Perhaps Mostar is not one, but two cities. We are staying in the old town, the Muslim quarters, cobbled streets, souvenir shops, plenty of restaurants, terraces that sell Bosnian coffee, baklava. Even more than the old town in Sarajevo, it is the feeling of being in Turkey. There are also several mosques, and the remains … Read more
In sharp contrast to Zenica, Travnik is a rather low-key, low-rise town, a little left behind. During the Ottoman occupation of Bosnia it figured for a while, 18th and 19th C, as the local capital of the Ottoman Bosnia province, which not only prompted many locals to convert to Islam, but also sparked the construction … Read more
We didn’t plan to go to Zenica at all. After all, what on earth is there to see? But through our newly developed interest in brutalism, or socialist modernism, suddenly a couple of ideas had popped up, mostly centered around hotels. Some specialist website mentioned the Hotel Internacional, and the Hotel Dubrovnik, both in Zenica. … Read more
Well, the absolutely very best of Brutalist Sarajevo architecture, then, for the very last. Outside Sarajevo is another hotel, built for the Olympics. The 162-room Igman Hotel, close to the past ski jumping station, did not survive the war, and has been abandoned since. They don’t come much more Brutalist than this, one hump of … Read more
I am fully aware that not everybody is equally fascinated by our latest discovery, Brutalism. Which is why I will not flood the – already pretty flooded – main entry on Sarajevo with too many photos of apartment buildings from the communist era, when lots of accommodation was called for at low cost, yet still … Read more
Sarajevo is one of those cities that, in my mind, will always be associated with war, in this case the Bosnian war from 1992 to 1995. Yet, in Sarajevo the traces of war are limited to bullet holes in buildings, and perhaps a few buildings that have been destroyed and not rebuilt. The most obvious … Read more
We take two days to drive the 350 km from Podgorica to Sarajevo, again not along the shortest route, but definitely a more scenic one. Taking in some historically relevant sights, as well. (Two days, scenery and sights, so brace yourself for a lot of photographs again….) The Moraca River Just north of Podgorica we … Read more