Discover Eastern Europe [ Part 4 : Bosnia and Hercegovina - Sarajevo & Mostar ]
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
اسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
Again, this is yet another long entry. Read at your pleasure. There are so many photos this time around I had a hard time choosing!
And so, we left Zagreb at 10pm that night and took an overnight bus to Sarajevo, Bosnia. It took us 8 hours plus another interrogation at the passport control.
Upon reaching Sarajevo, everything were closed. It was still early, not even 6am yet. It does feel like entering a war zone. An abandoned one. Some of the buildings have bullet marks on them, or so we thought. But I do strongly believe they are bullet marks. Hehe.
Our Bus Croatia stops at Sarajevo Central Bus Station (Autobuska Stanica Sarajevo). Their bus station looks like one of ours in the 90s but they offer wi-fi and left luggage service. It is good enough. It is located near the Sarajevo Train Station (Željeznička stanica Alipašin Most). So if you desire to continue your journey from Sarajevo to other parts of Bosnia or Montenegro even, you could do it by bus or train.
Bosnia & Hercegovina (also spelled as Herzegovina and abbreviated as BiH)
- Language: Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian.
- Currency: BAM (Bosnian Convertible Marka) [1GBP=2.74BAM] [1EURO=1.95BAM] [1MYR=0.48BAM]
Day 1
We strolled around Sarajevo for only a half day. Our day starts from the bus station up until the Sarajevo Old Town (Bascarsija). It took us only 30-40 minutes on foot. You could reach there faster but we decided to enjoy the small mosques located along the way.
The Old Town is a very beautiful place. You could see the glory of Ottoman Empire preserved and well-maintained. It is almost as the town is still trapped in it's glorious era. The most famous landmark in Old Town is Gazi Husrev Bey Waqaf which consist of the main mosque, madrassa, public toilet, a clock tower and several others around the area.
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| One of the madrassa. |
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| The entrance for another madrassa. |
The most appreciated building in Old Town is the mosque itself. When were there, it was just in time for Dhuhr prayer. Could you imagine my goosebumps and emotional turmoil when I heard the azaan broadcasted across the city without fail. I teared up. I haven't heard the azaan for so long I never knew how much I missed the call of Allah to His heavens. The mosque's infrastructure is beautiful. There is an open space to perform illumination (ablution but my Fiqh ustadh says those who perform wudhu' will illuminate during Day of Judgement) just in front of the door the mosque.
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| Overlooking Gazi Husrev Bey Mosque entrance. |
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| Illumination facility for men. |
The mosque itself is a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. It made me reflect how imaginative and talented Muslims were once a upon a time.
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| The main door open for men only during prayer time. Women has another entrance. |
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| The inside of the mosque. This was taken before Dhuhr and the mosque in partially open for tourists as well. |
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| Such beauty. SubhanAllah. |
After performing Dhuhr prayer, we continued walking along the street of Old Town. The people are extremely friendly and it felt safe to wear hijaab here compared to when we were in Croatia. No long stares and hate to be seen anywhere.
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| There were a lot of people, it's the weekend. |
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| Shops selling their local delicacies and garments. |
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| The heart of Bascarsija, Sebilj Fountain. |
We toured along the Old Town and decided to try their Bosnian Coffee for a change. Since it was lunch time and I felt extremely hungry. We chose a secluded coffee shop (there were tonnes you could choose), ordered coffee and hot chocolate while enjoying the view. Their coffee is strong but not overpowering as normal every day coffee. The coffee shop is pretty too. It delivers a mixture of Middle Eastern and European vibe to it.
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| Inside the coffee shop. |
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| Our coffee and hot chocolate. The coffee is mine, always. Ultimate black coffee lover here. Meanwhile the hot chocolate is to die for. It's thick, creamy and filled with chocolatey goodness! |
That was our last stop in Sarajevo and decided to walk slowly back to the bus station. We had to catch a bus at 4.30pm to Mostar.
Some bus station do charge you for some extra fee before boarding. And it had to be paid at the counter. We had our funniest moment here. There were multiple platform at the bus station and we were already waiting at our required platform. There was a bus waiting over there, going to Mostar too. It was approaching 4.30pm and we thought it was our bus. So we hopped into it. When the bus started to leave the station, the conductor assigned began his work. He was checking our bus tickets. When it was our turn, he was so angry and shouted for the bus driver to stop the bus. Turns out, we boarded the wrong bus company and they actually ushered us to get off the bus. Everyone on the bus were laughing at us and we were laughing at us too! Luckily it wasn't far from the station, so we walked back to the station, waited for the right bus and this time made sure of it, and leave to Mostar. What an experience huh? That is what you get from not getting adequate sleep for 3 nights in a row! :P
The journey to Mostar took 3 hours by bus. We slept around 2 hours of it. Soundly and I could bet both of snored too because when I finally woke up (my husband still sleeping), some of the passengers were laughing and pointing at us. So, publicly humiliate ourselves, double-check at that one.
Though I wish I didn't sleep for the whole 2 hours. The journey was breathtaking. Bosnia is SO beautiful!
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| One of the view I managed to capture after I'm awake. Could you imagine this country being such a beauty! |
We arrived Mostar East bus station at around 6.45pm and went to our guest house chaperoned by the guest house's owner himself! He offered to pick us up at the station and bring us himself to his guest house.
Tips
- There are two bus station in Mostar. Mostar East and West. We suggest Mostar East as the UNESCO Old Bridge is located only 20 minutes walk away and for muslims, food is easier to get in the East compared to West. Accommodations are cheaper too.
He gave us a tour around the guest house and we were very impressed. We were upgraded from small room to the whole apartment with private balcony to enjoy Mostar view. Amazing. We also took the tour provided by the guest house as well. It was a private tour at only 35Euro/person. They assigned us our own private English-language guide and transportation too. This guest house is highly recommended. You could visit Elite Guest House for more information.
Day 2
Whew. Long entry isn't it?
Our tour starts at 9am. The guide came to our house and picked us up for breakfast. He took us to one of the local shop making Burek - their local pizza with various fillings you could choose from. The fillings are spinach, meat (chicken/beef), cheese or pumpkin. You could have it with either yogurt or coffee. I chose pumpkin burek and coffee, of course. Too bad we were so eager to try it, we forgot to take any photos. But fret not, there are plenty of photos in Google search engine which you could look it up.
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| Photo from Google Search Engine. This is what Burek looks like. |
After breakfast, the tour guide took us to Blagaj Tekija, a Dervish house built near a free flowing stream and a cave. So beautiful. The house however, is SO cold! It felt as if there are air-conditiong running but it's not. The cold preserved the house architecture for hundreds of years.
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| He accomplished his mission in Bosnia. He always wanted to visit here since ages ago. Alhamdulillah we made it. :) |
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| The flowing stream which makes the most calming sound. |
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| From one of the room inside the Dervish's House. |
Our next destination was the Kravice Falls located around 1 hour by car from Mostar city.
Tips
- We recommend to take a tour group or rent your own car to go here since it is not accessible by public transport.
- It might have been a good idea to visit Mostar in May or June since you could actually dip in the pool at Kravice's foot. Otherwise, the water will so cold. We were there early April, the water was still cold, so we didn't swim.
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| Kravice Falls from uphill. |
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| Prettyyyy masyaAllah. |
We spent less than 2 hours over there. There is not much you can do if you aren't able to swim. So we decided to move on to our next destination, The Pocitelj Ruins. This ruins was once a glorious Ottoman village in the 1600s. Now it is only inhabited by few families after the full-swing ethnic cleansing during those time. It couldn't be developed after the massive war that took place from '92-'95. Such a shame isn't it? This place is the true beauty of Bosnia and Hercegovina.
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| The minaret is the place where soldiers used to keep eye on enemies coming from behind the mountains. |
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| View from one of the small windows in the minaret. |
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| Stairs going up to the top of the tower. |
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| View from the tower on the opposite site. |
A short clip from the tower. True beauty subhanAllah.
There is a also mosque locate at the foot of the castle, the Hajji Alija Mosque. The mosque was severely damaged during the war and was reinstated in the 2000s by UNESCO.
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| Look at how tall the tree is! Who knows how old that tree really is. |
We had our lunch and went sightseeing around Mostar as our last itinerary. We were supposed to go to 2 more places but it were churches and the tour guide respected our request when we said we were not interested.
At night, we went out to take the some photos of the beautiful Mostar Old Bridge (Stari Most).
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| SubhanAllah. Beautiful, I ran out of vocabulary. |
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| One of the war ruins left only to be consumed by time. |
Mostar was the most heavily bombed town during the war. Now, most buildings destroyed by the war are abandoned as it requires more money to revive a war town than build a completely new city. It was said that Mostar was one of the most advance city as well since they were recognised as an industrial city before the war. From what we were told, it was a glorious city and became the seed of proud and hope for their people. Now, it is nothing more than a war ruins.
That night, we slept soundly like babies.
Day 3
We took the 10am bus to Split, Croatia. Once again, we slept for most of the journey. What a bunch sleepyheads we are you could not even imagine. Hehe :P
That concludes our 3 days adventure in the historical Bosnia and Hercegovina. InsyaAllah, we will come back.
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