We woke up in Sarajevo this morning (after a bit of a bumpy train ride – we guess it takes some getting used to).
After breakfast on the train, we went to a Tunnel Museum and we heard about the war that happened in Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995. The city was surrounded by Serbian armies and held under siege for almost 4 years. The Bosnian people were without electricity and proper food. So they decided to dig a tunnel under a house so their soldiers could get in and out to fight back.
This tunnel was a way to bring in munitions and other supplies to keep fighting. The people would also use the tunnel to get in and out of the siege area to get things like food and medicine. We learned that the tunnel was 800 meters long and ran under the airport, and close to a NATO base (which likely added some protection as the Serbian forces wouldn’t want to risk making enemies by bombing NATO allied forces). This was a terrible time for the Bosnian people and there’s still evidence of the bombings and war all over town.
We saw buildings partly bombed that are still waiting to be repaired and lots of bullet marks (some say they leave evidence so they openly forget what conflict does). We also noticed the difference between buildings from the communist era and the new buildings from the last 20 years. To us the town seems to be a happy and busy place now, with very diverse ethic groups all sharing this town and we were told how they work together and get along.
When we were walking through the old town part of Sarajevo we saw all sort of religious buildings – churches, synagogues, and Muslim temples.
There all sorts of shops too. Just off the main town square we even found a little brass shop with lots of magic lanterns, or we’d like to think they’re magical.
This afternoon we had to change plans. We were supposed to go to Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina (where there’s a famous arched bridge), but the rains from a few weeks ago caused floods and ruined some of the train tracks.
So instead the train people flew us to Dubrovnik (that was to be our next stop). We arrived just in time to a beautiful sunset on the Adriatic Sea.
Well Behaved Kids Travel 