My new love is for the Balkans. I was forced to start my Eurotrip from Sarajevo because of botched visa dates Courtesy Italian consulate in Mumbai! Grrrโฆ and I flew the no-frills FlyDubai A surprisingly cheap and functional airline into Sarajevo, but thanks to the initial hiccup everything happens for a reason, yada, yada I was blown away oops, the wrong choice of words, given this was once a war-torn, strife-filled region I was impressed!
Best of all were the people. Humility and self-deprecating humour are the pervasive local attitude; I found it refreshing. I hope that never changes. The former New York Times correspondent C. Here are some tours I recommend based on my experience in Bosnia. It has a population of , and is largely Muslim.
The Ottomans took over the city in the 15 th century and made Sarajevo the administrative seat of Bosnia and Herzegovina in When the Austro-Hungarian Empire defeated the Turks in , Sarajevo remained the administrative seat and was modernized in the following years. Watch the movie Sarajevo for a primer on this. However, the Bosnian Serbs, mostly Orthodox and backed by Serbia, wanted Sarajevo and other Bosnian territories to be part of a greater Serbia. Then came the civil war.
About , people died in that war. It finally ended with the Dayton Accords , and today, the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a three-member body which collectively serves as head of state: 1 Bosniak Muslims , 1 Croat Catholics , 1 Serb from the Republika Srpska Orthodox. Together, they serve one four-year term and chairmanship rotates every 8 months. This is easily the most complicated government in the world. A bustling, crowded marketplace with cobbled streets, mosques and quaint both old and locals-frequented, and new and hip eateries, and hookah bars, you could spend a full day here.
Built-in the 16th century, it is the largest historical mosque in Bosnia and Herzegovina and one of the most representative Ottoman structures in the Balkans. It has a madrassa, a library, a haniqah , a Hamam. The Latin Bridge is an Ottoman bridge over the river Miljacka. The northern end of the bridge was the site of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which caused World War I.
