I slept really well, whereas Kuniko was awoken in the middle of the night by some people talking loudly in another room in the hotel. The time was nearly 3 am, and these people had come back from whatever event/party they had attended and the high ceilings were carrying their voices throughout the building. Kuniko actually went out of our room to track down the source. Eventually around 4 am one of them left and things got quiet. I just lay there – oblivious, unconscious, unhelpful.
Our hotel offered breakfast and we went to partake at 7 am, and it was quite a spread. Considering the size of the hotel they had lots of different items, the usual stuff and also some burek, rolls, plenty of yogurts, hot eggs, and so we were looking good. The automatic espresso machine made a pretty good cappuccino, but we noticed only afterwards that the empty cup should be placed on the left – we lost some precious coffee thanks to our lack of attention to the sign. Once a cook came in to check on things and get her own coffee, and she seemed really friendly although we couldn’t communicate very well.
Afterwards we set out to walk through old town and do some sightseeing with fewer people around. This early sightseeing was our strategy whenever we travel – but even in the morning the sun was quite hot, and we had to stick to walking in the shade only.
We did a bit of exploring, beyond to the old town to climb a hill overlooking part of the city, to see a memorial graveyard. We tried to visit a mosque that look quite beautiful, but the gates were firmly closed at the early hour. The old brewery in town looked interesting online but was all shut down when we went past. Other than those fails we had success seeing other things. At 9 am we went into the big city office that was renovated after a fire in the 1990s. The entrance hall was dramatically lit up with vivid colors and they had movie scores playing from some hidden speakers – it felt a little like Instagram bait. But the rooms upstairs were dedicated to documenting the war crimes of the Yugoslavian war. They were fairly graphic (by design) and I think the showy entrance was probably a good strategy to get more young people in there to learn about their history.
Afterwards we walked along the river (which was flowing more freely than yesterday) towards the Academy of Fine Arts building in the west part of town. Along the way we tried to stay to the shady side of the street. We checked out the Latin Bridge – hard to believe this historic bridge was so simple. We had unknowingly walked over it the night before.
We also passed some kind of military building – outside a large squad of soldiers was in the process of lining up – maybe going on duty. Across from the Fine Arts building was an interesting artistic bridge that looked like it was doing a loop. Artistic and eye-catching!
Since we had already come across most of the city we decided to make a run to the train station in the northwest to buy tickets for tomorrow’s train to Mostar. Usually I like to get those lined up online but their website had said that online sales were unavailable at the moment (the message stayed the same for four months before we arrived).We didn’t want to miss out on the train so we thought we’d lock down the tickets today.
It was a fair walk in the heat, about 25 minutes, and even trying to stay in the shade we were starting to get sweaty. We spotted some markets on the way, and some interesting building architecture. Once we got to the train station there was no shade anywhere, so we had to cross a big hot parking lot in the sun. Luckily we had brought sunscreen.
We approached the station and it appeared empty. There were just two or three cars in the giant lot, and not what we expected in the capital city of the country. Inside was also empty – I was reminded of exploring ruins in the Fallout video games. There was someone sitting in the ticket office, but when we asked about tickets she said that we should come early tomorrow and buy them then. So our trip to the station was sort of a bust. As soon as we walked away from the station we saw the ticket agent and her friend walking away – apparently to go to lunch. I can’t help thinking that we could have gotten tickets if lunchtime hadn’t been coming up.
On our way back we stopped in a little convenience store to get some water. The store’s name was “Konsume” which is a very direct name for a retail outlet. They took credit cards, so we didn’t have to use any of our precious BAM. From there we stopped in at the giant SCC (Sarajevo City Center) which was an air conditioned shopping mall. Besides cooling down we bought some snacks for the train trip the next day, and some more water. We also hit another ATM, figuring that we should have cash on hand for train tickets just in case.
As we got closer to our hotel I looked up a wine bar that I wanted to try, and even with the GPS it was hard to pin down. But when we finally found the place it was open. We sat on the patio outside in the shade of a green park and enjoyed a couple glasses of a Malvasia/Chardonnay blend from Herzegovina – the name on the bottle was VukojE. Sitting at the high table enjoying the cool shade of the park, wine in hand – I was glad to be back in Europe.
After a short break back at our hotel we went back towards old town to find some lunch. We chose a lunch place called Kiopa, right next to the Sacred Heart Cathedral – which had an abstract sculpture of Pope John Paul in front of it. The restaurant had tables in the shade, and while we sipped wine and beer a little black kitten came to play with our ankles and get attention. We had a plate of lamb skewers, and a chicken pastry pot for lunch, they went well with homemade bread and some local beer. We love eating outside – it was a nice vibe there.
More and more people were walking around the old town, the heat was starting to really build, so we went back to our air-conditioned hotel room to wait out the crowds and heat. This siesta style worked well for us during the trip – I’d hate to spend the whole day out in the brutal summer heat. We watched a little YouTube on the hotel TV, polluting the YouTube watch history with k-pop girl groups and cartoon rabbits talking finance.
By 5:30 pm the temperature was starting to drop outside and we were getting hungry again. As we left we talked with our hotel staff. We set up an early morning taxi to get us to the train station on time to buy tickets, and since we were leaving before breakfast was served we asked if they could put together a to-go bag. The combination of the two requests flustered the guy, but in the end everything worked out.
Outside the pavement was still radiating heat but it was much more manageable. We went to a restaurant called “The Singing Nettle” – a small family owned place that specialized in traditional foods. The waitress/owner/mom was really friendly and set us up at a table for two even though we didn’t have reservations. Her husband must have been in the kitchen, and her son was goofing around and playing while singing weird songs.
For dinner we had some red and wine by the glass, some nettle fritters, and breaded beef on cinnamon sticks with rice. I really liked the cinnamon and beef combination. The fritters were good, but sort of tasted like healthy food. By the end of the meal the small restaurant was heating up as more customers appeared. I was starting sweat – no air conditioning in there. The cost of the meal was 75 BAM – which worked out to about 7000 Japanese yen or $45 USD.
We walked around a little after dinner to cool off. There were a ton of people around with us, even tour groups were walking around in the early evening. Walking again through the Turkish area the air was filled with smoke from the meats grilling in various restaurants. Things were noisy and motorcycles roared past in the streets. Because of the summer it was still quite light out, so we didn’t have a chance to see any of the landmarks illuminated.
It looked like bars and nightclubs were getting ready to open. Nightlife is really not our scene, so we wandered back to our hotel. There we paid our bill in advance of checking out the next morning. The staff was still a little flustered about the plan for the early morning, but after a brief delay we got it all figured out. In the evening I got an email from our driver who will take us from Mostar to Dubrovnik, so as long as we can catch that train the rest should be easy. Fingers crossed!
