Travels with Kathryn

Yesterday was my last day in Sarajevo, and my last tour was entitled “The Fall of Sarajevo.” This focused on locations related to the siege of Sarajevo.

During the Bosnian war, Sarajevo was under siege for 1,425 days (from 5 April 1992 to 29 February 1996), during which time 11,541 people were killed, of which 1,601 were children. By April of 1992, the Serbian army controlled 60% of the city, but the centre remained under Bosnian controlled. The Serb army held the mountains which surrounded Sarajevo and from this position shelled and shot down ino Sarajevo:

We started by driving around some of the key frontline areas. This included some of the former Olympic venues, including the ice rink where Torvil and Dean won Olympic gold with the perfect 6.0 score. It was heavily damaged during the siege, and today has been partially rebuilt and is used as an exhibition hall. Behind it are two former football fields which, during the siege, became the city’s cemetary (as the cemetary was unreachable in Serbian controlled areas).

In the early days of the siege, it became obvious that the part of the city under siege was going to need a way to bring supplies (including amuntion) to the Bosnian army and civilians in the centre. Today, this is called the Tunnel of Hope. An 800m tunnel, 1m wide, 1.6m high, was dug underground with an entrance near the airport (which was UN controlled) and an exit near the mountains. It was carefully controlled by the Bosniak millitary police to ensure that it was not used for escape and to that no contraband goods (such as coffee) were being brought through the tunnel. The Serbian army was aware of the location of the tunnel and was repeatedly bombed.

Today, Sarajevo is split into East Sarajevo (which is in the Republic of Srpska) and Sarajevo (which is in Bosnia). Under the Dayton Peace Agreement, the divisions were made along front lines rather than following any sensible geographical lines…

We drove up the Trebevic mountain, the location of the Olympic bobsleigh, luge and skelton competitions. During the siege of Sarajevo, this area was controlled by the Serbian army and used defensively to attack the city below. It is a strange place to visit. As I stood on the bobsleigh track peering through a sniper position, it is hard to imagine this ever being an Olympic venue…

On return to the old town, we decided it was time for a late lunch, a trip to the supermarket for supplies for our 8 hour bus journey tomorrow, and a last walk. I am a big fan of Sarajevo, and you should add it to the list of must-see places – take the direct flight and come for a long weekend. I have had a fascinating visit, and to see places that I remember watching as a war zone is very sobering.

This morning, we packed up and locked up our AirBnB. Luckily, today’s bus was from the central bus station (a short 15-minute journey away) as opposed to a schlep to East Sarajevo bus station. This was Diane’s first experience of a Balkan bus station, and we had the traditional “station fee” and “bus loading fee” – classics. I am writing this on a rather nice coach (it has traytables and everything) as we speed across Herzegovina. Although this did give me an opportunity to take a photo of the view from Jlablinka, which I did not bother with on Tuesday when it was raining too heavily!

We crossed the border at 3pm and although we did not get an exit stamp, there was a semi-ok attempt at stamping our entry into Croatia.

It was a beautiful drive along the coast (Croatia really is lovely) and arrived into Split at 5pm. It was a very short walk to our hotel, where I had gone crazy and treated myself to a sea view room. After all day on the bus, we decided to have a walk around, and so far, Split seems delightful, and it’s good to have some fresh sea air. We finished off the day with seafood (being next to the sea and all) and then an early night in readiness for a full day of Split sightseeing tomorrow (maybe with a boat trip if we’re lucky) – wish us luck!