After a comfy night (window open, air conditioner on after a hot night the night before), we breakfasted at the hotel where we were looked after by what we think might have been a local school's hospitality class...all good. 9am onto the bus and off towards Bosnia.

Unlike the Croats etc, Bosnia did not fare so well when they looked to claim independence and a 3 year war ensued in the 1990s. Part of the challenge for them is that they are extremely multi religion/historical ties. Between the Serbian orthodox, the Croatian catholics, the Ashkenasy Jews and the Turkish Muslims, it is genuinely a tricky one to navigate. In any case, Milosevic was having none of it with their independence and so the Serbs got busy. We are learning more about this on a tour tomorrow so will have more to report here later.

Anyway, the bus ride took us through Serbia to the border crossing. Lots of stray dogs hanging around and still quite an intimidating sort of experience really, even on a bus tour that I am pleased we opted for in this stretch of the trip. Our lunch was actually in a beautiful town overlooking the river and we met a very interesting restaurant owner who helped us understand the ongoing tensions between the muslims and the serbs in the area. They live in quite separate towns and for the most part, there remains suspicion between the groups. One aspect in particular is around pork and pork products. He was somewhat critical of the "pseudo-Muslims" as he referred to them, that he said having lived in the middle east for 2 years that they don't consider them good. Reckons they drink too much, cheat on their wives and don't do the religious things very well anyway...apparently this is a Turk muslim issue? We'll see what others think. He said just because you don't eat pork doesn't make you a good Muslim.

A long afternoon on windy roads up in the mountains saw us arrive at Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia at about 5pm. Our walking tour with Khalid, a tremendous fellow, started at about 5:45pm. He walked us down into the central areas and showed us the streets, with many merchants making jewellry, copper pots/coffee sets, cevapi, pita makers, sweets like baklava and coffee (similar to Turkish) and the best places to go. He gave us also some great insights into Sarajevo, it's hill forts, the 1984 bobsled track that we will see tomorrow, that was used by the Serbs when they sieged the city for 3 years as a concrete shield that they could fire machine guns through (after they poked holes in it)...at least until they'd bombed civilian marketplaces outside the catholic church 1 too many times and the US Clinton backed forces decided enough was enough...

We saw 4 major religious sites...central mosque (there are a few of them) with its really nice water feature with a saying from the Koran in 8 languages above the fountain...essentially just saying that water purifies and is the source of life and vitality. The Jewish synagogue, which also contains a holy book, essentially the pentateuch, (first 5 books of the Old Testament) that is shared by all 4 religions, go figure. Then, the catholic cathedral, built in the Austro Hungarian area in the 19th century (with bullet holes left in one section and a mortor hole with red paint in it as a reminder of the 1990s war) and then the Serbian Orthodox church. As he said it, Sarajevo is often considered to be too west for the east and too east for the west.

We also saw the site where Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his fiance were shot, the spark that ignited WW1. Apparently there were 7 assassins from the Black Hand who were planning on executing the archduke, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne (kind of the enemy of the Ottomans/Turkish/East). One of the others had already detonated a grenade, injuring some of the dignitaries in the archduke's party. There were huge crowds to see him apparently. The car that was carrying him was supposed to turn off the main road along the river to head towards a hotel for a function, but the archduke had wanted to continue along the road to the hospital as he didn't want to be partying on with his friend possibly very badly injured in hospital so wanted to go there first. Unfortunately, noone told the driver, so when they got to the corner for the turnoff to the hotel, or straight along to the hospital, the general in the front stopped the driver who was turning the corner towards the hotel. The assassin first tried to get his grenade out but in the crowd was unable to so instead was able to get out one of his 2 pistols and shoot them at close range (it is shockingly close when you see it on the street). Apparently, one of the sides of this conflict had 3 main demands of the other (can't remember who demanded who), but in any case, only 2 could be agreed on. This unresolved issue led to the various countries of europe and indeed much of the world that we know, to pick their sides, and then sacrifice millions of mostly men, in the 2 world wars of the 1900s. Crazy stuff.

In Bosnia now, to "resolve" the issue of the 3 main groups (Serbs, Croats, Turks) they have a rotating presidential system where they take turns with who is in charge. As is often the case, and as Khalid explained from his first hand experience working in IT with Serbs during COVID so his tourism job wasn't possible, that the general population really don't trust politicians and there is zero animosity between the groups. All a bit confusing really.

Anyway, we ended the tour, somewhat more informed than before and had dinner of meat in pastry cooked over fire (pita) and some sweets...churro like donut things and some baklava stuff. Tired and a sore back for me (twinged it twisting it lifting my bag onto bed at the last hotel) so we'll see how it goes over the next day or so. Tomorrow, a free day in Sarajevo. We're going on another tour with Khalid...he's a good fellow.