Yesterday was Bosnian Independence Day and YES Abroad
celebrated by taking another road trip. I was a very busy day so I'll just give
you the stop by stop rundown.
Stop #1: Trebinje
(pronounced Treb-in-ye)
After a long car ride through the incredibly scenic Čemerno
mountain pass (it was gorgeous, I'm talking purple mountains majesty) we
arrived in the southern city of Trebinje. Trebinje is tucked into a valley with
the River Trebišnjica running through it. We got out of the van and walked
along the river and into Old Town. Stari Grad (Old Town) Trebinje is very
different than Stari Grad Sarajevo; for starters, there are Serbian flags
everywhere and all the signs are written in the Cyrillic alphabet, but also
there were palm trees everywhere despite the need for my winter coat.
Stop #2: Stolac
(Stol-ats)
After Trebinje, we
headed to Stolac, a town listed as a UNESCO
World Heritage Site. Stolac is one of the oldest settlements in the country. The town with its modern name, Stolacs, was first mentioned in the early15th century It’s a gorgeous little town, but much
like Trebinje there was a serious lack of Bosnian flags even though it was
Independence Day. Instead most shops and houses sported the Croatian flag
because many in the town identify as Croats.
We walked along the River Bregava and noticed an old
fortress perched on a hill above the city. Our coordinator told us that it
was a very old fortress, but it was under construction at the time and we may not be permitted to go in. We took a chance and hiked up to it. Fortunately there were no construction crews and we were allowed to explore!I know
I say this about every fortress and castle we’ve visited this year, but this fortress
was one of the coolest I have ever seen! Pictures don’t quite do it justice. After running around the like little kids on a
playground for a bit we all headed back to the van and onto the next
destination.
Stop #2.5: Stećci
(Stech-tsi)
About 3km outside of Stolac there is a small area on the
side of the road with these ancient tombstones called Stećci scattered about. Stećci
,or in the singular form stećak (stech-ak), tombstones date back to the 15
th or
16
th century during the medieval Bosnian Kingdom. These tombstones
are all over Bosnia (they’re even in Sarajevo) and some parts of Croatia,
Serbia, and Montenegro. They were really interesting so we got out of the car
to take photos.
Stop #3: Mostar (You got this)
As you may have read in an older blog post, I’ve already
been to Mostar, but it was just as fun the second time around. The first time
we went it was in September and tourist season was still very much alive and
well which meant that Stari Grad in Mostar was PACKED. This time though, the
city was empty and we really got to fully appreciate the Stari Most (Old
Bridge). After some dinner, some coffee, and plenty of photos we headed home
for the night.
Happy Independence Day Bosnia!
So the FIFA World Cup is this summer and for the first time since becoming an independent country the Bosnian team has qualified to play. It was a really momentous occasion when they won. Anyway, Coca Cola has been bringing the World Cup Trophy on a big tour around the globe and yesterday it stopped in Sarajevo.
The trophy was being displayed at a concert/sports/shopping center in town called Skenderija and the security there, by Bosnian standards, was pretty tight. The whole atmosphere was a little strange, people kind of just pointed you down long, dimly lit hallways for a while. Sarah and I began to wonder if we had made some terrible mistake when we turned the corner and entered this FIFA-themed fair, party-thing. There were activities, music, mini soccer games, and of course copious amounts on Coca-Cola products. We started walking around and having fun at the fair thing when we saw a crowd of people exiting through these double doors at the side of the room to a place called the "Hologram Zone." Naturally, Sarah and I had to find out what that meant. It was, as the sign described, just a room with a few holograms of different soccer players. Next it was onto the big event. We were shuttled down a few more hallways and random corridors and then finally we got to take a photo with the trophy and then make our way out of the building. Once we were back outside Sarah and I kind of just looked at each other wondering what on earth we had just experienced.
