“I’m not going to Bosnia. I have no desire to go there right now.”
I’m ashamed to say that those were my exact words before I visited Sarajevo, a place I knew nothing about. And yet I was adamant that I wasn’t going to go there. Not yet, anyway.
And who can blame me? Growing up as a child in the 90s, all I heard about Bosnia was terrible things on the news. Grief-stricken war stories from reporters on the front line and the name Sarajevo conjuring up images of fighting and terror. Of course I knew that that was all in the past, but I had never heard anything from other travellers that gave me a burning desire to go.
So when we found ourselves in Budva with two choices of our next destination (either Belgrade or Sarajevo) I was faced with having to do a 360 on my decision not to visit this country that I knew so little about.
I did, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve made on this trip.
From the moment I arrived in Sarajevo, I felt an electricity in the air that hadn’t been present in Croatia and Montenegro. The streets were buzzing until the early hours and it felt good to be back in a capital city. Surrounded by mountains and containing a picturesque cobbled old town, the city combines modern and traditional so well.
Although there are still ever-present signs of the siege (bullet holes in the sides of buildings outside of the main city centre, mass graveyards on the hillsides) there is such a positive vibe to the city and the people that makes it so inviting. The country refuses to be defined by a war that happened twenty years ago and instead embraces its cosmopolitan mix of cultures, races and religions.
Each night I would sit on the balcony at our guest house overlooking the rooftops and listen to the live music concerts that were taking place every night during the annual film festival, watch the sunsets and thunderstorms and listen to the call-to-prayer. I felt so relaxed and at ease in the city.
Sarajevo turned out to be one of my favourite cities I have visited so far and because of that I’m even more ashamed to admit how I had dismissed it earlier in my itinerary. It makes me even more determined to visit places I have previously misjudged or overlooked; because you never know what you might be missing out on.
wish more people visited us before judging. imagine how it would be if you spoke the language. i’m happy you liked it, most people do. excuse us if some people were sad or mean, but most of them are homeless or have to survive out of 200-300 dollars/month..
wish more people visited us before judging. imagine how it would be if you spoke the language. i’m happy you liked it, most people do. excuse us if some people were sad or mean, but most of them are homeless or have to survive out of 200-300 dollars/month..