Travel to Bosnia – Episode 711

Hear about travel to Bosnia and Herzegovina as the Amateur Traveler talks to Kenan ?atovi? from Highlander Adventures about his country.

Kenan says, “Bosnia is a very complex country but extremely small. It is the size of Pennsylvania but inside you have so much. For the adventure seekers, there are so many adventure opportunities from whitewater rafting to canyoning to paragliding. Hiking is spectacular. Then if you are into history we say that we have much more history than we can handle. We like to say that we are on the crossroads or that we are the meeting point between the east and the west. Culturally, very complex country and also religiously. We have Muslims. We have Orthodox Christians and we have Catholics. There is a big Jewish community that has been here since they were thrown out of Spain after the Reconquista. All of these make this crazy crazy and beautiful mix.”

In Sarajevo, you can find a mosque, catholic church, and synagogue in a 200-meter radius. Some have called Sarajevo the “Jerusalem of the Balkans”. In one half of the old town, you can feel like you are in the middle east, and in the other half like you are in Vienna. This is a city that was besieged in the Bosnian War for 1,425 days from 1992 to 1996. The city still has monuments and scars from that conflict but is a lively and beautiful city. This was also the city where an unlucky Arch Duke Ferdinand was assassinated by Serbian separatists to start WWI.

We talk about where you should shop, tour, and eat in Sarajevo.  Kenan says you have not been to Bosnia until you have eaten pita and ćevapi. You should take a walking tour with someone who knows the history and also visit the Sarajevo Tunnel that supplied the city in the Bosnian War.

From Sarajevo, Kenan recommends a visit to the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial. After WWII, Europe said that genocide would never, should never happen again, but it did in the Bosnian War, broadcast to your home via satellite TV.

Then we head north to the old historic cities of Travnik and Jajce. Jajce is where the old Kingdom of Bosnia died and a new country of Yugoslavia started. It has a beautiful waterfall in town and a historic fortress on the hill overlooking the town.

We talk about hiking in Bosnia including mountain villages like Lukomir and Bosnia’s part of the Via Dinarica which is a mega hiking trail across the western Balkans. Kenan also tells us where you can go whitewater rafting. 

We make a stop in Mostar which gets a great number of tourists there to see its beautiful bridge. If you are there in the summer, stay the night so that you can see the city before and after the tour buses arrive from Dubrovnic and the coast.

In Blagaj, you can see the source of the Vrelo Bune river as it exits from a cave. You can also see a historic tekija (sort of a Dervish monastery). You can’t take a via ferrata (climing route with cables and ladders) up to the ruins of a castle on the hill and even sleep there under the stars.

Bosnia is amazing, inexpensive, and delicious. 

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Show Notes

highlander.ba
Travel to Bosnia – Episode 262
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Sarajevo
Srebrenica Genocide Memorial
Travnik
Mostar
Po?itelj, ?apljina
Blagaj
Medjugorje
Kravica (waterfall)
Baš?aršija (Sarajevo old bazaar)
Žuta Tabija (Yellow Bastion)
Vratnik (White bastion)
Sarajevo Rose
Sarajevo Tunnel
National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Travel to Bosnia – Episode 262 – Amateur Traveler
Ćevapi
7 Surprising Things about Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Jajce
Pliva (river)
Prusac
Bosnia and Herzegovina – UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Lukomir
Rakitnica Canyon
Bosnia and Herzegovina Hiking
Via Dinarica Alliance – A Mega Hiking Trail Across the Western Balkans
Hiking the Peaks of the Balkans (Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro)
Konjic
Volujak (mountain)
Kaymak

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