I will pick up where I left off, crossing the border into Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first real border, as it isn’t part of the EU. They kept me waiting for 20 minutes to check my ID but it was no problem at all, I suppose it would’ve been much more difficult with other passports.
On the way to Mostar there is a cycling path (Ciro Trail) that runs along the other side of the Neretva River following the old railway tracks and away from cars. Just before Mostar it started to pour and I ended up soaking wet. Luckily, I made it to the hostel and Miran treated me like one of the family right from the start. Then I went for a walk around the city and it enchanted me.
It has a special atmosphere that I hadn’t seen before during my trip and a lot of life in the streets and empty of tourists at this time of the year.
But full of stray cats everywhere.
There is water everywhere, and the Ottoman influence is very noticeable. Not only because of the mosques, but also because of the importance they gave to water both from the rivers and the fact of having fountains in the streets for everyone.
And it has beautiful corners where you can admire the characteristic bridge. In fact, during the Bosnian war it was bombed and destroyed by the Croatian military. After the Serb siege of the city, the Croats wanted to take advantage of the situation to control Mostar and to do so they felt it was of vital importance to destroy the bridge because of its strategic function.
Al día siguiente hicimos el tour de la región con Miran y otra gente que estaba en el hostal. La primera parada fue el monasterio Dervish (Tekke) de Blagaj, situado en el nacimiento del río Buna. De hecho, no se sabe exactamente de donde viene exactamente el agua del río pero de dentro de la montaña seguro. En Turquía descubriré más cosas sobre la doctrina Dervish.
The next day we did the tour of the region with Miran and other people staying at the hostel. The first stop was the Dervish (Tekke) monastery of Blagaj, situated at the source of the Buna river. In fact, it isn’t known exactly where the water of the river comes from, but from inside the mountain for sure. In Turkey I’ll find out more about the Dervish doctrine.
The second stop was the village of Pocitelj, where after the Bosnian war most of the inhabitants were killed or had to flee. Nowadays very few people live there, but during the spring it’s full of artists and craftsmen. Nowadays it’s quite empty in winter.
It’s very curious because it combines mosques with a rather Christian defensive wall.
The views from the two castles are breathtaking and strolling through the narrow streets takes you back to the Middle Ages.
We took a team picture with Miran before leaving.
The third stop was the Kravica waterfalls. As the title of the article already indicates, water is the most precious asset that Bosnia and Herzegovina has in my opinion. In the future it should be protected or else the richer countries will come and take advantage of it as usual. Maybe at that time the EU will accept Bosna and Herzegovina as part of the EU. That said, it’s a very special place and spectacular even in winter. In the spring it must be a blast with all the green all around.
We went for lunch to the Fortica lookout point from where the Serbs started bombing Mostar at the beginning of the Bosnian war. Today, fortunately, all that remains are the beautiful views from the top. On the way, Miran made me discover a band from Sarajevo that I really liked, Kultur Shock.
Miran collected after the war some of the missiles that were used and they are really scary. It’s hard to think that it’s only 30 years after all this.
When we went down to the city Miran told us a bit about how he experienced it first hand from the inside, as he participated in the war. It was very intense but very interesting and I’m very grateful to him for sharing it with us.
Fortunately, today the damaged buildings are gradually being renovated and some of them have graffiti by well-known artists on their walls, revitalising the neighbourhood where the front line used to be.
In the evening we went out for dinner with Alban, a French guy I met at the hostel. We got a real kick out of it.
Mostar is really beautiful at night. We went for a few beers at the Craft Beer Garden Imaimoze and I highly recommend it.
On the way back to the hostel I took a similar photo of the bridge but this time at night.
The next day it was time to get up early to take the train to Sarajevo. Near the hostel I saw graffiti of a flower that looked familiar and it turned out to be by Werens, an artist from Sabadell, my hometown.
The train journey between Mostar and Sarajevo is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever done, even on a cloudy day in March, and I took the train quite a lot in Switzerland. I suppose it must be even more beautiful in spring but it loses the snow component. Also newsworthy is the fact that I found a train in the Balkans. It was the first passenger train I had seen since Slovenia and probably the last one till Greece.
At Sarajevo station I was surprised by a huge Coca Cola advertisement inside a communist train station.
From the very first moment it was clear to me that Sarajevo had suffered a lot during the Bosnian war and was also besieged along with Mostar. And a graffiti recalling the Srebrenica massacre, where more than 8,000 people were killed, welcomed me.
I went on a tour of Sarajevo with Adis, who was born in Sarajevo and lived through the war as a child. It was also 8 March, the international day of the working women, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina it’s celebrated by giving flowers, but it wasn’t clear to me if the women were on strike, I would say no. However, a lot of women gathered in the main square of the city.
We started by taking a stroll down the city street where most of the craftsmen who work with copper are located. They make everything from containers for making Bosnian coffee to pieces of art. They also recycle mortars from the war to make umbrella stands or other objects and give them a new life. Sometimes you feel like you’re in Istanbul and sometimes in Vienna, it’s interesting.
A walk along the Miljacka River brought us to the bridge where a young Serbian anarchist assassinated Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire back in 1914. This triggered a series of events that led to the outbreak of World War I.
You can also see the ruins of an old caravanserai, next to the bazaar, where merchant travellers passing through Sarajevo could sleep for free. I’m sure I’ll see some more in better condition in Turkey, Armenia or even Iran if I end up going.
On the other side of the caravanserai you can see one of the buildings that caught my attention in Sarajevo.
It was a very particular residential building with a lot of graffiti.
For lunch, I took the advice of a friend from Addis who worked in a traditional restaurant and he was absolutely right. He recommended I try both Klepe, a kind of dumpling or ravioli stuffed with meat and onions. And Sarma, meat mixed with bulgur and herbs and rolled up inside a vine leaf. It was all very tasty.
Then it was time to return to Mostar by train and hope that the atmosphere in the streets would be calm because there was a derby between Velez Mostar, the team of the anti-fascists, who are mainly Bosnian, and Zrinjski, the team of the Croats, who are mainly fascists. And the streets were full of graffiti and murals. Luckily, when I arrived in Mostar, the game was still going on and it was quiet.
I spent a few more days in Mostar but it was raining and I took the opportunity to rest and prepare for the continuation of the trip. Doga and Andre arrived at the hostel. He’s German and she’s Turkish, from Istanbul, maybe we’ll meet again. Also Huan, from China, gave me some tips for China and Vietnam, which she knows pretty well.
We also went to dinner with Taso, who’s the partner of Ari’s friend Valentina. He also owns a hostel in Mostar but it was still closed and was due to open in April. We went to a bar for dinner and the waiter started buying us beers because he couldn’t believe that I had come all the way there by bike. I’m very grateful to Taso for the way he is, his company and his advice.
The next day it was time to head for Trebinje. I said goodbye to Miran and promised him that we would meet again. To get to Trebinje I had to follow the Ciro Trail back to almost the Croatian border. Halfway there I met Annika cycling towards Croatia. She had come to Mostar as an Erasmus student but she’s originally from Austria and had to do some paperwork at the border. It cheered me up the day to share a few kilometres with someone and chat.
On the way to Trebinje the views were spectacular. There were almost no cars and I passed through very small villages. The idea was to stop at a lake halfway between Mostar and Trebinje. When I arrived there was still the shepherdess with her sheep and when she left I pitched the tent. It was dark before 18:00 and by 20:00 I was sleeping. It was very cold during the night and also in the morning when I was dismantling the tent, but it was worth it. The morning sun gave me life.
The next day while I was having breakfast, the shepherdess came by again with the sheep and greeted me. I had to turn back to a village because I was short of water and a Belgian shepherd almost attacked me, the umpteenth time already. The views throughout the day were breathtaking, though.
I passed through quite a few abandoned villages after the war, I imagine.
There were some signs warning of possible mines that might still be there, especially in the more rural areas. A lot of work has been done to clear the mines from the war, but there are still dangerous areas.
I found sheep, cows and even horses in the middle of the road. Luckily all of them were calm, the most important thing is to have confidence in yourself and remain calm.
Shortly before arriving in Trebinje, where Jana and Gordon were welcoming me, I decided to take a detour to see an orthodox monastery, as I had plenty of time, a bad decision. It was a road full of stones and brambles and the monastery was closed. I had low tyre pressure and a few bramble thorns stuck in the tyre, and one gave me a flat tyre. First one of the trip and just before nightfall, it was time to hurry. I found the thorn that gave me the puncture and pulled it out, but the rest were impossible to remove. Luckily, I arrived in Trebinje before it got dark. A hot shower was waiting for me there and I was welcomed from the very beginning.
Jana went on a 3-year bike trip about 10 years ago and it was very interesting to talk to her about her experience. Here’s her blog in case anyone’s interested (Worldsdiversity). Gordon was also very interesting to talk to. We went for a walk together along the river in the nice weather.
Then I went up one of the hills of the city to see a rather curious orthodox church. It must be said that Trebinje is inside the Republic of Srpska, where the people who feel Serbian live inside Bosnia. Everything is written in Cyrillic like in Serbia and they are Orthodox Christians. Also, like Serbia, the Republic of Srpska is pro-Russian.
I’d like to thank both Jana and Gordon for welcoming me away from home. Good luck with your project and we’ll see eachother again one day. The next day it was time to head back to Croatia before crossing into Montenegro. In Croatia I had to pick up some shoe covers that I had ordered online and sent to a shop because mine had broken a few weeks before. I also had to check the tyre and inner tube to see the effect of the puncture. On the way to Dubrovnik and after crossing the border back into Croatia, the views from the top of the city were amazing.
I left the bike at the bike shop to have it looked at and then went for a walk around the city.
So far it’s been the most touristy city I’ve been to in this trip, probably largely because of Game of Thrones. It’s the price to pay, I guess. The harbour is very pretty, though.
The city is almost entirely walled and this gives it a charisma that no other city I have seen has. The walls are gigantic but during the winter they are closed and you can’t go up them, which is a pity.
I took the opportunity to return early to the apartment because the next day I had to get up early and go to pick up the bike and had a long stage where I crossed into Montenegro. I did, however, take the opportunity to enjoy the sunset watching the various islands near Dubrovnik from the terrace. Regarding the bike, the chain was changed after 1800 km and the tyres were filled with sealant to prevent punctures, thus ensuring that I could reach Greece/Turkey with the same tyres. The rest was in very good condition. The mechanic is a phenomenon, I recommend him, Dubrovnik Bike Adventure Shop (DBAS).
All in all I spent 10 days in Bosnia and it was the first country where I saw a bit of a culture shock compared to what I was used to. I liked it even more than I thought I would and I know I will come back in the future, both for the nature and the cultural side and the people. I felt at home and the truth is that apart from Italy it’s the first time I felt like that.
