Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Back to the neighbourhood with this lovely card from Mostar (out of all the places shown today, the only one I can say I have actually visited myself too :D)

I've written about Mostar before and nothing new I could add here for the time being, but might as well go there again one day, so would share some of those new experiences... I may as well even jump from that bridge, you never know, haha!

Agi used two really nice stamps and the one on the right makes me hungry, even though I've just eaten. It was issued in 2015, celebrating the World Food Day (16 October) - didn't even know that such a day existed - I better note it down so I can celebrate it properly next time :)))
The other stamp is from 2013, issued for the Year of the Snake.

Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina

a card that Jasmin sent me as part of the Ireland vs the Wolrd RR on the PC forum - i find it a bit funny to receive a card from Bosnia for something with the name of Ireland as part of it :)))

The card shows the Una river which at total length of 212 km, flows both through Bosnia and Croatia.
In the background you can see the main bridge, and further in the back you can see both a church and a mosque.

There is also a movie titled Una, based on the book by Momo Kapor. You can watch it on YouTube, though unfortunately it has no English subtitles =/

probably like one of the most frequently used stamps from Bosnia from the set of 6 vegetable stamps issued in 2006.

Jasmine, hvala ti puno :)

Kriegslok 33-248, Bosnia and Herzegovina

This card arrived as a surprise from Chris from his trip to Bosnia...

I am still in awe at how he managed to find a train postcard in Bosnia..I mean ok, knowing Chris and what he does and all, this shouldn't be a surprise to me..but you dont really get to easily find train postcards in Bosnia for example...or I might be wrong actually..now that I've mentioned it, I have received another train card from Bosnia before...ahh, ok nevermind..

"2015 - Real steam still operates to bring coal from Bosnia's open-cast coal mines to the machine junctions: German-built "Kregslok" No. 33-248 takes empty wagons from Lukavac back to Sikulje Coal Loader on 21 September 2014."

and a bunch of lovely stamps...all from 2015 (issued by the BH Post)

The triangular one commemorates the 3rd UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction - Sendai, Japan. The berry stamps also form a whole set and you have a blackberry, a raspberry and a currant...and frankly I am terrible in remembering the names and respective translations whenever it comes to berries...


Thank you Chris!!

Monument of the fallen Krajina soldiers, Bosnia and Herzegovina

well, one more card for today that arrived from a swap last year...from the not-so-far-away Bosnia..well, not so far from here at least :)

The card shows, as the title of this post says, The monument to fallen Krajina soldiers, in the War for Liberation (1941-1945) against fascism. It is located at the top of the Banj Brdo (Banj Hill) at 431meters of altitude. It is around 5 kilometers away from the city of Banja Luka, and the road between Banja Luka and the monument on the Banj Hill is covered in concrete al the way long. The monument of the mausoleic type (13 meters high and 24 meters long), is a work of one of the greatest Yugoslav sculptors and craftsman of memorial plastic, Antun Augustinčić. It was erected at the place where, in June 1941, a Distric conference of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia for Bosanska Krajina was held together with a few counselings related to the rise of the rebellion. It was made from white stone from Brač. It has a unique form, special dinamic line and looked from afar, it seems like a bullet fired in the direction of Krajina (Kozara and Grmeč). At the front of the monument, above the entrance doors, there is a huge figure of a naked young man holding a flag in his hand. Sideways there are relieves which show the battle against the occupants and after-war construction. The monument was solemnly opened in 1961 and since then it has become a place where visitors come from all over the world. The monument was visited by Josip Broz Tito in 1966 who, before leaving the monument plateau, having looked back once more, said: “You have chosen a wonderful location for this monument. I think it is the greatest monument in Yugoslavia. When the stone gets used to this climate it shall look even more beautiful“.

this is an EUROPA stamp, from the 2008 series representing Letters.

Well, I hope you liked the cards chosen for today...and see you next time!

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Im happy to have received a card from Sarajevo...from the modern times! The very few ones I have date back from over 20 years ago and though the may still are not entitled for the vintage section, they are old.

the one here shows the Latin Bridge in BiH's capital (also named the Princip Bridge during the Yugoslavian times).
It is a historic Ottoman bridge over the River Miljacka.
The northern end of the bridge was the site of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by Gavrilo Princip in 1914, which became a casus belli of World War I. So a really important bridge you have here, being the silent witness of so many events over the years.

and on the brighter side, for all those nostalgic souls...here is an even more nostalgic song, where you have a reference about this famous river...and the young couples' memories, exchanging kisses and affection along its shores....*sigh*
For the rest, Crvena Jabuka (or Red Apple) is one of those very famous ex-yu bands, whose songs even nowadays people know by heart and like listening to :) However, this one here in particular is not really on my favourites' list...still, it ain't a bad one :)

as for the stamps...I often see this carrot one, issued in 2006 as a part of 5 vegetable stamps. The other one is a definitive from 2012, representing Old Cities, with this stamp showing the city of Tešanj. You know, when it comes to defintivies, usually your idea about them are some boring plain stamps...but this one is just fantastic I must say!

Kebabs, Bosnia and Herzegovina

You know I love doing thematic updates from time to time, esp. if I have a number of cards on a particular subject...and im not sure why i picked food this time, but I do have a soft spot for delicious foodstuffs, even though I try to stay on the healthy eating side

first comes a dish im absolutely familiar with since it is very popular here....Kebabs with onion and this flat type of bread called 'lepinja'. Not really the healthiest of meals but absolutely delicious! Of course, if you get the right kebabs...not all of them are good. First of all, depending on the country....the ones on the card are just like the ones we have here....but for example, Ive tried kebabs in Bulgaria...and sorry, but it had nothing to do with the deliciousness of ours. And even in Skopje for example, not all places make good kebabs....the most famous place, which is simply the first association to kebabs and is even like a trade mark, is the place called Destan...the kebabs there just have this particular taste, unlike other kebab-restaurants...there are a few in the city, but the most charming and authentic is the one in the Old Bazaar....ever since ive been little, this has been the best place to eat kebabs...the usual order is a "Ten with onions" though of course, you can order less or more, as many as you like..

Since I havent tried the Bosnian kebabs, though im pretty sure they are as good as ours (after all, we have a lot of contact points, since our country has been widely influenced by the Ottoman cuisine...), ill post a few pics of the Destan's restaurant in the Old Bazaar...and if you ever come here, this is a MUST!! Im serious, a MUST!!!

The place is small and far from fancy, but it is cozy and the atmosphere goes perfectly with this type of food

and a glimpse over the plate.....makes me hungry at an instant!

courtesy of the photo: http://volanskopje.blogspot.com/

Sabina is the one who surprised me with this card, and she had made an EXCELLENT choice! The stamp she used is from 1999, commemorating the 105 years of the meteorological observatory on the Bjelašnica mountain.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Here is one FANTASTIC map card....and I must say a very RARE one to see around, so im INCREDIBLY happy to have it, and that wouldnt have happened if dear Tina wasnt so KIND to send it to me!! Thank you again Tina! Thank you thank you thank you!!!

Ehm...I cant believe it that it's been over a year now since ive visited BiH...time flies soo fast! And back than not at one place I spotted map cards...and maybe thats good, coz otherwise i would have probably gone bankrupt wanting to buy as many as possible coz one can make a really good deal with these :)

There are a number of nice small pictures, but I dont feel competent enough to say what exactly each one represents...though I think that each of them is for one of the cities shown on the card in capital letters...coz there are 16 pictures and also 16 marked cities...dont know if i had mentioned this before...but there is a direct bus line from Skopje to Sarajevo....i have this urge to get on it...and explore Sarajevo too since I didnt have the chance to do so during my trip last summer...im rather adventurous and I dont really need many excuses and reasons to travel somewhere :)
As for the cities on the card, I can share a few thoughts that come to my had....Jajce for example (which in Macedonian means "egg") is a place which has remained in my memory since school days since we learned in the history class about it when we learned about WWII...it hosted the second convention of the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia in 1943, a meeting that set the foundation for the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia after the war....Tuzla is the city which is famous for salt production, while Srebrenica is unfortunately that infamous place for the Srebrenica genocide during the 90's, the largest mass murder in Europe since WWII.

I think I discovered two of the pictures....on the left side, the second picture represents the Jajce waterfalls, while on the right side, the 4th picture represents Srebrenica....the one in the bottom left corner is definitely the bridge in Mostar, while the third picture at the bottom from left to right might be Neum, since thats like the only summer resort in BiH, at the Adriatic Sea...

Bihać, BiH

My next card comes from the not so far-away Bosnia and Herzegovina.

And this is my first card from there which shows the town of Bihać.
On the card you can see the Captain's Tower House, a remnant of the Old Bihać Fortress, today a part of the Una-Sana Canton Museum, while in front of it you can see the church tower, the only thing it remained from it after the WWII.
I havent been here but I remember this place often being mentioned in the history books at school, in the context of Tito and Avnoj and the anti-fascist resistance.
Yeah, it has to be war-related unfortunately =[

the stamp was issued in 2006 in a set of 6 definitives representing vegetables...and this is garlic :)

Brčko, (BiH)

A surprise card that came from Goran...he always send me some nice surprises....

this is my first one from Brčko. and yeah, well, since my knowledge about it is not something i can be proud of, i just wanted to take some information from Wikipedia or other sites, and in case something was wrong, i hoped that Goran would correct me :) I honestly dont take criticism easily, and i hate being wrong and ignorant, but then, how can i otherwise learn something unless my mistakes are pointed out? The only problem is that the majority of articles out there revolve around the war and politics and i can say they all have some biased tendencies...they all mention the Dayton Peace accords, they all speak of "all that could have been", they all put the blame on someone....there is no one nice post describing Brčko from a touristy point of view...so im pretty stuck...and frankly, the things i could tell about Brčko are the ones i recall from years ago, when this was a hot issue due to the war going and and being that they talked about it on TV all the time...but thats pretty much it....

well, at least i know something about the stamp....comes from a set of two commemorative stamps issued in 2008, for the edition of Monasteries of Repblika Srpska - Tvrdos and Gračanica. On this stamp Tvrdos is featured. And I havent been here, but i have visited the other monastery of Gračanica actually....

Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

A card i bought and sent to myself this summer.

ok, for those of you who dont know...when i went to Montenegro, i also had my whereabouts here and there, and one of my destinations was a one day trip to Mostar...actually Trebinje and Mostar...it was an extremely tiring trip, but more than worth it...and im more than proud with myself for deciding to go instead of spending that day on the beach...i had to wake up at 5:30 in order to be at the station at 6:30....and i had just like 3 or 4 hours of sleep...and was back 'home' at 9 or so in the evening...and i know i crashed into bed immediately...but i was happy...and thats what counted.
There are many things to be talked about regarding that day...and many pictures i took to be shown...but ill leave it for some other time, since i dont have much time right now to get that prepared too..yet, ive been wanting to show this card for so long and always sort of neglected it...so i said that it was about time...with or without photos :)
And yes...this is a UNESCO as well...the bridge itself was destroyed during the war in Bosnia in the 90's...but it had been rebuilt again...so what you see here is the rebuilt version....i also bought a card which shows how the bridge was BEFORE...when i was looking at the cards, the lady who worked there told me herself that i might be interested in the card...so i got that one too...and...well, ill tell you more details with my next Mostar cards...i might make it like a story in chapters actually...and give you a little bit of it with each card...i'll see :)

 

and im thankful to the lady at the post office who had put the nice stamps :)
its from a set of two issued in 2008 regarding the Olympic Games in Beijing

Prijedor, Rep. Srpska (BiH)

As for my last card today, ill take you to Bosnia, or more precisely, Republika Srpska...now, as usual, i dont wanna go into politics here and discuss claims of territories and recognized states...all i want is to show you the card coz its a really nice one...

Prijedor is the third largest town in Republika Srpska and along with its region, it has been known for not such a great past, coz it has suffered numerous mass murders and it has also been a place of mass rape executions of the people.
Well, with this bridge and the river, reminds me of Skopje a bit...esp. regarding some postcards.

I must say that the stamps are very beautiful as well. The smaller stamp is from a set of 4 definitives from 2008, representing the flora of Republika Srpska, this one in particular shows the Gentiana asclepiadea.  The other stamp is a commemorative one from a set of 2, belonging to the European Protection issue and here you can see the Ugar River Canyon.

Ive looked at some other Republika Srpska stamps, and i must say i find them reaaally nice!

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

This is one of those 'ancient' cards in my collection, but it came in so handy for this update since i have no other kind of cards from Bosnia.

Bosnia declared independence in 1992, 1st of March. What I mainly recall of Bosnia from back then is the war which lasted from 1992-1995. I was only 12 years old when all the hassle began and by the time then i had often heard on the news about a war going on here a war going on there, but when this one broke out, for the first time it felt real and so close to me (well, ive experienced the worst kind as well, of having a war in your own country, and i wouldnt wish that to anyone, not even my worst enemy...even though i wonder if i have such...anyone know of someone? anyone? report them to me :))
There is another thing i recall about Bosnia, and that is a children tv show/series with this little girl...and i know that once the war broke out, i was wondering what is she doing now, and whenever they would have shown images from Sarajevo, i would have wondered if she had been there or so....i cant recall the name of the program, so unfortunately i cant give more details, but i recall there have been numerous of fun and interesting children TV programms when i was little...so much different from whats offered on  TV today....I mean, Teletubbies!!! Por Favor!!! Turn of the tv or take your children out of the room...for their own sake!

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

This is one of the stash of cards my mum came across at the weekend....this one is from Sarajevo, Bosnia's capital...the funny thing is that the only Bosnian cards I have, date back from over 25 years ago..I definitely need to work on it and get some new Bosnian cards...

The only thing i can tell you about this one is that shows an old part of the city....and some mosque...except that, i cant give any additional information about this card....so if anyone else can recognize something or give me any other details, as always it will be highly appreciated...thank you in advance!

Sarajevo, Bosnia & Hercegovina

I have to say I got really worried when i figured out how many postcards i have in the back which need to be enriched with some writing....its impossible to manage them all and i keep wondering, what the hell was I thinking back then...couldnt I have slowed down instead of uploading so many cards?! So im, trying to pull forward cards as often as I can (of course, regarding if the country is appropriate and all...it would be rather silly to bring forward US or Montenegro cards, or any others from where I already have cards pending to be uploaded). But i hopefully will manage with them all...by New Year at least :)))

And ive also figured out that i owe ZERO postcards addressed to me, from Bosnia...which i wouldnt have thought of it as much of a big deal, unless Bosnia wasnt a part of Former Yugoslavia, and since I consider Yugoslavia as my own country (even though its not existent anymore) its really a shame for me to actually not have a postcard from all its former states...so I should be definitely working on it...if anyone from Bosnia is willing to help out, you know what to do....
Btw, I dont even have a recent card from there either....Im not exactly sure when this card dates from, there is no date on it, neither the stamp is cancelled, but give or take, its older than 20 years!
It was given to me by my across-the-street neighbour...I have no idea why she had given this to me, if my mum had mentioned that i collect cards or something else...but its mine now :)