This morning we left the lovely city of Budva and made our way to Sarajevo, Bosnia. Our first stop along the way was at the Ostrog Monastery, one of the most well known Serbian orthodox churches found almost vertical in mountain rock above the windy roads of Montenegro. It is a popular spot for pilgrimage and many hike up to camp over night there and rise early to get in line to pay their respects to the founding bishop. The bishop died in 1671 and is now enshrined there. He was known as a miracle worker so those with health problems go there to pray. The road to get there was extremely windy and narrow and could only fit one vehicle at a time in most places, so you can imagine how fun that was.
It was a very interesting experience. We took a van up to the top instead of hiking and we were still melting in the heat as we waited in line to go in. I can't imagine how all of those making the long hike up felt (and many were in their bare feet). I had to cover myself down to my knees and shoulders before entering, of course. I was the first in line of our group, and having no religious background I was nervous of what I was to do once I reached the priest and the coffin with the enshrined bishop. I watched what everyone else was doing however, and followed suit - which meant kissing the cross the priest held out for me and then bending down to kiss a framed picture of what I presume was Jesus, that was placed in the coffin. Then when exiting the little room filled with frescos, you were to respectfully walk out backwards (as well as when exiting the other doors). I loved just watching all those that had obviously travelled far to reach this monastery do their thing. They would touch and kiss any photo of any religious figure.
After visiting the monastery we stopped at a place half way down the mountain for lunch. I had a Shopska salad and spinach pie. It was tasty. Then we were off to the border!
We stopped for gas shortly after and switched bus drivers there for whatever reason. Unfortunately our new driver wasn't as friendly as the other (he gave me yummy coconut flavoured gum!) and the new one seemed to be sleepy. As his yawns increased we decided to stop and grab a coffee for him at the next stop. It was a cute little lake village but unfortunately I missed the name of it (it was something like pluvzine). It wasn't long after leaving there that we began to drive into the best scenery we've had while on the road so far. The mountains were all around us and we were driving along a beautiful turquoise coloured lake - it reminded me of Lake Louise. Brian said we drove through the Pica Canyon and the Tara Canyon.
Before hitting the border we came across a dam. It was a pretty impressive one so we stopped and took some photos. Everything went very smoothly at the Bosnian border. It was around the border that we passed through a rock slide that had recently occurred and covered the road. Luckily it was cleared already.
We rolled into Sarajevo around 7:30pm, however soon noticed that there was something going on what with the police blocking all the main roads. We needed to get into Stari Grad (old town) where our hotel was, but it proved to be quite the challenge. Our driver went down a road the wrong way and a policeman called him out to see his license and registration. We thought he was going to get a ticket. Our poor driver started to go mad trying to find a way to our hotel. The traffic was just nuts because everyone was getting rerouted. We did eventually make it there however, and we gave the driver a nice tip for all the insanity he dealt with.
During the drive through town we were able to see several mass graves up in the hills, all with the same white narrow headstones. It was quite chilling to see. After taking a closer look at the majority of the buildings we had passed while driving, it also became apparent that they had been riddled with bullets and many displayed evidence of where mortars had hit. There is a lot of patch work on many of the buildings due to damage obtained during the Bosnian war. It's amazing to see. The city is shaped like a bowl - surrounded by hills - which must've made it quite easy for the snipers to sit up in the hills and shoot down.
As it turned out, there was a reason why police were everywhere. June 28th is the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand on the Latin Bridge in Sarajevo, which sparked the First World War. There are concerts, speeches, and reenactments on the bridge taking place this evening.
On our drive in I also noticed people lining up at different bakeries all over the place and I was wondering why they were doing that. Turns out it's for Ramadan and as it was sunset they were ending their period of fasting and were lining up for traditional bread that must be made at a certain time (according to someone I asked). I watched them wait in line while the call to prayer was heard in the background. Quite cool.
As a group we set out to exchange money once we got into our nice new hotel and then it was dinner time. We walked deeper into old town past a couple of mosques and the bird bath in one of the squares to our restaurant. It was around 10:30 by the time we finished eating. I had yummy grilled tomato, onions and peppers that were stuffed with minced meat.
I was so exhausted after dinner that it was straight back to the hotel and to bed for me.
Ostrog monastery in the Montenegro mountains:
A section of people camped out at the monastery:
Bells at the top of the monastery:
View while driving through Tara canyon:
Rock slide:
Made it to Sarajevo for dusk and found almost every building displaying evidence of the war:
Line up for bread as the days fasting comes to an end at sunset:
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