Srebrenica > Sarajevo 121km 2700meters climbing

[Originally posted Sept 10, 2014]

Departing Srebrenica we had a long day planned: climbing back into some mountains (which I was very much looking forward to and Katy was a little bit hesitant about) and then reaching Sarajevo - the capital of Bosnia - which also happens to be a sister/twin city of Salt Lake City.

The alarm went off at 5:45am, Katy wanted plenty of time to reach Sarajevo.  By 7:05 we were on the bike.  It was rather cool out.  We climbed and climbed (kind of taking a short-cut/backroad to Vlasenica) and it was so beautiful.  Clouds hung to the mountainside and as we slowly climbed through and eventually above the clouds the views were stunning.  It was so great to feel a warm sun on our faces - something that's been absent for a couple days.  The ride continued in the same fashion - we went over 3 legitimate passes and wound through mountains and valleys that had a bit of a "Wyoming" feel.  By the end of the day we kept calling Bosnia our "little Switzerland".  It really feels very similar to Slovenia (I would assume because the Balkans are all rather similar and for about 30 years ago they (they meaning Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia) were all part of Yugoslavia) but it is quite a bit poorer (this likely because of the civil war and bad politicians - what our taxi driver told us).  But really and truly, Bosnia is such a beautiful place with so much history from not many years ago.

Climbing out of Srebrenica - hard to not think of those before us who tried escaping out of here.

B E A utiful.

Our mountainous road decided to not be paved for a bit.

Bosnia - little Switzerland (with a feel of Wyoming).

Ski resort town- might be in a bit of disrepair.

Dry clothes = clean clothes.

Lunch break consisted of some good grub and letting our clothes dry (they weren't wet per se, but after a couple days in our bags they had accumulated some dampness) in the sun heated breeze.  Dry clothes = clean clothes.

Then a rest day in Sarajevo.  What an awesome place.  Situated right smack dab in the middle of a rather small valley, completely surrounded by mountains, it is no wonder that Sarajevo and SLC are twin cities (both who have hosted the Winter Olympics).

So what do we do on a "rest" day?  Well, we eat, we sightsee and eat some more.  Found some delicious pizza, maybe the best pizza we've had on our trip (well, it's a toss up, cause Italy does a good job too).  But this place wins the cool factor: on a steep road coming up out of the old town, across from a cemetery, with views of the city.  There is no menu and nowhere to sit, and no options of what type of pizza you would like.  They only make one type of pizza - you can either get small or large - and then a lady quickly throws some cheese, mushrooms and cured meat on a freshly prepared dough, a man with a 14 foot long stick throws it into the depths of a warm brick oven, it pops out a couple minutes later and gets a scoop of kajmack (a type of sweet creamy Balkan cheese) and a ladle full of tomato sauce.  So so good.  And it really makes sense that a restaurant not have a menu.  They've been the ones cooking for who knows how many years, obviously they know what's best.  And then a Bakalava shop which had almond, walnut, chocolate, nutella and other varieties.

Breakfast - phyllo dough, stuffing items and yogurt.

Bosnian Pizza - one of the best pizzas I've ever had.

Treats.

Then a visit to the Srebrenica Memorial.  While there we watched a short video about the Siege of Sarajevo.  The siege lasted 1,425 days and basically goes like this.  Serbian forces surrounded the city and sat atop the mountains encircling Sarajevo.  They shelled the city and with snipers shot those they could see in the streets.  During a taxi ride our driver told us he was 7 during the war and explained how he only went to school one day a week and would go out at night to get water from a nearby spicket.  His older brother went off to war and he had a few neighbors who were shot by snipers.  Imagine being trapped in your own city for 4 years.

Then, a visit to the recently opened National Library - it was heavily shelled during the Siege of Sarajevo and consequently the contents of the library burnt to the ground.  Then (and maybe the most interesting part of the day) we went to the 1984 Winter Olympics Bobsled track.  It (along with many hotels built for the Olympics) have been left to ruins since the early 90s (in fact, Serbian forces used it as a bunker for a time).  It now remains up on the mountainside, completely overgrown and covered in graffiti.  Supposedly Red Bull hosts mountain bike races down the track.

Abandoned hotel from the Winter Olympics.

Bobsled Track

We ran across 2 folks from Holland on a bike tour similar to ours: from Holland to Malaysia with a stop in Istanbul.  Hope to meet them in Istanbul in a month.

Tandem cyclists heading across the Earth are the coolest.

Last, Sarajevo is where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated - setting off WWI.

So many great reasons to come to Bosnia-Herzegovina.