The Yugosphere Part II

Montenegro: Kotor is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and I don’t think anyone can help but be impressed once they arrive in town. I certainly was! When you take a moment to look around, these massive mountains are sort of in your face. It’s quite dramatic and truly breathtaking. I was a bit bummed out at first because it was raining heavily (again!) and the one thing I wanted to do was hike up the 1300+ steps along the fortress wall. Luckily, the rain stopped and as I hiked up, the view over Kotor and the bay just kept getting better and better.

I think I took about 200 photos just on the hike up! The rest of Kotor is charming, but is nowhere near as spectacular as the fortress/view; the old town had the usual cobblestone streets, old churches, and former palaces :) In terms of food, Montenegro doesn’t really stand out, but there was an amazing little pizzeria near the hostel that sold giant slices of pizza for 1.5 Euro :)

I ended up meeting two guys, Matt and Andriy on my fortress hike: Matt is a New Yorker working at the American embassy in Sarajevo and Andriy is a Ukrainian working at the German embassy in Sarajevo. When they told me they lived in Sarajevo, I was being conversational and mentioned going there the next day. Matt’s response was a cheery, “Do you want a ride?!” and I ended up driving with them on one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever been on! We crossed the Bay of Kotor on a ferry and then after crossing the border into Bosnia and Herzegovina, the scenery never stopped being incredible. We passed mountains, lakes, and national parks and weren’t even trying for the scenic route. Apparently, every route in Bosnia is the scenic route!

Bosnia & Herzegovina: The country is divided between the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (majority Croat/Muslim) and the Republika Srpska (majority Serbian). You see different flags as you enter the different territories and the Republika Srpska is reputed to be safer for tourists. Schools are still segregated and the two entities even print their own money. (The notes look similar, but the money printed in Herzegovina uses Cyrillic first, then Latin, whereas the money printed in Bosnia prints Latin first, and then Cyrillic. Even though the faces on the bills are different as well, all Serbian Dinars are accepted throughout the country.) Matt an Andriy taught me a lot and if I hadn’t met them, I wouldn’t have learned so much about the country. Thanks, guys!

I spent time in both Sarajevo and Mostar and after having had a few days in Bosnia & Herzegovina, I realized that I had seen more graveyards in those days than I have seen in my entire life. The graveyards are a very prominent part of both cities, as are buildings scarred from an unimaginable amount of shell firing. 

In Sarajevo, they’ve turned parks and even soccer stadiums into graveyards too. The Bosnian Historical Museum gives a brief recap of the siege of Sarajevo (that some people in the Federation deny ever happened!) with pretty graphic images of deaths and people suffering. My visit to the museum was a very sobering experience… here was more history I just really had no grasp of whatsoever…  

In terms of sightseeing, Mostar boasts an old town with an old bridge (UNESCO Heritage Site):

Mostar was significantly bombed during the war and you can watch footage of the destruction and the collapse of the bridge (that has since been restored). Sarajevo also has an old town, a fairly lively downtown area, the bridge where Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, and a lot of memorials to the deceased…

Food was relatively exciting in Bosnia & Herzegovina especially since I didn’t really have anything except pizza in Montenegro. Bosanski Kafe is good – just like Turkish coffee! If you are in the Federation, however, it’s just the “house coffee.” One of the most popular foods is cevapi (chuh-vah-pee) or cavapcici (chuh-vahp-chi-chi), small sausages that remind me of breakfast sausages with different spices. You eat it with somun, a local bread, with raw onions. It’s okay: 

Cevapi

But the Bosanski lonac (Bosnian stew), klepe (mini ravioli with oil and sour cream), and Sarajevski Sahan (mixed stuffed dolmas) were fantastic! I also got to try the pastrmka (trout) – also delicious! Good eating in Sarajevo… good tap water too!

Bosanski Lonac

Klepe

Sarajevski Sahan

The people, however, were perhaps my least favorite of the countries I’ve visited so far in the region… In Macedonia, they were very friendly and chatty. The woman sitting next to me on my bus to Ohrid, for example, gave me a lot of tips on what to see and do in the city as well as her phone number in case I needed any help. In Kosovo, they love Americans and loved hearing that I was from there. In Bosnia, however, they weren’t mean, but they weren’t very… sympathetic. I very much got the vibe that they don’t care about you and your problems; I guess they’ve had harder stuff to deal with…

Downtown Belgrade

Belgrade: I left Bosnia & Herzegovina from Mostar on a bus bound for Belgrade. I had heard that the Serbs might try and cancel out my Kosovar stamps but they either didn’t see them or didn’t care :) Belgrade was fun! 

Political artwork on one of the main pedestrian streets in Belgrade

Karadordeva Snicla: A uniquely Serbian food consisting of a pork-and-cheese schnitzel. My usual dinner, however, was pizza! The default in the US is cheese or pepperoni, but here it's ham and mushroom! My favorite!!

I spent the first day in Serbia enjoying the sunshine and checking off my list of sights to see (Kalemegdan Fortress, Saint Sava Church, Danube River, National Assembly, etc.) and the second day treating myself to a three-course lunch and Titanic 3D. After my fit of unhappiness in Kosovo, I’ve really started to make an effort to have more fun … forego the “sights to see” I don’t care about in favor of relaxing and enjoying the good life. I’m also realizing that I’ve got less than two more months (!) before I get back to the real world (and have to find a job and be responsible….). 

Enjoying the sunshine at Kalemegdan Park :)

Slovenia and Croatia are the last two countries in the Yugosphere I haven't covered (because I haven't been yet*) but before I do, a recap of Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia! Just posted this blog while on a Polskibus going from Warsaw to Krakow... Poland is awesome!