With minutes left to leave our guesthouse in Omis, we checked the weather for the next week and tried to mask our disappointment – nonstop rain. Not great news for our climbing and hiking plans. “Let’s go to Istanbul!” I suggested. After scrambling to buy flights with our precious last few minutes of WiFi, we had booked flights from Sarajevo, Bosnia to Istanbul for the next day. Adventures!
Dubrovnik
With a full day until our flight, we first headed south to explore Dubrovnik. We wandered the fortified old coastal town, getting lost on the small back streets and taking in the medieval architecture. The fortifications enclosing the city are particularly impressive. We stopped the van at a pullout above the city to take in the amazing view.
Sutjeska National Park
As soon as we entered Bosnia, the landscape shifted. We drove through lush rolling hills peppered with massive limestone blocks and quaint villages. Our journey to the airport took us through a winding canyon road and afforded us our first view of “real mountains” in the Balkans. Maglic, the tallest mountain, even had snow on it! After visiting a beautiful World War 2 memorial, we found a spot for the night, and chatted with a park ranger who came by to use the few English words he knew, and teach us some of his own language. We wish we could have taken a hike in this park, but it’s best to leave something for next time.
Sarajevo
In the morning, we arrived to the capital city of Sarajevo. The city has a long history as the intersection of east and west, evidenced by the mix of religion and culture apparent in the old center. Despite a complicated and tragic recent history, the city was full of life. One can almost forget that the city was under siege for several years in the early nineties. Our first stop was a cafe overlooking the city for Bosnian coffee. The city felt so alive, unlike the beautiful but museum-like coastal towns we visited in Croatia. We visited churches and mosques, and sampled local cuisine (and sweets!) before heading to the airport. Before parking our car, we visited a small but powerful museum, the Sarajevo tunnel museum. War seems so distant to us in America, but learning about what these people went through in our lifetimes just to get food, water, and medicine to their families was humbling. I was particularly impressed that the tone wasn’t resentful, but hopeful for a peaceful future for the region.
We let “Bleu Lightning” (the van) know we’d be right back and we boarded our plane to Istanbul.
Hermoso!!