No Blood for Honey: A Tour of the Bosnian Hinterlands (and a Surprise Visit to a New-For-Me Country)

The Bridge on the Drina.
Yes, that Bridge. And that Drina.

Today's travel itinerary was a four-stop tour of the Bosnian hinterlands, with a surprise bonus visit to a new (for me) country, my 48th country.

First stop? Visegrad. Best known for being the home to the famous Bridge on the Drina.

It is a beautiful bridge. But this part of the world has many beautiful bridges. This bridge lent its name to the national novel of the southern Slavic people: "The Bridge on the Drina" by Yugoslav author Ivo Andrić. (There was a Yugoslavia in when Mr. Andrić wrote his historical novel centered around this bridge. Hencem it is proper to refer to the man as being Yugoslav.)

This is a destination for people on the Balkan region.

Let's cross the bridge and explore Visegrad.

And what do I spy when I first cross the bridge that became the title character in a national novel? A tourist train.

Unfortunately, we have a full day of tourist fun ahead, so no time to ride the faux train. However, before the day is over, we will be riding an actual real historic train through the countryside of a mystery country to be revealed.

And there's no much else to do in the part of Visegrad except look at the bridge.

Or pose for a selfie with the bridge in the background.

Sorry for looking so stern. One thing I've noticed so far about the people of Bosnia. They are very friendly and very helpful, but -- and this is not the least bit surprising given the troubled history of this land -- there really is a bit of melancholy in the atmosphere. You would have to be extremely lacking in awareness to think of Sarajevo as a "party hearty" town. It is a great city, full of interesting sights, great food, and cheap prices. But this is not a place you come to for the party.

But there is more to do and see in the Andrićgrad neighborhood of Visegrad, short enough away that could walk to it, but far enough away that you don't feel guilty about getting back into the tourist van to get there.

The main site in Andrićgrad is the Church of St. King Lazar.

It's small.

You cannot go up into the tower.

I don't know if I would if it were an option. It's not too high and it's definitely not too narrow. I'd have been seriously tempted to climb the five flights of stairs.

I also was seriously tempted to light a candle.

But I didn't see where you pay and, being Catholic, I know you do not light a candle unless you've slid your requested-required donation into the box. But there was no box!

So I guess I will have to take a look inside this small Orthodox church.

Ornate!

I've yet to visit a minimalist Orthodox church in an Orthodox country. I've seen some Catholic churches that look so spartan you'd swear they were Protestant. But never an Orthodox.

And that will bring the Andrićgrad and the Church of St. King Lazar to a conclusion.

These two Visegrad stops are in "Republika Srpska" part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was the genius of the Bill Clinton negotiated Dayton Accords that ended the fighting in the Bosnia War of the mid 1990's. He divided one country into two: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is just called "the Federation," and the Republika Srpska. The Federation is split between Islamic Bosniaks and Catholic Croats in Herzegovina. Republika Srpska does not contain all of the Orthodox Serbs in one land. Even with the "ethnic cleansing" of that war, the populations of these three groups are too interspersed for that. But the drawing of the boundaries of Republika Srpska basically was an ethnic gerrymander, corralling as many ethnic Serbs and practitioners of the Orthodox faith into one part of the Bosnian whole. I was not being facetious when I called Clinton's move "genius." It has brought 30 years of peace to a land that has rarely known peace. The peace is tenuous, but it's still going on. And that is a massively huge accomplishment for which Bill Clinton has been given insufficient credit -- even by the people who love him.

Rolling on through the country:

By the way, I titled this post "No Blood for Honey" because I was sitting in the back on the tourist van. The driver, who also was the guide, was talking and I could barely make out what he was saying. I think he made a reference to honey, which is very popular in these parts, and I thought he said "blood honey." I've never heard of "blood honey." No blood for honey!

The third stop of the day is Dobrun Orthodox Monastery:

This is not the train we will be riding in a bit:

If you look, it's not even on the track. Makes traveling on that train difficult.

This is the monastery grounds entrance:

And this is the church on the monastery grounds:

Let's have a look inside, shall we?

What was most impressive, in my mind, are the well-faded, significantly older decorative art in the church

The new is good, too, but the very old is very better.

This is the hillside overlooking the monastery grounds:

And this is the walkway above the entrance:

And this is a tourist.

Looking, once again, stern. Not my usual vacation travel face.

And then we arrived.

 

At the trainyard to board the train to take us to our next destination: Drvengrad.

We are taking this historic train through the countryside of this new-for-me mystery country. And my 48th country visited is: Serbia.

I didn't book this trip to Visegrad and beyond because it promised me Serbia. But, I was happy that the tour I booked included what was a new-for-me nation.

The Šargan Eight train ride was loud and bumpy, passing through many, many very dark tunnels. So many dark tunnels I felt like I was on a mining train and not a historical railroad through the Serbian countryside. The journey was only 10 miles, but took 45 minutes, including an elevation change of aruond 1000 feet. We arrived at the destination station: Šargan Vitasi.

And, from there, our tourist van met up with us to take us to Drvengrad.

Where you greeted by communist era motor vehicles. Above is a Russian Lada. Below is a Czechoslovakian Skoda.

Drvengrad is a faux authentic wooden village built as a resort by Serbian film director Emir Kusturica, I hadn't heard of him either, It's fake, but designed to be real. This the wooden church in this wooden town:

Let's go inside:

Is it just me, or does this church look like it was designed to look like an orthodox church rather than just being an orthodox church. I'm probably imaging it. But it's the thought I've thunk.

One last look at the resort complex:

Time to make the long trek back to Sarajevo.

But there's one last viewpoint to view, And it's spectacular.

Do you prefer your review which artsy bushes?

Or do you prefer the clean view?

The bridge, of course, is no Bridge on the Drina, but it fits its setting.

The day started rainy but became sunny enough for the sky to reflect nicely in the river water.

So let's end the travel day on a stern note:

Even amidst beautiful nature, I refuse to surrender my right to be stern.

Free Walking Tour of the Old City of Sarajevo Day

The Latin Bridge in Sarajevo. This is where it all started. And by "all," I mean "all."

Today was the day to do the free walking tour through the place where the history of the 20th Century began on June 28, 1914: Sarajevo.

But, first, there can be no free walking tour through the historic core of Old Sarajevo unless I leave my hotel. And the hotel looks impressive in the sunlight.

This is the Isa Begov Hamam and Hotel, just across the Miljacka River from the core of the old city. It occupies a site that was the first hamam in Sarajevo after the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia, so this dates back to 1462. The building suffered tremendously in various wars and natural disasters until, finally, about 15 years ago, it was fully restored to be the boutique you see above.

The Miljacka River is more decorative than functional:

This building might be the Emperor's Mosque:

It is right next to my hotel. I walked past it on my short walk to the start of the free walking tour, but the designated walking tour had not yet begun -- only my personal walk to the walking tour -- so I got no description of what building this is or its history. But there is a lot of history in the old city.

More of the Miljacka River:

There is a tram system that loops around the old vity:

And this is the view of the Latin Bridge from the next bridge upstream.

For a place so fraught with history, it's interesting to see people treat the Latin Bridge as just a bridge:

Cats, too:

But this is quite literally where the history of the 20th Century began on June 28, 1914, right at this spot:

Those footprints represent the place where Gavrilo Princip was standing when, through a bizarre series of events, he found himself standing right in front of the stalled, open-air vehicle in which Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir apparent to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife Sophie. He fired his pistol twice. The Archduke and his wife were mortally wounded. And the world changed forever and irrevocably.

This event and this corner of this city was the catalyst for unleashing series of events that defined the 20th Century:  World War I; the end of monarchies and empires in Europe; the rise of communism; the rise of Hitler; World War II; the end of Europe as the center of global power; the destruction of faith in the western experiment. All because of two pistol shots in Sarajevo.

Control of Bosnia, at that time, had passed from the Sick Man of Europe, the dying Ottoman Empire, to the "not quite as sick" Austro-Hungarian Empire. Apparently some Bosnians were OK with this because Austria-Hungary represented an upgrade from being under the thumb of the dying Ottoman regime. But Princip was not. He was part of a small group of ... activists? ... guerillas? ... terrorists? ... who wanted to foment rebellion and allow for an independent nation of unified southern Slavs. Ironically, Princip's actions brought about what he wanted, the creation after the end of World War II of the modern state of Yugoslavia. 

There is more to Sarajevo than being the flashpoint where World War I started. And there is more than being the center of the Bosnian War in the mid 1990's.

This is the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, which dates back to the 16th Century:

This fountain is the foot-washing station for the mosque. It's also a source for drinking water out of the same taps as one can use for foot-washing water.

And before someone thinks that it is gross to drink from a tap people use to wash their feet, we've all drank water from the bathroom sink tap that we use to wash our hands and face, so get over it.

This is the clock tower next to the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque:

The time at the top is not regular time, it is solar time, with the day beginning not at an arbitrary point that roughly approximates the middle of the night, but with the sunset, as the religious day for Moslem is solar. It's true for us Catholics, too -- the Jewish also -- where religious days begin at sundown. The clock has to be adjusted a couple of times per week because the relationship between the earth and the sun is not static.

We now are about to enter the part of the old city dedicated to souvenir stands:

Peace has come to Sarajevo. There is nothing wrong with making a little money.

This is another site that is critically important to the events of June 28, 1914: the Old City Hall:

The Archduke Ferdinand was riding in an open-air vehicle in a parade-like motorcade when he drove past the Texas Schoolbook Depository. Sorry, wrong open air vehicle. Wrong assassination. The Archduke was, in fact, riding in a parade-like motorcade that day. The parade route was numerous potential assassins along it, all associated with the same group of Bosnian radicals as Princip. One of the assassins tossed a grenade at the car in which the Archduke was riding, but the grenade bounced off that vehicle and into the vehicle immediately behind it. That vehicle was carrying a number of important military officials. The grenade then exploded causing multiple injuries and deaths. Franz Ferdinand then was rushed to safety at the Old City Hall.

If he had just stayed there that day, after that incident, it likely would not have been the catalyst for World War I although, who knows, since Austria-Hungary was itching for a fight with the independent Republic of Serbia. But Franz Ferdinand did not stay put in the safety of City Hall. He wanted to go to the hospital to check on his injured comrades.

But not this hospital:

That now-abandoned building then was a military hospital on a bluff overlooking Sarajevo. If that had been the hospital to which the injured military officials had been taken, Franz Ferdinand would have been secure. Instead, the military officials were taken to the main city hospital. The Archduke wanted to visit them. The Archduke's driver was given conflicting directions about a new, more secure route to take to get the Archduke (and his wife Sophie) to the hospital. The driver took a wrong turn near the Latin Bridge and his vehicle came to a stop as the driver attempted to recalculate the route. And standing right there, at a delicatessen across from the Latin Bridge, where Franz Ferdinand's car came to a stop, was a man who thought his only chance at assassinating the Archduke had passed him by.

A whole lot of events had to go horribly wrong for all of this to happen. But they did happen and the world changed forever.

These are old city walls:

And this is the only man besides Marshall Tito who could unite the Yugoslavian nation:

Nikola Tesla at a restaurant bearing his name. A Serb born in Croatian territory, so all of the Yugoslavian people could claim this genius as their own. And what do you think Tesla was thinking here? Maybe about how the Great Pyramids of Egypt were actually massive electrical generators ...

This is the Orthodox Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos, the largest orthodox cathedral in Sarajevo:

And for us papists, the main Catholic church in Sarajevo:

Sacred Heart Cathedral.

With a statute of Saint John Paul II:

And we will end with an poignant and artsy photo:

Throughout Sarajevo, there are what they call "Sarajevo roses." These are holes in the pavement representing where mortal shells exploded during the Bosnian War on the 1990's. They've painted them red where there were deaths at that site from the explosion. This would have been one such place. In front of the main Catholic cathedral.