Bosnia--Sarajevo

---

---

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 and a catch-up, and afterwards we went for dinner at The Steak House. I had the GREATEST veal with potatoes, and tons of vegetables, and a beer. Delicious!!

At 8:00, we met the two people who had been in our room (but have since switched to another part of the hostel), plus their Aussie friend from Brisbane, and we went to the Guinness Pub to watch the England-South African rugby final (South Africa won). That was pretty cool; it was good to meet some different people. But they all study together in Budapest, so they weren't super interested in getting to know us.

We then went for a few drinks at Hacienda (which Mustafa had recommended), which was fun. We got home at 2:00, chatted for a little while, and went to bed.

I got up at 11:00 and walked around on a huge mission to find a Catholic church amongst all the Mosques to go to Mass. When I finally found one, it was closed already, so I went to very cool cafe called Cafe Alfonso, and had a cafe latte. I then went to meet Mike at Reception and we looked at bus/train times. We figured out that our best bet was to head to Nis (Serbia), and from there to either Skopje (Macedonia) or Sofia (Bulgaria). Neither of which I ever thought would be a stop on my European travels!

We had yummy cevapcici at a little fast food joint, then took a stroll through the markets, looking at coffee/tea sets and postcards. We went to Baghdad Cafe but the lights were off in the comfy room upstairs so we didn't stay. We then walked around some more and got accosted twice by an old, crazy gypsy woman. We both drank from the fountain by the Mosque (they say that whoever drinks from that fountain will definitely return to Sarajevo, so I was hedging my bets).

We decided we weren't quite redy to leave today as we'd planned, so we're staying until tomorrow (I'm having flashbacks of Cesky).

Afterwards, we went back to the room and lied on our beds and laughed, talking about how the poor Serbian Tourism bureau must have a really tough time marketing such a shitty country. Mike suggested their motto should be: "Serbia: the launchpad of Europe" (because everything else will look great in comparison!). I now understand Serbian expansionism: they wanted to keep some beautiful parts of Yugoslavia because they have none of their own!

Anyway, as we were about to head out, we met a new couple staying across the hall from us: Gee (from New Zealand) and Dave (from England). They invited us to dinner with them and their Canadian friend, so we joined them. We ate at a nice, traditional restaurant full of locals. I had some sort of bean soup and salad, and it was a really good time.

The four of us went to the big brewery across the river; a huge place with really delicious dark beer and good music (Richard Marx and Bryan Adams... can't beat that!). We had a lovely time.

When we left, the snow was really coming down so we threw snowballs and took photos and marvelled.

A really special night.

---