Latest album from Croatia, through Bosnia & Serbia to Romania
http://bristol.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2128959&l=a4320&id=193107027
and Will’s version
http://bristol.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2128977&l=761cd&id=193106809
Don’t worry mums, we only followed used tracks and took local advice! It is a big problem for Bosnia though, some frontline areas are still completely out of bounds – luckily it turns out none of the roads we used were mined…
After Mostar we followed the busy route to Sarajevo, stopping for the night above the Jablanica lake which serves as a reservoir for most of Bosnia and a decent bath for smelly travellers! A friendly bar owner decided to waver the 3euro “charge” and let us use his floating fishing platform for free.
I think we only brushed the surface of Sarajevo as we were beginning to tire of city sights. The war torn buildings are left scattered everywhere as pretty blatant reminders – for better or worse – as well as the extensive cemeteries for either side. 200+ graves on any one site, all with identical date of death.
From Sarajevo we headed into the hills in search of our utopian pineforestclearingwithfireandquietness… and that’s exactly what we found! We received some funny looks from workers in the forestry yards as we plunged down the familiar shrinking road/track/path/vague direction, but our perseverence was rewarded with a perfect quiet spot to relax in. Which is just what we did for two nights; I don’t think I walked further than the end of the van! To entertain ourselves in this period of relaxation we embarked upon a whittling project, carving ourselves some pieces for the beautiful chess board we’ve painted onto a marble tile we found – see the photos!
Fully revitalised we saw off Jose; our friendly Australian, vegetarian hitchhiker; with a totally traditional Bosnian lunch – meat. Then dropped him on the road to Australia.
Expensively negotiated the Serbian border and are now being excellently entertained by a friend+family of Will’s Dad in Novi Sad; pivo has appeared in front of me as I write so I will leave it at that!
As mentioned in our last post we were preparing ourselves for our second night with just the two of us, however we picked up a friendly didgeridoo playing australian in split for our journey into bosnia so disaster has been averted! We are now in Mostar, which is famous for it’s bridge connecting the muslim and christian communities in the city for the past 500 years. It was destroyed in the war 15 years ago and has recently been rebuilt.
Bosnia looks to be interesting, much more of a muslim influence than anywhere else we’ve been yet. Mostar itself was seriously damaged in the war and there are still bullet holes and mortar shell damage everywhere. The main street was the front line for a while and the ruined buildings are still there.
Entering Bosnia was interesting as they required a document we didn’t have. Fortunately a bribe of a cheap bottle of macedonian red wine did the trick and we were allowed in! Pleading ignorance to the police officer who caught will speeding (ridiculous speed limits over here) also worked a treat!
