September 22, 2022

September 22, 2022

Today is a long travel day to explore more of the old Yugoslavia. Surprisingly it is not technically my first time. Many decades ago I took a very long slow train ride down the length of Yugoslavia to reach Greece. While Yugoslavia was communist it was not aligned with the Soviet Union and not behind the Iron Curtain, so I was free to take the train across the country. Unfortunately it was not part of my Eurail pass, so I never got off the train. I came back to see what I missed.

Zagreb, Croatia sits on the north bank of the Sava River that flows east into the Danube River at the Serbian Capital of Belgrade. We followed it downstream for several hours until we reached the border with the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The terrain of eastern Croatia (Slavonia) is very flat farmland.

We crossed over the Sava River and then followed the Bosna River upstream through a deep heavily forested valley. It is very beautiful, reminiscent of West Virginia. We pass lots of buildings that were destroyed in the devastating Civil War of the 90’s that broke out after their President Tito died. Many buildings were never restored because of the ensuing population decline throughout the Balkans.

The Balkans are almost all Slavs who emigrated here some 1500 years ago. Despite their ethnic and linguistic commonality, they have often been at each other's throat. This is because this region has long been the frontier between kingdoms and subjected to raids by migrating barbarians. Croats are Roman Catholic while Serbs are their eastern Christian Orthodox counterparts. In the Middle Ages, the Ottoman Empire pushed into the area from Constantinople, conquering the region and bringing Islam. Bosniacs are the Slavs that converted. The converts mostly did it for the social and commercial advantages this gave them within the Ottoman Empire. The arc-shape of Croatia around Bosnia reflects the Ottoman invasion path.

After a couple hours the valley widens and we see steel mills and coal plants with a modern highway and mountain tunnels. And just to the south we reach Sarajevo, the capital and largest city of Bosnia. Sarajevo is famous to me for being the site of the 1984 Winter Olympics. During the Civil War, the Serbs laid siege to the city.

After checking into our Hotel Europe accommodations, our first destination is around the corner to see the spark that lit WWI. On an infamous street corner by the Latin Bridge, a young Serb shot and killed the visiting Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife on June 28, 1914. This Austrian heir to the throne was headed to the hotel we are staying at.

We visit the small Sarajevo Museum dedicated to the event. While the world considers the assassin a terrorist; many Slavs, especially Serbs consider him a hero for helping throw off the yoke of Austrian rule.

Aimee and I then walked along the little river to the historic City Hall built in an Islamic style. We then hiked up some narrow streets past an Islamic Cemetery to the Yellow Bastion, an old Ottoman hilltop defensive fort. There we get a great view of Sarajevo nestled in this scenic river valley. We had to be careful dodging cars speeding up these very narrow and steep lanes.

Back down at the river level we visited the old market. This area is famous for making hammered copper tea sets. We bought some Turkish Delight snacks with the few Bosnian Marks we got as change from our lunch stop.

We then walked down the main promenade street. At one point the architecture suddenly switches from Ottoman to more modern Viennese reflecting the change in historic ownership. On the street is painted a sign honoring this Meeting of Cultures, the joining of east and west, where 'Istanbul meets Venice'. The melting pot of the Balkans has been both the highlight and bane of the Yugoslav countries.

In the street we notice a Sarajevo Rose. This is a bomb crater filled in with paint that makes it resemble a red flower. At the end of the promenade we find an Eternal Flame monument dedicated to the victims of WWII.

At the hotel we had a nice dinner of stuffed peppers and stuffed zucchini with baklava for dessert. We finished this long travel day with a nice sunset out our room window.