Thursday, January 17, 2013

A drive through Former Yugoslavia Part II - Plitvice to Sarajevo

In the former Yugoslavian/Balkan region, it is very common for private households to let out spare rooms in their house, or even renovate part of them homes purely for this purpose – an eastern european bed & breakfast if you will, generally a more no-frills version, however. We had opted to stay in one of these rooms (often advertised by signs on the building/street as either 'sobe', 'zimmer' or simply 'free room'). Our stay in Plitvice was extremely pleasant, though given our proximity to one of Croatia's most visited tourist attractions, we paid comparatively more (20 euro per person for what was made up like hotel room) than what we would pay elsewhere

As previously mentioned, we were yet to have any real sort of direction as to how to get to Sarajevo in Bosnia, for that evening. We knew it was a six or so hour journey, so we left fairly early, and after being unable to find a turnoff that Google Maps had advised us of the previous night, we purchased a paper map and were on our way. Generally, the journey was fine, direction wise through the long stretches, but trying to navigate through smaller villages with many unmarked roads provided moments of confusion. Perhaps more worrying were the condition of the roads themselves – potholes, hairpin turns and unsealed roads are reason enough to be careful when you don't have speeding roadtrains overtaking you with complete disregard for the wellbeing of other drivers. It was an experience to say the least, taking me back to the days of driving in Los Angeles months earlier – only that time we had a GPS.

While the roads were an eyesore, the landscapes either side were a sight for sore eyes, eons away from the preconcieved images I had of Bosnia. We could easily have been in Switzerland or Austria, such was the natural beauty. We passed through the picturesque cities of Kluj and Jajce - having a lunch of cevapcici at the former (Small spicy skinless sausages – what I assume the Australian brand 'chevups' are based on), before continuing on towards Sarajevo.

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Bosnia & Herzegovina

It was when we reached Travnik that scenes of war ravaged Bosnia came to the fore. Abandoned and destroyed buildings, apartment blocks with mortar shell damage halfway up the buildings and bullet shell riddled homes. As the sun started to set, and the weather turned for the worse it was quite a sombre and depressing experience, with the grey sky matching the damaged grey buildings of the city centre.

Not long after we had left the vicinity of Travnik and we were back driving through picturesque Bosnia, which seemed like a completely different world. Farm animals grazed freely as the massive winding roads curved through the mountains as the sun set with a more golden glow. It was if it were a movie-style set up juxtaposition, the landscape and sun providing some sort of symbolic backdrop.

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Bosnia & Herzegovina

As we approached Sarajevo, probably about eight hours after leaving Plitvice (so we were a bit behind schedule), we encountered the first real stretch of highway. The 130km/h speed limit was obeyed by little to no-one, despite the slight drizzle (which could provide an interesting point in the constant reduction of speed limits in Australia, but I digress...). The foothills surrounding Sarajevo providing dazzling views over the city, and it was hard fathom that a couple of decades ago it was these same views that allowed sniper fire to rain down upon the city.

Once we made our way into the city, we ventured into the Old Town, which with its strong Eastern and Muslim influences reminded me slightly of my arrival in Marrakech four years ago. Only this time I was in a rental car. Cobbled, unmarked and uneven streets, open squares and plazas that were equally shared by cars, motorbikes and pedestrians and a maze of one way side streets made for an extremely intense journey to our accomodation, and never before have I let out such a sigh of relief as I parked the car for the night. 

Update(s)

Unfortunately I got much too busy and side-tracked (travelling!) for the last section of my trip resulting in a huge lack of updates. I'm now back in Australia, and will be endeavouring to finish off the trip with respective updates and photos.

There's still a mountain of photos to come from the following countries:

Bosnia & Herzegovina
Macedonia
Bulgaria
Turkey
Hungary
Poland
Germany
Netherlands
Belgium
England
Dubai
Singapore

I hope to get these photos up over the coming weeks :)

Mark