Sundays are officially my favourite days They're so chilled out, and if it weren't drizzly outside I'd just sit on a park bench all day (like I did last week in Osijek, which I look back on as such a wonderful afternoon). Sarajevo is really going to have a special place in my heart. It has far surpassed my expectations, and I can see how people get stuck here for a very long time. So, yesterday I spent a good amount of time at Baghdad Cafe, then I wandered down the road, bought some socks (that now have holes in them... and they weren't cheap!), and returned via the river path, past the Franz Ferdinand bridge, to the centre of Bascarsija, where I met Mike at 6:00. We headed back to Baghdad for a little tea ... read more

Here I am in Sarajevo I'm about to eat a breakfast but I have no idea what it is. Eggs, bread, and a kind of chocolate/vanilla/jelly/mousse concoction that looks strange but tastes delicious. So, the bus ride from Belgrade yesterday took 7 hours. It wasn't too brutal, as Mike and I chatted for most of it and they played another of the movies about 2 Grandpas that Sasa showed me (oh! Sasa!). We arrived in Sarajevo at 11:00 and as we'd been watching the temperature slowly drop in the bus, we were prepared for chilliness (Thank God I bought my new coat!). We squabbled for a few minutes with a taxi driver who we were sure was trying to rip us off, then decided to find our own way to the hostel. We first got on ... read more

Just had to stop and write a quick entry while I sit in front of the biggest and most incredible church I’ve ever seen - the St. Sava Orthodox Cathedral. I always wanted to see the Taj Mahal; now I don’t know if it’s necessary! This thing totally blew my mind. It’s white with green domes and gold crosses, very simple but astoundingly huge. It’s under construction so it’s basically empty inside, with dark, cold stone (it’s freezing inside). But there’s music playing and people praying and bowing and lighting candles amid the scaffolding. Wow! So, once again, everything changed in a matter of hours last night. I went out to dinner and had a delicious meal (chicken and broccoli tagliatelle), then considered staying out for one more drink but wasn’t really in the mood ... read more

I got a ride back to Slavonski Brod this morning with Vesna. It was a bright day with a crisp breeze, perfect for strolling through the vineyards. I wished I had another day to spend there but I was keen to move on. Vesnja arrived in a dark suit. She on her way to a funeral in Slavonski Brod and I felt a little guilty for bumming a ride. We listened to a radio program about an international cooking competition that a Croatian chef had just won which, frankly, shocked the hell out of me. I felt a little uncomfortable alone in the car with her. She had a way, like so many other Croatian women, of looking at me like she didn’t trust me. Like she could see right through any smiling bullshit I gave ... read more

Read this article on EuropeUpClose at http://www.europeupclose.com/in-search-of-croatia%e2%80%99s-first-wine-hotel/ The bus driver pulled over on the side of a long road. We hadn’t passed anything that looked alive in the past fifteen minutes. I could see nothing but empty vineyards and empty houses ahead. He looked at me through the rear view mirror to tell me it was my stop. I bumped several unsuspecting Croatian ladies with my backpack as I exited the bus, and it pulled away. Outside, a cold drizzle was just starting to make the situation even less pleasant. I was on my way to Croatia’s first wine hotel. It was located in Brodski Stupnik, a small town in the middle of Slavonia. In many books about the Balkans, authors have described their fabulous train journeys across this region in eastern Croatia, so I was ... read more