It’s safe to say the last time anyone thought seriously about taking a vacation in Sarajevo was the winter of 1984, when they hosted the Olympics. Since then, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been, shall we say, suboptimal tourist territory.
But it’s been 19 years since the end of the siege, and with the help of many donor nations, the place has been entirely rebuilt. The old town, mostly destroyed, is hospitable and full of restaurants where people hang out for hours sipping tiny, sub-espresso-sized cups of Bosnian coffee poured out of handmade (always handmade) copper carafes, and usually served with cubes of Turkish delight on toothpicks.
So they were ready for their close-up on June 28, when much of the world’s media and a fair number of tourists showed up to be in the city where Gavrilo Princip fired two bullets into Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, which started a series of dominoes collapsing into the First World War.
The hotels were full, including Hotel Europe, in whose lobby cafe the archduke had his final morning coffee, and tour groups were everywhere, led by, among others, Insider tours, whose office is directly across the street, Zelenih beretki, from the plaque marking the spot where Princip stood.
I stayed at Europe’s sister property, the Astra Garni (+387 33 475-100; no website), about 30 metres from there, where there’s also a museum dedicated to the moment, the moments that led up to it, and those that followed.
There’s a whole 1914 tour you can do, that takes you from Illidza, the leafy suburb 40 minutes out of town where Franz Ferdinand stayed the night before at one of the grand old hotels that still operate there, but there’s more to Sarajevo than that one morning a century ago. Much more.
Sarajevo’s been through a lot since then, as anyone who was paying attention to the news in the 90s will know, but it’s come out the other side and deserves a second look.
There’s a reason people started settling here thousands of years ago, and why the Turks chose it as a capital for the area when they ruled the place. It’s gorgeous.
It’s enclosed by sylvan hills on three sides, with the river Miljacka running through the centre, crossed by a half dozen picturesque bridges, including a new one in the shape of a loop-de-loop, designed by three students of the Academy of Fine Arts, which it connects to busy Radić street on the other side of the river. It’s called the Festina Lente Bridge, Latin for the curious old Church slogan, Hurry slowly, and it encourages you to stop and take in the view with two benches halfway across. You should. It’s a great view.
And a 10-minute uphill walk from there, Park Prinčeva has a two-tiered terrace that overlooks the whole city. The perfect place for a rakia at sunset.
Just behind the Academy is an unprepossessing bar called the Meeting Point. It doesn’t look like much, but it lives up to its name. Over the course of the four days I was in town, no fewer than three otherwise unrelated people suggested meeting there. I finally went, and it’s friendly, cheap (beer’s a little more than a dollar, coffee a little less), it’s attached to the local cinema, and it’s the sort of place you’re likely to end up talking to someone in.
But it’s not just the Meeting Point that’s inexpensive. Five-star Hotel Europe is less than $200 a night, and my little place was just over $100, including breakfast and a great rooftop view of the city; coffee’s usually about $1-$2 for the whole carafe ($3 at Hotel Europe), and the best cevapi (cylindrical, spiced meat, usually lamb, served in a lightly seared fluffy pita) in town – at a place called Zjalko in the old town — is about $5.
You could make your trip to Sarajevo about war if you wanted: In addition to Princip’s corner, Srebrenica is two hours east; Mostar’s two hours southwest.
But the thing is, you don’t have to. There aren’t many undiscovered European capitals left, but Sarajevo’s certainly one of them.
By Bert Archer
From: http://www.everythingzoomer.com/sarajevo-europes-undiscovered-capital/#.U8pZL_mSygd
