than people it seemed to me.

Next day after delicious breakfast we went to see Srebrenica. In 1992 Bosnia was attacked by Serbia. War lasted three years and on July 1995 Srebrenica genocide took place. Srebrenica was under UNPROFOR protection and therefore was considered safe heaven for Bosnians. UNPROFOR didn’t protect Srebrenica on July 1995 and Serbs army executed around 8,000 Bosnians.

Victims of Srebrenica

This genocide is considered European worst crime since Second World War. Bosnia has around 4 million citizen from which around 35 % are Serbs. Can you imagine two nations who were at war living together in same country? You can feel tensions around every corner and it will take years and generations before they can normally life together.

Mass graves in Srebrenica

We visited cemetery, where are a lot of new graves. The halls where they held the prisoner, are so cold and dark and you can almost feel that there were people tortured in there.Buildings in Srebrenica are in the same shape today, as were on that day when they were shot at and bombarded. It seems like the time stopped and its still 1995.

Srebrenica genocide date

After that hard day it was time for some “rakija” which gave us our spirit back. Next morning was time to go to Sarajevo. Since it was only around 100 km from Tuzla I thought it would take us a hour or so, boy was i wrong. Roads are a mess, old trucks driving really slow, not a place to overtake and a lot of ups and downs since we were crossing hills on our way to Sarajevo. It took us around 2,5 hours before we arrived in Sarajevo with no GPS navigation we managed to find our hostel in about 5 minutes. Call it luck, I call it skill :).

A room was already waiting for us, but was not quite as we expected. Hostel manager took us to a apartment building where we stayed with an old lady. She was around 75 years old, wearing bright red lipstick and strong perfume and it was kind of creepy I must admit. The furniture and overall feeling was that she was still living in the past in time of Yugoslavia, since Tito pictures were hanging everywhere. She must be quite scared, because she has three locks to get in the apartment.

Sarajevo main tourist attraction Baščaršija is full of stores, restaurant, churches,bars and pigeons :). Yes, there are numerous pigeons on the main square, where turist feed them and take picutures with them.

Baščaršija main square

We strolled down the streets, visited a church, bought some gifts and the we went for a beer. We spent most of the afternoon sitting in the bar drinking beer and watching people go by.Of course we ate their famous food “čevapčiči”, which were really good and one of the best I had ever eaten. I must also mention delicious Turkish coffee served in a beautiful copper set.

Turkish coffee served in a beautiful copper set 

 Next morning was time to leave Sarajevo and go to Mostar, which is again around 2 hours away.

We were driving alongside Neretva river, which had green colour and was surrounded by high mountains. We arrived in Mostar which is famous for its bridge over river Neretva. Bridge was destroyed during the war, but it was rebuilt after the war. As we strolled down the streets of Mostar we saw that buildings still have big holes from the war.

Buildings with holes in Mostar

Not much is being done on repairs. We found out you can go in the mosque and up to the top of minaret, from where you can see the bridge. It was quite a walk to the top, but it was worth the view.

Mostar old bridge

I think one day or maybe even a few hours is more then enough time to see Mostar, since there isn’t much to see besides the bridge.

We continued south to Međugorje. Virgin Mary sightings were reported and since then this place has been an important place to Catholics to visit. It’s very commercialized with hundreds of stores selling religious artifacts and I think place lost its purpose, that is being a holy place.

Međugorje

Next thing of business was returning to Tuzla, which was more then 5 hours away. Lots of fun on the road though and we were once again welcomed by “rakija” and very good food. Next day we went to buy some clothes. You can get all famous world brands here (Gas, Armani Gucci, etc.) for a very special price. Girls here are very well dressed, wearing only “exclusive” brands :). Our holidays had come to and end, so we said goodbye to our hosts, who were very friendly and hospitable. They made our stay in Bosnia special and we are forever grateful.

It was a great adventure and we really enjoyed our stay in Bosnia, especially because we were so well received everywhere.People are really friendly, open and they will do everything possible to make you feel like you are at home.