“Jason, what the hell are we doing here?” Megan asked as we took our freshly stamped passports from the Bosnian border official and crossed the Bosnian border in our hybrid “golf cart” of a rental car.
Driving from Split, Croatia to Sarajevo, Bosnia
She wasn’t saying that because we were in Bosnia. She was saying it because we were in the middle of the Dinaric Mountains on a road barely wide enough for two cars to meet …….in the middle of a snowstorm. White knuckle time.
I can hear you saying: “But Jason, you are in Europe, how bad can a snowstorm possibly be?”
Pretty dang bad is the answer.
Pic we snapped from the rental car after the storm.
Tough to believe that only a couple hours earlier we were drinking coffee outside in a T-shirt in Croatia.
The 240km drive took us 6.5 hours as we navigated the storm. I’m not gonna lie – it was the most stressful drive of my life.
But we FINALLY MADE IT TO SARAJEVO!
What do we know about Sarajevo?
Coppersmith Street
Old town
View of the skyline
Old men ridicule each other during a game of giant chess in a town square
Sarajevo is built in a valley with large hills on all sides.
View from a 9th floor cafe
- It’s the capital and largest city in Bosnia and Herzagovina (about 700,000 people). The entire country has only 3.5 million people.
- Ethnicities: 51% Bosnian (Muslim), 30% Serb (Orthodox Christian), 15% Croatian (Catholic), 4% other.
- The mixed ethnicities mean that the politics are complicated – each ethnicity elects a president and the three presidents must work together. Bosnia may have the most complicated political system I have ever heard of….. I’m not even going to begin to explain it.
- The unemployment rate is 43-45%
- Nearly everyone smokes
- The country has tons of potential but still has not economically recovered from the Bosnian War (1992-1995). More on that later.
Now let’s get to the good stuff….
The Food
Here are some of the local foods we’ve been sampling:
Burek. A layered pastry stuffed with minced meat, cottage cheese, spinach, potatoes, and other fillings.
The chef let me come see how they make burek. Hot charcoal is placed on top of a press which is then lowered down on top of the pastry.
Punjene Tikvice. Stuffed zucchini: ground beef, rice and spices are combined and baked in a hollowed zucchinis.
Klepe. Bosnian minced meat dumplings. The beer is Sarajevsko (excellent local beer)
Cevapi. Rolled lamb and beef served with fluffy pita bread and vegetables.
OK. This blog is getting way too long and I need a brewski to finish. To be continued……
Kamikaze Canuck 
Awesome Blog Jason..love the videos and expressions. Glad you survived the crazy drive through the snowstorm..that must have been an experience you’ll only want to have once!
Yes. We were both relieved to arrive in Sarajevo. Who is this?