Long Road to Sarajevo

Thursday, May 29

Our GPS had projected that the trip from Belgrade to Sarajevo would take four and a half hours, but we knew that the effects of the devastating floods earlier this month in Serbia and Bosnia might affect our travel.  The GPS offered several routes and, from them, we chose roads that would take us through a corner  of Croatia, so it was to be another three-countries-before-noon day. 

After we left the highway in Croatia and headed the short distance on a rural road to the Bosnia Herzegovina border, we began to see some fields covered with water and some sandbags.  We found that the border was closed and the agent on duty sent us to another crossing station about fifteen miles away.  There, the Sava River, which forms the border, was badly swollen.  As soon as we entered Bosnia, as we waited in a long line of vehicles, we saw LOTS of sandbags lining the road ahead.  

A section of road was washed out and traffic was reduced to one lane as it traversed an unpaved temporary diversion.  The sandbag barriers bordered the road for miles, and in that area, we saw German Red Cross and emergency workers, as well as several vehicles that were involved in the effort to search for landmines (and their posted warnings) that had been displaced in the mudslides during the flooding. 

Once we arrived in the outskirts of Sarajevo, the inbound traffic was very heavy, slowing to a crawl as we neared our hotel in the city center.  So, spent much more time (eight hours) in the car than we'd planned, arriving at 5:00 -- just in time for happy hour!

Refreshed and happy to get moving, we walked down the pedestrianized old town and through Bascarija, the old Turkish quarter. 

The area is full of mosques, churches, and narrow alleys lined with small shops and many restaurants.  There is even an indoor market with a bit of the flavor of Istanbul's Grand Bazaar.  The street scene includes many women wearing head scarves and a fair number of begging children. 

 We wandered around, had a traditional dinner outdoors so we could take in the action, and then walked some more, checking out the bridge where the 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that led to World War I took place. 

To compensate for our late arrival today, we'll spend a bit more time here tomorrow before moving on to our next destination.