Lukomir

Recently the YES Abroad crew took our final group trip to a place called Lukomir. Lukomir is Bosnia's most remote and highest elevated village. Its situated at an alitude of 1,495 meters on the Bjelašnica mountain. It is so remote, that during World War II, residents of Lukomir were not even aware there was a war going on, let alone that Bosnia was being affected by it.

The drive to get there was adventure enough. First, we drove into the ski resort populated part of Bjelašnica mountain and then we got off the asphalt and onto a dirt road that just took us up and up through the woods. The next leg of the journey took us out of the woods and into one of the most beautiful, serene, and isolating landscapes I’ve ever encountered. All you could see in front of and behind you were mountains and rocks and this one tiny gravel road that you were travelling on. It felt very “Lord of the Rings”. Our only travel companions outside of our group were the throngs of sheep that local shepherds herded across the landscape.

After about an hour of driving on the tiny, isolated, gravel road we finally came upon the village of Lukomir. This idyllic village looks like something out of a fairytales. There were only about 60 houses in total that were made with clay and stone with thatched, tin, or wooden roofs. We passed the rest of the day walking around and hiking up to a nearby hill to see the stećci (ancient gravestones that are all over Bosnia, and Croatia) and to get a better view of the town. It was an unbelievably gorgeous and very relaxing Sunday. All in all it was the perfect note to end our year of cultural excursions on.