Historic Mostar bridge separates the Catholic side of the city from Muslim
Hello all! I have successfully arrived in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo and am blown away with a mix culture. Bosnia is broken into three ethnic groups, Catholics, Orthodox and Islam, and the country has three land regions and presidents! Today is my 5th day in the country and have cycled some pretty rough roads getting here. Tonight I depart Bosnia for Sharm El Sheikh, in the Egyptian Sinai, and a whole new adventure begins. I plan to spend the first few weeks exploring St. Catherine’s monastery (where Moses received the Ten Commandments), Petra and the Dead Sea. I will continue my posts from the arid roads of the middle east and look forward to some interesting experiences.
Cold Mountainous Bosnian roads
- Islamic calligraphy
Last trip with Baba 
Hi Julian, early morning (about noon), drinking coffe with Nino and reading your blog. Be good, be happy we are with you. Hug and kiss
Mountainous area….pretty! By the way, the monastery is NOT, to the best of my research, where Moses got the Ten Commandments. In 300 something A.D., Constantine’s mother, while looking for idols to worship, make the proclamation from Constantinople that Mt. Sinai was in the Sinai of Egypt, and so the monastery was built there.
More likely, the Israelites crossed the Red Sea [Aqaba] at what is now called Nueiba, where there is a land bridge only about 600 feet under the water, a 7% incline that cyclists know would be an easy ascent. The sea is otherwise a couple thousand to 5,000 feet deep on either side of the land bridge! A Swedish-led international team of biologists found salt-water coral mineral deposits in the Spring of 2000 strewn all across the land bridge shaped in the form of horse and human remains, and chariot cabs, wheels, axels, etc. More likely the place where Moses received the 10 commandments is Jebel El-Lawz, in Arabia. They are many web sites that purport to discredit this theory, but I find their arguments lacking.
Rahm Shaul, who is a master of the Hebrew Scriptures, and unlike Helena, actually LIVED in Arabia, said that Mt. Sinai is indeed in Arabia. Even the Bible says in Galatians 4:25, that Mt. Sinai is in ARABIA.
Just wanted to give you a heads up….happy trekking’!
Julian,
Have been following your adventures and especially enjoy the addition of the videos. Keep them coming.