James Went To Sarajevo

Yeah I’m running out of European countries to visit, and Sarajevo was on my list of places to visit – the capital of Bosnia.

There is more to it than a weird 1st world addiction to ticking off countries, as I’m quite fascinated by geopolitics, and Bosnia is somewhere I’ve seen history happen in my lifetime.

Plus I rather like this area of the world, having visited Belgrade, Zadar, Skopje and Split – the scenery can be stunning, especially the Croatian coast.

Bosnia was on my to-do list for more than the purpose of ticking off another country.

The Challenges Of Visiting Sarajevo

There are direct flights to Sarajevo from London Luton, though you don’t have much choice – I think two a week. Though I’m pretty sure when I originally put Sarajevo on my travel to-do list a couple of years ago, there were no direct flights.

A couple of things also frustrated me whilst in Sarajevo – don’t worry, I will write lots of positives as I was really charmed by the city, but I just want to get a few frustrations out of the way.

Firstly, plenty of places don’t accept debit cards. Which is fine, but I just didn’t know how much cash to take out – and the exchange place at Gatwick Airport tried to give me a rate about 1/3 less than official! Ouch.

Plus when you take money out of an ATM in Sarajevo, there is a £6.00 bank charge. Ouch.

Also if something says it is open certain hours/days in Sarajevo on Google Maps, it might not be. I tried to find a shop open on Sunday to buy some fruit and snacks – absolutely nothing open. Sarajevo was soooo different on a Sunday, literally everyone other than tourists seemed to be resting.

And then restaurants were often randomly closed – I had quite bad luck turning up to restaurants on my list, to find them not open. Also, the cable car wasn’t open in the few days I was there.

None of this is any more of a minor inconvenience, but it just meant a little extra planning was required (and I should have done a little extra planning/research!), and to always have a back-up plan.

Welcome to Sarajevo

I had a nice welcome to Sarajevo.

No, not for me, and I didn’t have time to stick around to find out the answer as I had a bus to catch. Surely she said yes?

The bus into the centre was super easy and approx £2.50 – you don’t need a taxi.

For the first day, it was important to find some burek – not a difficult task in Sarajevo, and I found a rather nice one in the Basilica area.

I had a better burek from Pita Ispod Sača – Kod Seje, which I didn’t photograph, on the next day – though it was greasier and saltier at the same time, but oh so satisfying.

Of course, not open on a Sunday, which was my first day in Sarajevo.

The Darker Side Of Culture

Personally, I think you’d be amiss to not learn more about the experiences of Bosniaks during the war, when visiting Sarajevo, though it was quite a lot to take in.

When coming out of the Siege Of Sarajevo museum, I just kind of stumbling around for a bit going, “what did I experience there”.

I did two war museums, this and the Genocide museum – the Siege Of Sarajevo being more rustic and homemade, the Genocide museum being more…gosh how to describe it, well-presented and modern?

At first, I attempted to read every story in the Siege Of Sarajevo museum, but I realised after a while that I’d be there hours, so I tried to scan the stories for things that stood out, to determine whether to read them.

And after a while, there are only so many haunting stories you can accept, so I tried to find the stories of hope and resilience – such as the soldier who was saved by a book tucked into his belt in front of him, or the women that would insist on wearing high heels despite having to go via Sniper Alley – as they refused to reduce their standards. Or the ballerina who attended every single rehearsal and show.

The courage of people during wars will never cease to humble me.

I didn’t get quite as much out of the Genocide museum – there was little to read, but the photography was powerful, and at times haunting – there are images that will likely stay with me for a long time. It’s unimaginable what people went through.

And yet people still vote for hate-peddling parties. Sigh.

The Lighter Side Of Sarajevo

You could absorb yourself more in the dark history of Sarajevo, and I feel like there was more I could and should have visited – annoyingly I read this really good blog about Dark Tourism after I got back to London.

Yet there was also a lighter side to Sarajevo, notably their proud hosting of the 1984 Winter Olympics.

Of course, the Winter Olympics museum was up around 1,500 steps.

Inside was a fairly small museum, it didn’t take me any longer than 15 minutes – I’m not sure I’ve ever watched much, if any, winter Olympics.

I was actually more impressed by the design ethos of said Olympics – it struck me of 1980’s modernity, and I sort of got the feeling that this was likely a very proud moment for those living in Sarajevo, and across ex-Yugoslavia, a way of expressing their modernity too.

I did also visit the National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina – I cannot say I found any art that spoke to me, and was really just a way of me filling time without eating or drinking.

The only other attraction I did was go up the Avaz Twist Tower, which was quite a decent deal at £2.50 – especially when you compare it to the price of going up The Shard in London!

Stunning views too – on the only sunny day I had in Sarajevo.

My Two Highlights

One of the most fascinating things I did was going on a War Scars walking tour, held by a gentleman from Bosnia called Neno.

I won’t give too much away, but he talked us through some of the memorials, including the meaning of the Sarajevo Roses and the canned beef memorial, showed us some of the more damaged buildings from the shelling/shooting, walked us down Sniper Alley, and compared this to his experience of the war as a youngster, and also that of his family.

He was really engaging – if you are thinking of going to Sarajevo, please do book with him!

I cannot say I felt especially comfortable taking photographs of apartment blocks with bullet holes across them, so that’s the clearest image I have.

The canned beef was memorialised because it was so disgusting that starving stray cats and dogs wouldn’t eat it, during the siege.

My other highlight was walking up a mountain and seeing the old bobsleigh track. There is a cable car, but of course it wasn’t working for a few days that week. Who knows why?!

But I like walking up mountains anyway – it was quite a slog, I think 600m in altitude but felt sooooo good when I got to the top, like a proper natural high.

And then there is the bobsleigh track that you can walk down much of, which is a lot of fun especially with all the graffiti.

I love being in the mountains – and I love old, dilapidated structures that are being taken over by nature and graffiti. I had such joy up there. Simple things sometimes!

Food In Sarajevo

I was a bit unlucky when it came to eating in Sarajevo.

My first night I arrived too late – I did try a couple of the closest restaurants on my list, but they were closing – I ended up getting a chicken burger in a pub, which I guess was alright for the price, £7.00 for a chicken burger, chips and beer – but was pretty basic food.

The second night was my best meal, at a restaurant called Klopa, though they did persuade me to have their steak dish when really I wanted to try the “chicken pot”.

Sure, the steak was good – but I can have steak ANYWHERE. Well, anywhere except a vegan restaurant. I have to say that the tomatoes were the most gorgeous tomatoes I’ve had since Sicily, and the bread was superb too.

I ignored their dessert advice and had what was roughly like a ginger cake in custard, with black cherries on top – this was ace. And it felt like I was having local cuisine, of which else I only managed cevapi and burek, and both of which I’ve had before in Skopje.

I had cevapi at somewhere in the basilica area, perhaps Ćevabdžinica Beg and I guess it was good, but I wanted something a bit more interesting than bread and meat.

I only ended up there after 3 places that I tried to get to for lunch were all closed, and I was ridiculously hungry as I’d walked up a mountain.

Mustard chicken from Restoran Tavola was respectable enough, and whichever chicken dish I had from Tapas Bar & Restaurant was again good – though not really pushing any boundaries.

Beer In Sarajevo

Of course, the world of craft beer is slowly taking over, including in Sarajevo.

Still, it’s a heck of a long way away from the scene in Budapest – there was just one place specialising in modern IPA, and that was a 45 minute tram ride out of the city centre – Brew Brothers. I did go, but it was a bit awkward being a solo drinking with just the owner of the place, neither of us speaking more than one word of the other’s language. I had a beer flight then left – it would make a great place to watch the football with mates.

Probably the best spot for a beer was Viking Pub, which had a fair few different cans and bottles – smoky inside, yuck, but a few tables outside near the river.

But also I found a local’s pub in one residential area that served a really nice IPA, and had a table or two in the sunshine, called Bure bez dna.

I’m sure they were wondering what the hell a tourist from London was doing there – I’m there for your good beer, as a lot of other places just want to sell me crappy lager.

Should You Go To Sarajevo?

I think more than most places, whether you should go to Sarajevo depends on what you are interested in.

I cannot say that it is a foodie destination, nor is there a beach.

But it is living its history, and it is a fascinating city. Plus if you like urban exploring, dark tourism or hiking in mountains – it definitely caters. Plus it snows in winter.

Return flights from London Luton were £87.98, and my Airbnb for 3 nights cost £145.70.

Beers cost between £2.00 and £6.00 – the latter was the most expensive craft beer I could find. The cost of food varied, the burek from the tiny little shops was super cheap, like £2.00 tops, my most expensive meal was £33.38 – but that was steak, dessert, beer and wine. You can definitely do Sarajevo cheaply, and cheaper than I did.

I was suitably charmed by Sarajevo, and humbled by the stories that I read. I didn’t have the most amazing cuisine there – I’ll save that for my upcoming trip to Trieste, but the people were friendly, the city is quite compact – and if you like your history I think you’ll find Sarajevo as fascinating as I did.

Trieste and Ljubljana are next on the adventure list.