sarajevo & mostar, Bosnia i Herzegovina

To go to Sarajevo the bus heads to the vast slabonija, through its plains and woods. At some moment in the night, it turns right, towards south, and goes down into the mountains of Bosnia, a fantastic land in between the heights. The average passenger can see the sunrise crossing valleys and fields, until he gets to Sarajevo, a long thin city builded following the shape of the river Miljačka, that runs inbetween the mountains.
The city started centuries ago on one point of the river, and it followed growing kilometers until the present. The old town, the turquish quartier, is in the first place, at the base of the hills.
Sarajevo was very interesting, i learned to speak croatian (that's not necessary the same as 'talk'); met two latvians hitchhiking from north to south, with whom we enjoyed a fantastic set of rakijas; and you could listen someone singing curly melodies from the top of the mosques, five times a day. Odlično!
I stayed for a couple of days there and went on a trip to Mostar, little city south of Sarajevo, in the christian region of Hercegovina, through one of the most beautiful landscapes i've seen from a bus or train. Two hours and a half of woods, lakes, bridges and tunnels; pure sun in the sky and some snow in the top of the mountains. After that, you reach a high plateau furrowed by the river Neretva. In center of Mostar there's an old enormous bridge, bombed down in the war and rebuilt some years ago. Very nice place, but the best was the way up there.
Back in town, i enjoyed some strong turkish kafa and a couple of šljivovicas in my favourite bar, Dva Ribara (Two Fishermen), next to the river; met some friends from Croatia and Serbia and went together to celebrate the Day of Communist Youth, May 25, date of Marshall Tito's birth. Fantastic.
The fifth night I left Sarajevo, wishing to come back soon. Anyway, Zagreb was waiting, that kind of strange place I liked to call home.
Ajde, bok!!




1+2. Sarajevo, Turkish neighborhood, early in the morning.


3. Bar next to the river, great for doing nothing for hours.


4+5. Curiosities around the bridges.


6. People playing chess in the parks. People around were and shouting about the moves, about what to do, what not to, etc, like in a soccer game.


7. Click on this one to see the detail.


8+9. Muslim tombs on the hills next to the Turkish quartier. Most of them were from 1993 to 1997. Very impressive.


10. Frizerski saloon where on of my friens worked.


11. Night falling in Sarajevo.


12. Tram interior... they were beautiful, noisy and slooooow!



13, 14 + 15. On the way to Mostar. Incredible landscapes, have to go back there sometime.


16+17. Mostar's traditional bridge, and mosque.


18. Peculiar looking gentleman that kindly gave me his bendition: "Jebi ga!" (something like "fuck you" in bosnian)


19. where are you?!


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otok Krk (Krk island)

For the closure of our classes, the whole Croaticum group (about 80 persons, among students and proffesors, some of them speaking croatian really good, some of us just babbling) went to Otok Krk, one of the biggest (if not the biggest) islands in Croatia. As usual, the way through Gorski Kotar was cloudy, cold, little bit rainy and beautiful. Better, most of us hadn't slept much (the day before were the last exams, so it was a hard partying night at the residence). Just a coffe on the road and we got into that marvelous tunnel that separates the mountains from the coast, clouds from sun and cold from warm. Slowly we went down the road towards the coast, and the islands started to appear like swimming dinosaurs.
Krk has many urban centers, not really big but very beautiful. The towns are trapped between the sea and the mountain, so the roads are narrow and the buildings tall, with an exquisite mediterranean style, tiny balconies, windows with flowers and an easy going atmosphere everywhere.
At the beggining was still cloudy, but after lunch the sun came out, the water become turquoise and warm. In the afternoom we went to a winery for a degustation of some special wine made in Krk. As you can imagine, half an hour later everyone were drunk from varied types of wines and rakijas. At that time, i stopped taking pictures, and i hope the others did the same thing. On the returning bus, we started singing and continued drinking the wines that were supposed for souvenirs. They never got Zagreb.
Ajde, bok!!












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pula & brijuni national park

Last Sunday, we woke up extremely early and went on a trip to Pula and Brijuni islands, in the Istrian peninsula, at the west of Croatia, quite near Italy. Between Zagreb and Istria you have 'Gorski kotar', a mountainous region with beautiful woods and lakes (šime i jezera, in croatian). It's higher and wetter than the rest of the country, so in winter (zima) it's quite cold and you have a lot of snow there. It would be a fantastic place for camping and easy living, if there were not wild hungry bears around. Anyway, you'd enjoy a fantastic stay before being their lunch.
A long tunnel separates this region from Istria, after wich weather can change drastically, as you can see in the pictures. One hour and a half later you get to Pula, a beautiful little city on the coast of the Adriatic sea (Jadransko more), in the extreme south of the peninsula. It has one of the few coliseums (arena) in the world, and some extremely friendly cuasi-italian population. After walking through the city, we crossed the Fažana strait on a ferry to get to Veli Brijuni, the bigger island of the Brijuni archipielago. It was one of Tito's residences (former president of Yugoslavia)... wise guy. It has a little zoo, with an elephant and some zebras, and an olive tree 1600 years old, but it still looks nice.
The crossing of the strait was, for me, one of the most beautiful moments of the trip. I wish it would have last more, but it's a very short strait.
Ok, here go the pictures. See you later!
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1. on our way / Gorski kotar landscape
2. on our way / After crossing the tunnel, in Istria side
3. on our way / going down to Pula
4+5. around Pula
6+7. around Pula, looking at the Colisieum
8+9. around Pula, again.
10, 11, 12 + 13. before, meanwhile and after crossing the Fažana strait.
14. Brijuni islands, big map
15. around Veli Brijuni
16. excursion around in a tiny bus, Veli Brijuni. at the center, Najwa from Jordan. at her right, Ignacio from Argentina. in front of her, little bit to the right, Vjollca from Albania (but she lives in Macedonia and studies in Kosovo).
17. taking pictures feverishly to everything that moves.
18. where are we?

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