Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina— four years under siege— August 1 – 3, 2026

From Budva, Montenegro, it was a beautiful drive along the Adriatic seacoast. I saw a few large cruisers along the way. 

These two islands are near Kotor, Montenegro

Once we left the seacoast, it was very mountainous as we went through several long tunnels on the way to Sarajevo.  

Our bus stopped at the border to Bosnia-Hercegovina where we had to go through immigration from Montenegro to Bosnia-Herzegovina.  It was interesting how the bus driver expedited our journey to the border. The bus driver got in the opposing lane and passed about 3 miles of cars that were waiting to go through the border. It really sped up our time at the border crossing..

After the border, we passed by a forest fire on the opposite ridge from the highway, several vineyards, and drove along the Trebisnjica River with jagged peaks coming down to the river.

I walked about 40 minutes from the Sarajevo Bus Station to The Leopold Chillout Hostel.  I had to use the address since the name of the hostel was not in the Google Maps inventory.

Before I arrived at the hostel, they gave me a code to use at the 

entrance door.  I then climbed on this spiral staircase to the third floor.  

Harun, the owner, had reserved me a bottom bunk. The bunkbeds had all the amenities of charging plugs, reading lights, and curtains. The common areas and kitchens were also very nicely done. The only drawback was the bed was way too soft.

The Synod Orthodox Church was near the hostel along with several streets that were filled with bars and restaurants.

The nearby Cathedral of Jesus’ Sacred Heart was also nearby. They were having some sort of festival in front of the church as I found my way to dinner nearby.  I had curry chicken with mushroom soup and a lemonade.

This is one of the buildings of the University of Sarajevo.

On my way to City Hall I stopped by the At Mejdan pavilion, and cross a a bridge over the Miljacka River to the old city with its many mosques and walking streets. The place was very crowded because it was a Sunday.

Purification before entering the mosque.

I found this small street side restaurant and had Bosnian goulash with rice along with some peach lemonade and topped off with Bosnian coffee.  A local woman showed me how to properly drink it.

Before the war, Sarajevo was known for hosting the Olympic Winther Sports. Up on the hills, you can see swaths of greenery that show the ski runs.

I then walked by City Hall, and the Sebilj Fountain and continued along the walking streets, filled with people, mosques and other churches until I got to the Museums of Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide 1992 to 1995, and the Siege of Sarajevo.

The genocide museum was really a sobering. unsettling experience. It was hard to realize the inhumanity that people inflict upon each other in the name of ethnic cleansing and religion. However, similar war crimes are being done by Israel to the Palestinian people following the horrific Hamas attack.

Although crimes were committed by both sides, it was the Bosnian Muslims that took the brunt of the massacres and genocide from the Bosnian Serb military forces.  The best known example is the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995 where over 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were executed by Bosnian Serb forces. Prison camps were notorious for torture, beatings, and starvation. Rape was systematically used as a weapon of war by both sides. Mosques, Catholic churches, Orthodox churches, libraries and historic buildings were intentionally destroyed to erase cultural and religious heritage.

This conflict resulted in approximately 100,000 deaths, millions of displaced, and long, lasting physical and psychological trauma.

The siege of Sarajevo by the Bosnian Serbs lasted from April 5, 1992 to February 29, 1996, and was the longest siege of a capital city in modern history.  At the beginning of the siege about 520,000 people were trapped by the use of artillery mortars and snipers.  11,000 people were killed including 1,600 children and tens of thousands more were wounded, almost all casualties were civilians. By the end of the siege 349,000 people remained.

Street screens to prevent snipers from killing people.

To a visitor like me, Sarajevo does not show any obvious signs of these crimes against humanity, or bombed out places.

It was then onto Belgrade Serbia, with my online purchased bus ticket. After purchasing it. I saw that the departure was from a different bus station than the one I came in on.  It was the East Sarajevo Bus Station.  Thanks to Google Maps, it showed me where, when, and what bus to take there which was about 45 minutes away.

Once at the East Sarajevo Bus Station, I found a nearby shop that sold what looked like pizza. I got a coffee latte from the coffee shop at the Bus Station.

It was a comfortable bus that left at 9:45 AM and got me into Belgrade, Serbia about 6 PM after crossing the borders and the bridge across the Drina River.