After the Sarajevo Marathon: Travnik

The Route: Sarajevo → Travnik Logistics: Direct bus, journey time around 1 hr 50 min to 2 hr 10 min depending on the specific service, with several daily departures (Centrotrans Eurolines runs up to four a day). Marathon Month: April Duration: Day trip

Sarajevo ──(1h50-2h10 direct bus, several daily)──> Travnik
                                                            │
                          Sarajevo ◄──(direct bus)──────────┘

Travnik served as the seat of Ottoman provincial governors (viziers) for Bosnia for over a century, a status the town's surviving fortress and mosques still reflect, and it carries considerably less tourist traffic than either Sarajevo's old town or Mostar's bridge, a quieter alternative for a day after the marathon. The under-two-hour direct bus makes it an easy round trip, with the town's own hilltop fortress providing the day's only real climb.

Travnik Fortress

Travnik Fortress, a medieval structure expanded under Ottoman rule, sits directly above the old town on a hill, reached by a walk up through narrow stone streets before the final approach to the fortress itself. The climb is a genuine, if moderate, uphill effort, worth pacing carefully on legs still recovering from 42.195 km, but the fortress walls reward the effort with a wide view over the town and the surrounding valley.

The Blue Mosque and the Old Town

The Sulejmanija Mosque, known locally as the Blue Mosque for its interior decoration, and the older Ottoman-era streets around it, give Travnik's town centre a distinct character from Sarajevo's larger and more heavily visited Baščaršija, with fewer crowds and a slower pace throughout.

Ivo Andrić's Birthplace

Travnik is the birthplace of Ivo Andrić, the only Nobel Prize in Literature laureate from the former Yugoslavia, awarded in 1961 largely for his novel "The Bridge on the Drina." A small museum in the town marks his birthplace and early life, a specific literary footnote most visitors to Bosnia would not otherwise connect to this particular town.

Where to Eat

Travnik is well known regionally for its own style of cheese, Travnički sir, a soft white cheese distinct from other Bosnian varieties, worth seeking out at a local restaurant alongside the town's own ćevapi tradition.

Getting Back