The Balkans

Overnight stops (in date order): Obrov; Osekovo; Banja Luka (x5); Donji Vakuf; Mostar; Žitomislići (x2); Sarajevo (x9); Donje Vardište; Novo Selo; Paljina; Sofia; Biser

Slovenia
We were in a hurry to leave the Schengen Zone (to stop the clock ticking on our 90-day allowance inside the EU).  Although we sped across Slovenia

Danielle had time to record her impression.

The Noble Landscape of Slovenia

Croatia
We spent just one night in Croatia;

which happened to be Paul’s birthday – the second he had celebrated in that country.

Danielle’s ‘card’ marked the occasion.

Bosnia and Herzegovina
We found ‘sanctuary’ in Bosnia and Herzegovina (outside of the Schengen Zone at last).

The country has a deeply-troubled recent past and perhaps the World’s most complex political system (with a tripartite Presidency shared between the three largest ethnic groups – Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats – and a ‘High Representative’ appointed by the international community with the power of veto).

We spent five nights in Banja Luka – Bosnia’s second largest city; which has a predominantly Serb population.

We camped on the banks of the Vrbas River;

where we had our first taste of Bosnian ‘haute cuisine’ (piles of barbecued meat and sausage with chips – which, together with cheap beer, probably accounts for the size and shape of the typical Bosnian man).

We spent time at the nearby Krupa waterfalls,

Lake Pliva

(where are the Mlinčići watermills – that date back to the Ottoman period)

and Jajce

with its medieval citadel,

complete with catacombs,

and popular waterfall.

The small, open-air museum, Lubačke Doline, reminded us that life for the common people of Bosnia has never been easy.

The first part of the road south from Banja Luka runs through the valley of the Vrbas River

(Emir was our host at our overnight stop).

It then crosses part of the Dinaric Alps

before descending into Mostar – in the Herzegovina region.

Mostar’s population is predominantly Muslim Bosniak; one of the reasons that it attracts a high number of tourists from the Gulf states.

We had a view from our dinner table of the famous bridge.

Built by the Ottoman’s in the 16^th Century, the bridge was severely damaged by Bosnian Croat forces in 1993.  It was reconstructed in 2004 and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Lunch service in a nearby restaurant was a little robotic.

The temperature was pushing 40 during the week we spent around Mostar.  Luckily, we were camped on  the banks of the Neretva River –

considered to be the coldest river in the world.

We visited the hillside, walled, Ottoman town of Počitelj

and the Kravica waterfalls –

a popular local resort.

We drove north through the Neretva River gorge;

stopping  at one of the popular restaurants, near Jablanica, for lunch of lamb, slow-roasted over beechwood charcoal,

on our way to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We checked into an apartment with a view over the town (which is set in a bowl surrounded by hills).

Sarajevo was founded in 1462.  Its most famous Governor, Gazi Husrev-beg, developed it into a major Ottoman city.  He built much of the its historic centre;

including its eponymous mosque

and Madrasa.

The old city still feels very Turkish feel.

In 1878, the Austro-Hungarian empire took over Sarajevo (and the country)

and modernised its infrastructure – setting up Europe’s first fully-electrified tramway.

The city indirectly brought about the downfall of the Empire after a Bosnian Serb nationalist assassinated

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

on the Latin Bridge;

setting off a chain of events that led to the First World War.

Sarajevo’s position at the crossroad between West and East earned it the nickname ‘the Jerusalem of Europe’. As well as Mosques, it has a Roman Catholic cathedral,

Serbian Orthodox churches,

and synagogues.

The Bosnian War of the 1990s is sufficiently recent for some of the buildings in the City to still bear the scars

and there are many museums and memorials that ensure that the horrors of the war will not be forgotten.

Leaving Sarajevo after a nine night stay, we spent our final night in Bosnia camped by a river.  This watery theme chimed with Danielle’s reflections on the country that she came to love.

The Rivers that Flow Freely

Afternoon – Re-energising at the Waterfall.

Serbia
The next day we crossed into Serbia

and immediately passed our first wooden church.

We drove through a region famous for its monasteries (including Žiča

and Ljubostinja)

as we moved out of the Dinaric Alps into the rolling hills and rural heartland of central Serbia;

ending in a two and a half-hour queue at the Bulgarian frontier (caused by the EU’s excellent new border control system).

But, that is not what Danielle remembers of Serbia

Serbia – Late Yellow Sun. Energy Communicating and Giving Its Warmth 

Bulgaria
Once again, we did not dally in the Schengen Zone.

Just time for an evening in Sofia

(including a visit to the Patriarchal Cathedral St. Alexander Nevsky built at the turn of the 19th Century  to commemorate the Russian soldiers who died during the Russo-Turkish war);

and a second evening in the fruitful countryside to the east.

Danielle’s memories of Bulgaria in her favourite medium:

Bulgaria Summer Evening