After lunch at the adorable Dveri restaurant, we started up the very steep hill toward the mountain.  This was a really strenuous hike where, whenever the road forked, the answer was always to take the steeper path.

Great decor at Dveri. There seems to be excellent interior design all over Sarajevo.

Going up

A benefit of hiking (rather than taking a taxi up to the bobsled track, which you can also do) was seeing how people live and getting to peek in their backyards.  We saw lots of cool gardens with these in them:

Haystacks the old-fashioned way!

After about an hour and a half, we found ourselves here:

There were stairs so you could climb onto the track.  We walked the length of it, stopping to take lots of photos of the art inside:

Heading back down the mountain, there were some good views of Sarajevo that would have been even better if not for the air pollution.  Sarajevo has the dubious honor of having the worst air pollution of any city in Europe.

On our way home, we stopped for a well-deserved drink at Zlatna Ribica, a bar that immediately won my affection when I saw it described as “speakeasy meets Harry Potter.”  While the drinks weren’t exactly craft cocktails, the decor delivered.

Zlatna Ribica means goldfish.  This guy’s fancy and his bowl even had an LED light show.

Pretty nice, right?  We spent one afternoon exploring the city and “old town” of Mostar.  We have been to so many old towns throughout Europe that are practically identical – just stall after stall of the same mass-produced souvenirs.  It’s a shame, because the artisans who are actually making cool things are just lost in the sea of junk, and we are too overwhelmed by the slow-moving crowds to look for them.  We usually enjoy a city one thousand percent more once we get out of old town.

We found a great restaurant, Harmonija, outside of the fray our first night.  We ordered a platter of traditional Bosnian appetizers and we were not disappointed by either the size of the platter or the delicious food:

From top to bottom: salad, pita, a veal steak (why not?), rice, peppers stuffed with meat and rice, potato salad, dolmas, meatballs, and a mound of sour cream

We thought we’d be able to eat about half of this, but our water bottle gave us the motivation we needed to keep going.

Handled.

Our second day we hired a driver to take us to some of the sights outside the city.  First up were the Kravice waterfalls, which were gorgeous and pictures don’t do them justice.

We also went to a little artist colony called Počitelj and the beautiful Islamic monastery in Blagaj.  Both places boasted great views of the river.  I wish I could have stopped for a picnic at all three of our stops!

Such clear water!

Covered up to visit the monastery