Our nice hotel in Sarajevo was a bit up the hill (as many neighborhoods seem to be here), so we had a bit of a trek each time we went to the old town or back. We had a late start into the rest-day with a nice breakfast at the hotel with Bosnian coffee (it is similar to, but not Turkish coffee).
We then strolled down for another coffee at Ministry of Ćejf, before going to the Museum of Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide, which is run by the victims of the many atrocities committed during the war at the beginning of the 1990s. As we entered the building, we ran into Samir, whose birthday we attended two days ago on the lake. He mentioned that he avoided going here for a long time (he lives in Sarajevo), but visited now that the son of his brother is in town (red shirt in picture).
Every inch of wall in the museum has a survivor’s story, facts, or a relic from the events. I spent a lot of time reading the story of a fifteen-year-old boy, who survived the genocide of Srebrenica despite three bullets hitting his torso. He survived the execution because the soldier that should have gone to check on survivors was too lazy, and he managed to crawl away with another survivor later when they were alone. Over many days of being carried by the other survivor or crawling, he eventually made it to a safe area, against all odds. As with other genocides that I learned about (I just finished reading an account of the Rwandan genocide), I cannot begin to imagine how a human being can get to the point of being able to methodically torture, rape, and kill fellow human beings.
With heavy hearts, we slowly walked further through the old town, roughly in the direction of the craft beer bar Vučko that Liz found. Along the way, we ran into Samir again, who was with his brother and nephew. We all laughed about the fact that we keep running into each other and said goodbyes. Close to the beer bar, we snacked on some burek (we like potato the best so far), and, of course, as we entered the beer bar, Samir was there, too. So we joined them for some very fine Bosnian craft beer – Liz’ Oldbridz imperial dark IPA was delicious.
Because we are basically good friends by now, I asked Samir how the relations between the different ethnicities are doing nowadays, 23 years after the war. His response was that like in many places, nationalism is on the rise again, which makes him worried about what lies in the future for Bosnia.
We said goodbye for the third time today, and went for a nice pasta dinner in the old town, after which we strolled for a while through the eastern part of the old town.
Ok, now about today: The route would be a reasonable 65km, but with some good climbs along the way. Right out of the gate, we had to climb about 450m to the first plateau. The road was steep, but without much traffic, which we very much enjoyed after the last two cycling days.
On the approach the the second climb to the highest point of the day, we saw storm clouds gathering. And about half way into the climb, the rain set in. Thankfully, we found a small shelter to wait out the rather heavy, but short rainfall.
The rest of the climb was not too bad, and we were soon on the downhill to the next plateau where we would approach the final climb of the day. At the end of the downhill, we had a nice, quick lunch of burek at a bakery for 5.90 convertible marks, or about 3€.
The last climb of the day was very gradual, thankfully, and also very beautiful. It could also be in an American national park, I mentioned to Liz. After the climb, it was downhill all the way to the hotel, which is the best way to finish a day!
Total distance/elevation to date: 4593km/37’664m
Rest days: 16
Route and Stats
Relive Video
The 1948 Tour 
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