Last night after I wrote, Mum discovered that ‘Pretty Woman’ was on TV in our room. Needless to say, we were up past midnight watching!!
This morning we left the hotel at 8am to go to the Tunnel of Hope Museum. Unbelievably, for the first three (nearly four) years of my life, Sarajevo was under siege. Serbian forces surrounded the city from every direction, trapping its inhabitants inside. If people tried to flee then snipers would shoot them.
There are three distinct ethnic groups in Bosnia - Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. All are referred to as “Bosnians”, and interestingly, each of these has their own leader. Essentially, the Bosnian war was fought because Serbs and Croats living in Bosnia wanted to annex Bosnian territory for Serbia and Croatia. The Serbs committed genocide against the Muslims in Bosnia. I think the details are far more ghastly than what we are being told on our tour. 100,000 people were killed in total in the Bosnian war, and 80% of them were Bosniaks.
The Museum we went to is in and below the house of the Kalor family. In December 1992, it was decided a tunnel needed to be built in order for civilians to access resources such as food, medical supplies and weapons from the free territory. Construction began in January 1993 and took a month, with workers changing shift every 8 hours and working around the clock. The tunnel was 800m long, 1m wide and on average 1.5m high. It was built underneath the sturdy airport runway and involved a total of 2800 cubic metres of soil being excavated.
In Sarajevo, on average there were 330 bomb attacks a day. On the 22nd of July 1993, 3777 shells exploded in one day. In total, 11 541 people were killed in Sarajevo, and 1601 of them were children. We watched footage of Bosniak soldiers and civilians using the tunnel and exiting it, with the owner of the house kindly offering them water on their way out. Seeing footage of the streets around the house was shocking. Everything was in ruins. It was a shocking experience but a brilliant example of resilience and people working together to survive. The tunnel virtually saved Sarajevo and gave it a lifeline. Outside, we saw an example of one of the 100 “roses” that have been painted with red resin where there are cracks/circles in the pavement due to the war.
Then we drove into town. At this point, our guide was taking the group on a city tour, but Mum and I had made our own plan to go up the Trebević Mountain. As it turned out, a number of people on our tour wanted to go up. Our tour guide asked me to show them all the way, and I explained some brief history along the path. Our guide is trying hard, but I’m finding unless I research myself the night before I can’t really understand what’s going on. Lucky we have wifi!
The Sarajevo cable car was opened in 1959, and was an icon of the city. It took people to the top of the mountain to restaurants, hikes etc. During the war, the cable car was ruined and forgotten about. Happily for the city (and for us!) after 25 years it reopened just this April. Until a few weeks ago you couldn’t exit at the top, but now you can. There is still a lot of construction going on and eventually new facilities will be built at the top. The new top station has been named after Ramo Biber, who was killed during the war and was in charge of the original top station.
I was so pleased the cable car was open for three reasons. 1) It’s fantastic for the city as it has really lifted the spirits of the people living here because things are going back to normal more and more. 2) The view was AMAZING, and we were lucky to get sunshine on the way up! 3) The abandoned bobsled track was at the top.
Sarajevo was chosen to host the 1984 Winter Olympic Games because the Olympic committee decided it was the place with the least chance of a Cold War boycott out of the potential hosts, and also because they decided it would be good to change peoples’ perceptions of Sarajevo, ie that it was the root of World War I due to Franz Ferdinand’s assassination here. As a result, there is a bobsled track up the top of Trebević Mountain. I don’t know why, but I’ve always had a fascination with going to Olympic facilities, and the more run down, the better. It’s so interesting seeing how different countries use (or don’t use) the facilities once the games are over after having spent a fortune on them.
The track here delivered the “run down and abandoned” side of things. Due to the war, it had until recently been left to gather moss, and a colourful collection of graffiti from local people coming to express themselves. It was deserted and we walked for about 20 minutes down the track, finally running into a couple of people along the way.
Before the cable car was reinstated, you either had to get a taxi up (and I had read cabbies didn’t really know where it was, that’s how abandoned it had become!) or hike for hours.
The other interesting thing about this track was that it was used by snipers during the war. There were many dilapidated buildings along the way that I imagine would have been rest stops or timekeeping towers, that people must have hid out in during the war.
We ended our walk when we got to a part of the track that was being worked on. I think that now the cable car is open, they are patching up broken parts of the track and it will be visited more frequently. It looks like you can ride a bike down parts of it. It would certainly be interesting to come back in the future and see how much it changes.
On the way to the cable car, a dark cloud came in overhead and it rained a bit. We didn’t get much of a view!!
Then we had a quick look in the City Museum which had some interesting objects including Gavrilo Princip’s gun and some of Franz Ferdinand’s personal belongings. The cute old man inside was so friendly and insisted that I wear some Ferdinand type clothes and get a photo in the replica of his car. “Madame Ferdinand!”, he kept saying with a huge smile on his face. He was so lovely I gave him a tip, which is unusual for me!
Then we met the group again and were on our way to Mostar. They call Bosnia the Switzerland of the Balkans, and I can see why. It’s so mountainous and beautiful! The drive itself is a great experience. We also noticed the weather changed from Sarajevo where it was 21 degrees and grey/rainy. Once we got to Mostar it was 29 degrees and sunny and blue.
Mostar is the capital of the Herzegovina part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is the southern part of the country. The name Mostar comes from the word ‘Mostari’ meaning bridge keeper. This is because Mostar has a very famous bridge - Stari Most (old bridge). It is from this bridge that you’ve probably seen people jumping from on TV or somewhere else that. Traditionally it was part of a “coming of age” ceremony for boys that lived here. Today it’s more of a tourist attraction that some locals do to work for tips. As well, some tourists jump. Not me! Jumping off a bridge in New Zealand was enough for me. People have gotten really hurt and even died jumping because it’s a 23m drop from the top of the bridge. Hamish and Andy came here on their ‘Gap Year’ TV show and both jumped, and because Hamish didn’t stay quite straight enough he was bruised all over for days and days.
We walked through the old town taking in the sunny, beautiful views and the hustle and bustle of the narrow walkways. Then Mum and I went down to the water to dip our legs in, and we were lucky enough to see a guy jump off the bridge. For some reason, they tip water on themselves before they do so. Maybe it means your skin glides through the water at the bottom more easily.
Then we drove on to Trebinje and we continued to be treated with lovely scenery. We had a crazy moment on a narrow road where a truck came the other way and we had to reverse for a while, but other than that it was OK.
Now we are in Trebinje for the night, and going out for a drink soon. Tomorrow is going to be HUGE. We go to Dubrovnik in Croatia and then to Kotor and Budva in Montenegro, and we get to Podgorića in Montenegro to stay. We have three hours in Dubrovnik, and thanks to my good memory I can remember where all the main stuff is to show Mum. It’s such a beautiful place, I’m really excited to go back!!!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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