Radovan Karadzic, Sarajevo is not your city, and you have no right to say that it is, just as you do not have the right to say in public, even if it’s in court, that someone has dug up bones around Bosnia and brought them to Srebrenica to make a fake graveyard. This is insulting.
Bosnian Spring Break
| 26 May 2008 | By Srecko Latal
While this route is a treat for sore eyes and the soul, it also offers gastronomic delicacies. Unless you are a vegetarian you may want to take a pit stop at one of the many restaurants along the Neretva canyon, known for one particular dish - lamb roasted on a spit.
A few years back, one of these restaurants - "Kod Gojka" ("At Gojko's"), located just a few kilometers south of Jablanica - was listed among the ten most extravagant restaurants in the world, serving dishes worth traveling halfway across the globe to savour.
The restaurants regularly host busloads of people shuttling between the coast and the Bosnian interior. Travellers stop for a snack and sometimes even happily launch into one of the local folk dances.
Once you reach Mostar, the tourist experience starts in earnest. There are numerous historic places for sightseeing, great cafes and restaurants for idling in the warm sun, as well as traditional souvenir shops and modern shopping centers for spending money.
The town, established in the 15th century as a military and trading outpost, became known for its Stari Most (Old Bridge) - the widest man-made arch in the world when it was built, in 1566 or 1557. The bridge eventually gave the name to the town itself (Mostar - the Bridge keeper).
During the 1992-1995 war Mostar was scarred beyond recognition and on November 9 1993, the Old Bridge itself collapsed into the river under heavy artillery fire, taking with it a part of the soul of many people from Mostar and across Bosnia and Herzegovina.
That wound was partially healed 11 years later when the Old Bridge and parts of the surrounding Old Town were rebuilt with international financial and technical assistance, using the same blueprint and materials as the original.
The new Old Bridge was officially opened on July 23, 2004 and is now listed on UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites. Its resurrection has helped in the reconciliation of Mostar residents and at the same time attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world.
After we got tired of bustling foreign tourists and the tireless clicking and flashing of cameras, we moved on to Blagaj, further to the southeast.
This small village hosts the uniquely beautiful source of the Buna River, which spouts from under a 200 meter-high rock.
Next to the spring is Tekija, a mystical 16th century monastic house of the old Islamic Dervish order. We always make a stop there, to sip good Turkish coffee and sample excellent home-made juices made of Sage, Elder flowers and other domestic plants and herbs.
A brief ride further to the south or southwest would take us to the Adriatic coast, or Medjugorje, the small town best known since 1981 for apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary and visited by millions of pilgrims over the years.
But it was only late spring and too early for a proper vacation, so we turned and headed back to Sarajevo, eagerly awaiting summer and new opportunities to revisit all the beauties this country has to offer.
