A look into life in the Republika Srpska
Trip Start
Apr 08, 2007
1
55
129
Trip End
Oct 01, 2007
Where I stayed
Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Thursday, June 14, 2007
I've heard that it was once quite lovely, decades before. An earthquake in 1969 apparently made short work of most of the town though, and understandably reconstruction was subject to the unimaginative architectural leanings of the times. But this used to be a very mixed area, with Croats, Muslims and Serbs intermingling for centuries. I just heard from a Croatian woman on the train this morning that it was once the site of the most important Croatian bishopric in the country. Today, however, it's almost 100% Serb. There used to be sixteen mosques in the city - a notable fact that would easily put it on tourist maps today - but they were all thoroughly demolished by Serb militias in 1993. The most historic of them has had reconstruction plans in the works for years, but it's barely gotten off the ground yet. Apparently the ground-breaking ceremony turned into a near riot, with Bosnian Muslims coming under attack by angry local Serbs that didn't want to see an Islamic structure re-erected in their home turf. Again, I remind you, this is now the capital of the Serbian half of Bosnia. Tensions obviously haven't eased much.
The fact that it's not a city of tourism also means it doesn't have much in the way of accommodation, at least certainly not the cheap kind. I arrived just after 1pm on a stuffy bus from Zagreb and bee-lined it to the information office in the time-warped train station. The woman there looked like she was really digging deep to come up with suitably affordable hotel options. After riding an equally stuffy bus into town and marching around for a while in futile search of the "tourist office" (heavy pack and all), I decided to just suck it up and splurge. So I'm spending the night at a single room in the decidedly Communist-style Hotel Bosna for 77KM . . . something to the effect of $50. Oh well, at least I'm guaranteed a good sleep and a private shower and toilet. Oh, plus breakfast too, but I don't know quite what that entails just yet.
Once I had taken a shower to wash off all the sweat, I had a walk through the low key "sights" of Banja Luka. There's not a whole lot to it, honestly. There are a few old buildings (that survived the quake) along the main drag, a towering, but attractive Orthodox cathedral (that looks oddly new), and a fairly intact Ottoman-era castle along the Vrbas river. Taking that all in required about an hour to an hour and a half at most, but it beats sitting in a hotel room. The castle itself was interesting, despite not having a single sign or attraction inside. In fact, the only things within the grounds were a small restaurant a playground/park for families to pass the time away. One corner of the castle is under construction, though it's unclear as to what they're exactly doing with it.
Once I finished there, I went for a much needed haircut. That turned out to be a funny experience, with me trying to explain what I wanted to a girl that clearly spoke little other than Serbo-Croatian. She got the job done though, so I can't complain. It was bloody cheap too (only 7KM), so that's an even nicer bonus.
I went to have a look at the site of the Ferhadija Mosque - formerly the city's largest, that is supposed to be rebuilt using UNESCO funds. It looks like they've at least started on something, but no structure is yet visible and the entire site is enclosed in metal walls, almost certainly there to prevent any possible vandalism. Seeing that kind of encapsulates the general lunacy of the war and its after-effects. What a sad race of creatures we are, despising others so much that we have to destroy all evidence of their existence.
I still have yet to work out the logistics of it, but I'm planning on heading to the little city of Jajce tomorrow en route to Sarajevo. Apparently this place got a real battering in the war and has yet to fully pick up the pieces, but it's also supposed to be one of places in Bosnia with the most tourist potential. The international community has reconstructed much of the old Turkish town and its centerpiece castle, and there is a set of much celebrated waterfalls in town, so it should be an interesting place to visit. The only trick I have yet to figure out is the bus time(s), plus where I'm going to store my bags for the day. Anyhow, I'm sure I'll get it sussed.
Next time I get back to this thing, I should be in Sarajevo.
p.s. Sounds like thunder outside. Yay! Rain again!
