bosnia: jajce

My original plan when coming to Bosnia was to do several day trips out of Sarajevo during the days I was there, but only one of those day trips happened. Oh well. Since I was only in Bosnia for 6 days, I didn't buy a guidebook. To figure out where I wanted to go, I walked past the windows of several travel agencies and looked to see what kind of day tours they offered.

I chose to go to a town called Jajce. Learning how to pronounce the name was the first challenge. In Bosnian, the letter J is pronounced like an English Y. If I learned correctly, the name is pronounced: ya-i-tse. 

I was able to book bus tickets with the help of the receptionist at my hostel, it was a lot cheaper to get to the city on my own than to sign up for a day tour with one of the many companies in town. 

Jajce is a city of around 30,000 residents, approximately 160 kilometers northwest from Sarajevo. It's not that big a distance, but the roads were not straight, to say the least. I ended up getting very very motion sick while on the bus, both to and from Jajce, ugh. The drive was beautiful both ways, but I didn't get to see much of it since my stomach was rolling so much.

Jajce has a long history. People come to visit now because you can still see the old city walls, all the way around. 

Jajce was built on a hill, it would've been easy-ish to defend. The city was built in the 14^th century, and was actually the capital of the Kingdom of Bosnia for a while.

After the end of the Kingdom of Bosnia, Jajce was seized by the Ottomans. Later on the Hungarians took over. Then the Ottomans came back. In the late 19^th century this region became part of Austria-Hungary. From 1929-1941 Jajce was part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which later became a federal republic with several nations. (Those nations have always had their own identities as well, which is a big reason why Yugoslavia didn't stay together very long.)

Basically, Jajce has always had its own identity, but the ruling power has changed every so often. Wikipedia tells me the city is at a spot in the middle of 'borders' between different majorities: Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Serbs, and Croats.

During my visit I didn't see evidence of the Bosnian war that destroyed the country during the 90s, but I'm sure Jajce suffered.

The bus ride from Sarajevo was a little over four hours, I was dropped off at a bus station/stop on the edge of town a little after 1100. When I got off the bus I realized I had left my camera on a bench in the bus station in Sarajevo. I was gutted, absolutely gutted. 

I knew I could replace the camera itself, but I couldn't replace the photos, which is what upset me so much. Argh.

There are two main sights in Jajce. One of them is a waterfall, the other is the walled city area. The waterfall was quite pretty, the city has built a viewing platform. It was quite windy as I got close, the water was flying all over the place. Since it was a warm sunny day, the water felt pretty good, but it was also hard to take a photo.

The best view of the waterfall was actually from the road into town, not the area that required an entrance fee. The waterfall is where the Pliva River meets the Vrbas River. 

Just outside Jajce you can visit a lake, and hike in the mountains, but I didn't have time for that, nor the transportation to do so. I wish I had.

Walking into the city I saw the way one of the rivers had been somewhat controlled with man made mini waterfalls. Very photogenic, especially as the water was a bright blue colour.

As Jajce was built on top of a hill, it seemed like I was always going up or down. There were plenty of stairs, and small alleys going between 'levels' of the streets. Nothing was in a grid pattern, so I never really knew where I was, oops. Thank goodness, Jajce isn't big, so it wasn't hard to sort it all out. 

There are different sights within the city walls, some of them have entry fees, others don't. I really liked the fortress area all the way up top, as I got to see out over the entire surrounding area. Mountains are beautiful.

I also entered an underground church, which had a small altar in front. The whole thing was really small, and if I hadn't read the information sign I wouldn't have thought anything other than 'hey, an underground room.' Even after reading the information sign I thought 'meh.'

I found remains of several other ruined buildings, but they were blocked off so I couldn't go in. 

Since the walls were collapsing, and the roofs had done so long ago, I could see why they don't want people traipsing all over.

There wasn't much more to see. I found a mosque, it was quite small. I found a few bakeries and cafes, but nothing sounded good. I ended up walking back to the bus station and waiting there for several hours. After throwing up on the way to Jajce, and having zero appetite the entire day, I was not feeling good, and not looking forward to the ride back. The bus back to Sarajevo left over an hour late, and I somehow got sick on the way back as well. Sigh.

I would like to see Jajce again, with a proper camera, more snacks, and my own transport :)

malta: malta: mosta and mdina and rabat

Since the island of Malta is relatively small and has good transport to get all over, I decided to sleep in Valletta for three or four nights and do a couple day trips to see sights in other places.

Malta has a lot of history in war, despite being quite small. The most recent war in which fighting happened on the island was WW2. The geographic importance of the island was huge, it was actually under seige for over two years.

I wanted to see a part of that particular history, so I hopped on a bus to the small town of Mosta, which of course has a giant church. The ride was not long, and the bus stop is obvious, right next to the church. Despite being huge, it is 'just' a parrish church.

The name of the church is the Basilica of the Assumption of our Lady, but not one calls it by that name. It is more commonly known as the Mosta Dome or Rotunda of Mosta, because that is the part of the church through which history happened.

The chuch goes back to the early 17^th century, though that building was much smaller. In the 19^th century a new church was built, right around the old church. Wikipedia tells me local citizens helped out with some of the building, on Sundays and holidays.

The dome is huge, it was the third largest in Europe at one point. The interior diameter is 37 meters, not too shabby. The walls holding it up are 30 feet thick! Even though the church is circular, there are side chapels all around the circle.

On 9 April 1942 the Luftwaffe dropped three bombs in the area in the evening. One of them went straight through the rotunda, while a gathering of 300 people was celebrating an evening service inside the church. The bomb didn't explode, it just sat in the middle of the floor. Needless to say, this was considered a miracle.

Engineers from the Royal Bomb Disposal unit defused the bomb and dumped the remains in the sea off the island, and a replica is now inside the church. The story behind the bomb is the reason anyone comes to Mosta, because the town is otherwise unremarkable.

There is an entry fee to this church, sigh. It isn't much, but it's still annoying. It doesn't take long to walk through the church, appreciating what happened, as well as appreciating the artistry of the building itself.

After seeing the church I walked into one of several nearby bakeries to pick up snacks. No, I didn't need the piece of cake, but I have no regrets :)

I went back to the same bus stop to catch my next bus, out to the walled city of Mdina. This bus stop was also right next to where I wanted to go, yippee!

Mdina is an ancient walled city, it was actually the capital of the island from antiquity to the Middle Ages. The walls are still standing, and the whole thing is still really photogenic. 

Continued reading in Wikipedia tells me the current population is around 43.

Like many cities from way back in the day, the streets in Mdina are not straight, and they are narrow. The greatest part of exploring Mdina is getting lost in the many small alleys. You start walking into one of them and you're never sure where you'll end up.

There were of course several churches. One of the churches I passed had locked gates in front, but the doors behind the gates were open. In other words I was able to peek inside, but was not able to go in. 

Another church was part of a monastery, it was actually a chapel with a beautiful ceiling. There was another huge church with an entry fee, I was getting tired of the fees by this point. That being said, the fee on this one included entry in the next door museum, which was quite nice.

After getting completely turned around in the alleys a number of times, I felt like I'd seen most of Mdina, so I walked back out of the main gate, (there is a moat around the city, I wonder what it looked like back in its heyday,) and to the modern city next door, called Rabat.

Even though Rabat is thought of as the 'new' city, it was part of the core of the original medieval city before Mdina was split off, and has plenty of visible history. I found more churches, and well known catacombs. The biggest church in Rabat was free, thank goodness.

Rabat isn't nearly as pretty as Mdina, but there are more than 11,000 people living there. It definitely feels more alive than Mdina. (to be honest, Mdina feels more like an Instagram location now, not so much a real city. There are heaps of people in the really photogenic spots - doors with floral decorations, etc - but no markets anything real.)

After finishing exploring I walked down the main road until I found a bus stop in the shade. I'm not usually such a fan of shade when sun is an option, but the past couple days in the direct sun had gotten to me.
I had to wait a while, but eventually a bus came along and brought me back to Valletta.