brain-dump from few days of backpacking around ex-yougoslavia
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2011-10-08; i flew from stockhom to split in croatia. there are shuttle buses operated by croatia airlines from the aiport to the city center [30 HRK]. <\/p>\n
i spent 2 nights in split. it’s quite nice [probably most touristic yet classy city of those i’ve visited]. old town is a maze of old cobble stone passages reminding me a bit cordoba although buildings in the old town of split are higher. at some places ‘streets’ are 1m wide or even less. so i was getting lost and found there. there’s nice hilly peninsula that i hiked around… city market with real food and real fruits\/vegs\/meat. i started to realize there that at least once knowledge of polish is more helpful than knowledge of english. i experienced something similar before in ukraine and slovakia. i can understand every maybe 10th word but it’s enough to ask about prices, directions… <\/p>\n
2011-10-10; from split i took a bus to mostar [bosnia & herzegovina] [120 HRK]. as split was full of [actually working] catholic churches mostar [and bosnia & herzegovina in general] is full of mosques… fully operational mosques, some of them with mullahs calling for the prayer 5x per day. in mostar i started to see remaining of the recent war: cemeteries, buildings with bullet\/shell marks, abandoned construction all around.<\/p>\n
i liked mostar most out of all cities i’ve passed by. it has much smaller old town than split but there are great hills around. i took a city bus out of the town [nr 10, 11, 12; bus stop opposite of the train station<\/a>. check timetable at http:\/\/www.mostarbus.ba<\/a> since bus stops do not have any information about the schedule]. in blagaj i’ve hiked to the ruins of some old fortress and a dervish house. i got back and jumped on another bus – this time to medjugorje [city bus #48; it does not reach the train station, you have to ~20 minutes walk north to this<\/a> location [as of 2014-09]. [ in 2011 it was: to another stop called “mostar kolodvor”<\/a> ], bus trip takes ~45 minutes]. i’ve passed by the sanctuary in medjugorje and hiked to the Krizevac hill. tickets costed 3.5BAM per trip.<\/p>\n 2011-10-12; after 2 days of sleeping in mostar i took a bus to sarajevo [18 BAM]. road between those two cities was great – most of the time in the valley between quite high hills on both sides, with some mountain rivers, bridges… great views. <\/p>\n sarajevo was in smog – mix of fog, smoke from home wood-powered fireplaces and probably industrial smoke. city – like mostar – is surrounded by hills, with lot of steep streets and houses built on uneven ground. it’s big city… with old part that is mix of turkish remainings [old mosques] and buildings erected by austrians and soc-realistic ugliness. it all feels a bit familiar – like poland 10 years ago. there is so many people selling something – clothes, fruits, vegs, 2nd hand stuff – everywhere. on every corner. old town is full of people drinking coffee and smoking :\/. around the old district there are plenty of craftsman shops where people do coffee-mugs and ‘other stuff made of metal’. 2nd day in sarajevo was rainy – it was only bad-weather-day during my trip. people looked strange at me walking around in shorts … but weather was ok-ish for that. ~ 7C in the worst case. mostly 10-18.<\/p>\n