After I wrote last night, we had our tour meeting with 34 of our new friends - haha. More are joining later.
By the time the meeting finished and they took us into town, it was 9pm and we had an extremely late dinner in Knez Milhailova Street. The tour guide took our group around a little bit but we left on our own because we already knew the town. Mum had ghoulash and I had baked beans and Serbian sausages. Both were yummy! We also checked out the fortress at night. It had a really cool atmosphere with lots of people relaxing and lots of buskers.
We got the bus back at 11.15pm and then left at 8.15am today. Again from what I wrote yesterday, we were a bit disappointed because the itinerary online for the tour we booked said we would head straight to Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina today. We weren’t the only ones disappointed - two other girls didn’t bother going on the walking tour of Belgrade with the group as well. We ditched because we had already been to all the sights covered.
Luckily, Mum and I realised we were right on time to go to the National Museum in Republic Square which we hadn’t been to yet. In 2003, the permanent exhibition here closed its doors due to a lack of funding and the extensive restorations that were needed to keep the building in working order. We were so lucky because on the 28th of June (only Thursday last week!) the museum reopened its doors after 15 years. As a result, there was a pretty big queue to get in but we were early and were up the front.
The best part - it was free! We spent an hour in air conditioned comfort looking at items from archaeological digs and at Serbian and Yugoslav paintings. Our favourite was ‘Orphan on his Mother’s Grave’ by Uroš Predić. The boy in particularly was painted so realistically it looked like a photograph (photo of painting underneath my post).
Then we got on the bus and finally left Belgrade at 11.30. At least we found something to do so that we didn’t feel we were completely wasting our time. We had our passports checked at the border which didn’t take long, and then we stopped for “lunch” at 4pm, by which time half of us had eaten snacks on the bus and weren’t even hungry. We found out at this point from a guy whose friend works for Travel Talk that the reason our itinerary changed was because this is only the second tour of this kind that has run because it’s new. I wish I wasn’t such a control freak, but initially we should have been arriving in Sarajevo at 3pm by the old itinerary. Yesterday I was told 6pm, and we ended up arriving at 7pm. A group of us were so confused that I asked to clarify details and I’m pretty sure she thought I was complaining, even though we all just want to know what’s coming up.
We continued to make our way to Sarajevo passing lots of farms and villages along the way, and going through the mountains (60% of Bosnia is mountains!). Naja and Tanja (our guides) gave us some history about the area, telling us that Serbia is mostly orthodox, while Bosnia and Herzegovina was in the middle of the Christian and orthodox regions and as a result has quite a bit of religious diversity.
I had a little trouble understanding, but from what I gather, over time there have been many disputes in the Balkans about land and borders, and this was also the case in the war here during the 90s as Serbia wanted more land.
Even though many contributing factors led to the beginning of World War I, the very first of these factors occurred right here in Sarajevo. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated when Gavrilo Princip - Bosnian Serb who was part of a group seeking to end Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia - shot him from the Latin Bridge. This led to Austria-Hungary and Serbia declaring war on one another, and then allies for both sides jumping in. You know the rest unfortunately :( It's a fairly divisive topic here, with some Bosnians viewing him as a hero, and others as a terrorist.
We also learned that Bosnia and Herzegovina is 52 000 square kilometres in area, and that the Romans were here once upon a time as well. Bosnia was also under Serbian control in the 14th century, and in the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century.
We will have some more history on Sarajevo tomorrow regarding the homeland war, but so far we found out there was a siege here for four years which must have been terrible. Tomorrow we are going to what was originally an 800m long tunnel that people used during the siege to get supplies.
On the way into town we saw a really bad car accident, and eventually arrived just after 7pm.
Mum and I aren’t going to do the walking tour with the group tomorrow as we are going to try and squeeze in the abandoned bobsled track on the 1984 Winter Olympics mountain, so we walked around ourselves tonight.
We looked at the main square, the cute alleyways, the many mosques (45% of Sarajevo residents are Muslim) including Gazi Husrev Beg’s Mosque from 1530. We also saw the spot from which Gavrilo Princip fired the bullet that killed Franz Ferdinand. It was a very strange feeling standing in this spot. The hairs on my arms stood on end knowing that the shot fired from this spot had such a horrible domino effect which culminated in so much loss of life and devastation. I have included some photos of the bridge that Princip was standing behind, as well as the bridge that Ferdinand was on when he was shot. Excuse my funny face, but I didn't really want to smile, I just wanted to show I was there.
We ended our night by having a kebab in the main square which was so delicious! We had some Turkish delight for dessert as well. It’s like being in Turkey here but without creepy stalkers following us! Everyone here has been lovely. The Turkish delight man gave us some free samples and tried so hard to speak English with us, and the kebab man had lived in Florida and has family in Perth and told us to “have a good one!” to which we laughed and said we would.
Before we got back on the bus, we saw the yellow and red city hall building. This is the building from which Ferdinand and his wife began their journey through Sarajevo. This is not the original because like many buildings in Sarajevo it was destroyed in the war. The bit that freaked me out was that a lot of damage sustained here occurred in 1992, the year I was born. Whenever I think about war it always feels like it was well before my time. Not the case here, and I guess not the case in a few places today either.
Now we are back at the hotel. I’ll admit I started the day feeling really negative about our tour, and I even typed some of this throughout the day when I was feeling disappointed. But tonight I am feeling a lot better about it, and I think it will be OK.
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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