Waterfalls

On Wednesday, the orchestra traveled to Jajce, which is a small town about 3 hours drive northwest of Sarajevo.  I’d heard that there is a spectacular waterfall in Jajce, but beside that I didn’t expect much.  After a long windy bus ride, we got out right next to the waterfall, and just across the bridge from the city center.  The waterfall was even more beautiful than in pictures, and the old town was quaint.   Up the hill is an old fortress from the middle ages.  It’s always hard for me to believe the age of many of the structures in Europe, because there isn’t much in the US from before the 18^th century. A lot of the smaller cities in Bosnia do not have much money, and their concert halls can be very run-down.  However, I found the concert hall in Jajce to be quite attractive, with decent acoustics.  There were no clean bathrooms or dressing rooms, but I’ve learned to improvise, hehe.

Jajce Waterfall

Fortress in Jajce

Nice foyer at the theater in Jajce

On the way back from Jajce, we stopped in another small city called Travnik, also with an old castle on the hill.  We had coffee and some small snacks at a restaurant that lies on the intersection between the road and a small river.  Both the restaurant and river are called “Plava Voda”, meaning “Blue Water”.  The scenery is perfect, with a small water wheel churning the cold, crystal clear water that trickles down from the bright green mountainside.  I had some French fries, while Sara ordered a Bosnian/Turkish dessert called “Tulumba”.  I tasted it, and found it to be good but nothing special: just some sweet fried dough rolled into a short cylinder.  The highlight of “Plava Voda” for the group sitting at my table was the Bosnian coffee.  It came with all the works: some sugar, a rahatlokum (Turkish delight), a small container of cream, and, surprisingly, a cigarette with a box of matches!  I’m not a smoker, knowing how much it is a terrible health habit, but I couldn’t help but be a little bit charmed by how much the Bosanska kafa service was so “Bosnian”.

Travnik Castle

Plava Voda Bosnian Coffee

Plava Voda

On Thursday, Sara, Adi, and I hiked to see yet another famous Bosnian waterfall.  Just outside of Sarajevo is a very tall one called Skakavac, meaning “grasshopper”.  I’m not exactly sure how it got its name.  We drove up the hills, along a windy dirt road, and Adi parked at the beginning of one trail, near a small restaurant.  As we started to hike, I noticed that the walk was a little bit steep, but mostly downhill, so I worried a little bit about our return.  However, I was distracted by the dense foliage, unique rock formations, variety of wildflowers, and elaborate calls of songbirds.  We kept up a good pace, and it took us not much more than one hour to reach the waterfall.

Variety of wildflowers

View of Sarajevo from the start of the trail

The waterfall itself was very dramatic, since it’s still early in the summer and Sarajevo had plenty of precipitation over the winter and spring.  There was a small set of boards that we used to cross directly in front of the falls, and the water was strong enough to shower us with its mist.  The cold shower felt pretty good after the hike.  Of course, the waterfalls provided the perfect photo opportunity, so we took lots of pictures before beginning our ascent.

Skakavac Waterfall

Cold shower time

Sara and I are showing our Northwestern purple spirit at the waterfall

The climb back up was tricky, but not as bad as I was expecting.  I had been warned by Adi that we would encounter over a hundred stairs to climb.  However, I found that the stairs weren’t so bad at all.  The hard part for me was the steeper slopes of the trail, as well as navigating around some puddles and steams in order to keep my feet dry.  I felt a little short of breath for a minute or two, but quickly recovered.  Just around the point that I started to feel more tired, we reached the top of the waterfall, and wandered a bit off the main path in order to get the best view. (Before the hike, I read that the area around Skakavac was safe and cleared from landmines, so I could feel safe taking some of the smaller paths.)  I think that many people would feel nervous standing at the edge of the cliff, next to the top of the falls, but I felt perfectly secure, and really loved looking down.  I guess I’m lucky not to be afraid of heights!

View from the top

After reaching the top of the falls, we found wide gravel road that lead all of the way back to Adi’s car.  It was flat and very easy walking from there.  Sara packed some light lunch for us, and we ate penut butter sandwiches as we walked.  Peanut butter sandwiches are not common in Bosnia, and it was Adi’s first time tasting one.  I calculated that I have probably eaten about 10,000 peanut butter sandwiches in my life, and it’s hard to imagine growing up without them!

The first taste

Dirt Road back to the car