A Hiker’s Dream City

Days 242-248, July 27-August 2, 2011

Banja Luka, my destination upon leaving Sarajevo, is a nice, quiet city but because of extreme laziness while there, there is not much I can say about it. I won’t take all the blame either, as the few places that are big tourist draws in the city, namely the castle, were closed to the public unless you had a ticket for the large independent band festival happening that week. So, unfortunately for the city, it really only gets this little introductory paragraph on my journey. I was on my way to Zagreb after only two nights in Banja Luka so didn’t get the chance to do some of the things that are available outside the city(like river rafting and rock climbing).

My loss, that’s for sure.

Oh, I Love a Rainy Night[‘s and Days] . . .

Days 236-241, July 21-26, 2011

When I picture the war in Bosnia, the city of Sarajevo always came up in my head. It was the city you always heard about on the news back when the war was happening. Even considering that I was only in grade 5 when the war officially ended, I still have vague memories of hearing about something happening in Sarajevo. In a way, I was expecting the signs of war to be much more prevalent in Sarajevo than they were in Mostar. I mean, I don’t recall ever hearing about Mostar before coming to this side of the world. Surely this must mean something.

The Scars of War

Days 231-235, July 16-20, 2011.

There was something strangely enticing about going to Bosnia and Herzegovina(hereby I will refer to the country as BiH). I didn’t really know much about the place beyond knowing that a war had been fought there not too long ago in the 1990s. What I did know was what I heard from others that had gone there: it was breathtaking and an experience in itself. And knowing that, in this summer, most travelers tend to stick to the coasts, heading inland into BiH would take me away from the hordes of tourists.

Before leaving Dubrovnik by bus for Mostar, the first city on my little trip into BiH, I did a little research on what I would be seeing. What little I did read convinced me that I was making the right choice as to where to go. And as a student of Political Studies where the Cold War and the fall of communism is usually a fairly large component of Canada’s history in the 80s, this was going to be an interesting view into a part of the former Yugoslavia.