Southeastern Europe Travel Diary Part Two

12.11. 21:01
This morning, I left Bihac and made my way to Sarajevo. The four and a half hour drive was absolutely amazing. The beautiful scenery and landscape I saw is exactly what I was looking forward to. Only the last hour was on the freeway, the rest was through the marvellous countryside. I never would have guessed how much forest there is in Bosnia, I thought about it more as a dry country. Seeing all this in autumn is even better as the colours of the trees are wonderful.

One thing I noticed so far is that there are countless streetdogs. I’ve seen a lot more dogs on my 300 km drive than cars. Another thing I’ve seen is that there is trash almost everywhere. Whether it is at historical landmarks or viewing points, there’s hardly a place where people didn’t leave their trash behind. Even today in Sarajevo, when I walked through the streets, I saw a man throwing his paper down through the canal grid rather than into the bin some 10 meters ahead. This is very sad, in my opinion.

After checking in to my accommodation. which is about 10 minutes outside the city center, I made my way to the centre. I wandered through the streets a bit and visited the Museum of Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide. This was very interesting as I got to learn more about Bosnian history. Though I’ve heard stories about Yugoslavia, I never knew there was a war in Bosnia, yet alone such a brutal one. Countless people and children were murdered and tortured brutally; there were concentration camps like in World War 2. Yet it only happened 30 years ago, which is hard to think about. One thing I really liked there was a room in which people could write their thoughts on a piece of paper and hang it on the wall. I read some of them, and they all call for peace, which gives me hope for the future.

Afterwards, I walked to the Yellow Fortress. From there, I had the most beautiful of Sarajevo. I enjoyed the view for quite some time when I asked a stranger to take a picture of me.

We started a conversation, he turned out to be from New Zealand and we went to a cafe, where we talked a lot about each of our countries’ history. This is what I like most about travelling:

• Meeting strangers,
• hearing their stories,
• sharing your own,
• and just getting educated.

Then I went back to my accommodation and cooked some dinner. Tomorrow I’ll go to the next country, Montenegro.

13.11. 20:35
I can’t believe what I’ve seen today. In the morning I visited the National Historical Museum of Sarajevo and though the building and rooms themselves were in a very bad condition (I would never have guessed there was a museum and walked past it), the exhibitions were once more very interesting.

The only thing I’m still missing is why Yugoslavia fell and why the war started in the first place. All the museums only talk about the time during the war, but not why it actually happened.

Afterwards, I went to the market to buy local sweets (they tasted so good), and then I made my way to the next stop, Podgorica in Montenegro. If the drive through Bosnia was already beautiful, it was nothing compared to Montenegro. The scenery was absolutely incredible and reminded me a bit of Queenstown in New Zealand. I stopped to enjoy the breathtaking view.

When I arrived in Podgorica, it was already dark. As soon as I left the main road to get to my accommodation, the streets were completely different and, so far, the worst on my ongoing trip. Super tight, hardly two cars fit, countless holes, and uneven floors. I had to drive really slow and careful, but eventually, I got there. The landlord was super nice and welcoming and could barely speak English. He asked me to open Google Maps on my phone and marked several places for me to visit. I was pretty tired from the day, so I just walked 20 minutes to the closest supermarket to fill up my grocery storage. Before that, I also had to drive to an ATM to get more cash. Though I took some cash with me (which was meant to be for fines if police would stop me and have a problem), I never would have guessed, that most of the places here only accept cash. Whether it’s the accommodations or bakerys, so far, I haven’t often been able to pay by card. A good thing though is, that all the places accept Euros, even if they have a different currency. But the change will be in the local currency. So that’s my update for today. Tomorrow is the first day of my trip, on which I have to work, so I’ll see how that will go.