My First Time Out of Sarajevo!

Yesterday I took my first trip outside of Sarajevo. It was crazy to realize that I had been in this country for almost a month, but I had only ever seen 54.6 square miles (141.5 square km) of it. We started our trip early by meeting up in front of the National Museum at 8 in the morning.  It was really chilly and super foggy and I worried that my long sleeve shirt and scarf would be too thin, luckily though it warmed up.

It's hard to believe there's a city down there!

We all piled into a van that our coordinators had arranged to drive us around for the day. It was only a two hour drive from Sarajevo to Mostar, but it felt like being in a different country. Sarajevo has a continental climate, so our foggy, chilly morning was pretty average, but on our drive through the country we went through a mountain a suddenly the weather changed to a gorgeous, bright, and sunny day.  It was crazy! We were now in a Mediterranean climate, but still in the same tiny country, I was in a state of disbelief. It was awesome.

Crazy Right?

Upon first glance Mostar looked like the outskirts of Sarajevo, it was surrounded by a beautiful landscape, it had some war damage, and there were plenty of people walking around,  but once we got out of the car, we noticed the atmosphere was a little different here. None of us could quite place what it was until our coordinators explained the incredible amount of ethnic tension that the city of Mostar had and that we were currently in “no man’s land”, it was a divided city.  The Croat and Bosniak populations that lived there went to different schools, and had different soccer teams, and learned different languages in school.  It was a big adjustment from  Sarajevo. In Sarajevo there are occasionally ethnically-charged incidents, but for the most part all of the ethnic groups there co-exist without many problems.

We headed into Old Town Mostar. It was a really gorgeous part of town and reminded me of Baščaršija in Sarajevo. The first sight we saw was this really beautiful mosque with a minaret that we were allowed to climb up. The mosque rules asked women to cover their heads out of respect, and let’s just say the first couple times I tried to wrap my scarf around my head, I did not look nearly as graceful as the ladies I see walking around Sarajevo. After the minaret, we headed to an old Ottoman house turned museum/hotel, the Stari Most bridge, an overlook down by the river, and then we were off.

On top of the minaret, this is attempt number two at scarf wrapping

Stari Most bridge

Notice any similarities?

                

Our next stop was Blagaj. Blagaj is the location of a Dervish Tekija which sits on top of the Buna River, it’s gorgeous. The Dervish community consists of a group of Muslim men who have dedicate their lives to poverty in order to learn humility, and the Tekija is where they live.  The whole area was absolutely stunning, it was impossible to capture how amazing it was in photos, but I tried my best.

Sorry guys I tried

The final stop on our journey was a tiny, artistic, town called Počitelj. It was basically built into the side of a hill, and like everything else in Bosnia, it was beautiful. Our stop here was fairly quick, we had some coffee and tea, hiked up to a beautiful fortress, took some photos, and then had some more tea. Počitelj is home to an international artist community and its on the list to possibly become a UNESCO World Heritage site. I think this idyllic little town was my favorite stop of the day, it was so peaceful.  

The ride back wasn’t too long, but once I saw signs pointing us to Sarajevo, I caught myself thinking “I can't wait to get home and sleep in my bed.” I’ve only been in Sarajevo for a little less than a month but I feel like I’ve been here awhile. I learned a ton about Bosnia’s history, climate, and culture on our short little day trip, but what I took most to heart was the fact that Connecticut was no longer the only place in the world I called home.