Blogs from Sarajevo, East, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Europe

The people of Sarajevo endured the longest siege in history during the course of the Yugoslav wars from 1992-1995. This is an historically significant European city, and her 300,000 citizens lived a life of hell for four long years under relentless shelling and small arms fire from enemy forces, who occupied strategically important hills surrounding the city. They also had to deal with ever vigilent snipers who wreaked a deadly toll on those brave enough to run the gauntlet of sniper alley. Sarajevo has been the recipient of a massive reconstruction fund since the cessation of hostilities in 1995, however it's painfully obvious with thousands of bullet holes violently impacted on building facades that the city was shot up all to hell in the war. As a result of being besieged during those bleak years the ... read more

White water rafting might not be the first thing that come to your mind when you think of Bosnia & Hercegovina but the minute we found out that there was indeed great rivers, it didn’t take us much time to make up our mind! Like a gem hidden deep into narrow valleys, rivers sculpt the Bosnian country side, giving him colors & intensity while once on it, it offers one of the most beautiful scenic rafting I got to do so far. Back in the bus – the Sarajevo to Konjic drive Our day trip to Konjic which can be done either from Sarajevo or Mostar (one hour and half drive) took us in bus high up in the mountain along the Neretva river on a brand new narrow & curvy road. Having crossed the day ... read more

I have a confession to make... I have lost faith for a moment. After all, even the stars are going to die. I know your pain is real. I see it through your eyes every time there is a storm. Will the thunder always have this effect on you? It's a vicious circle when you pass by all those broken dreams each day. I see it myself, the city is just plain ruins. You are right when you say it will always need more than a bridge and two shopping streets to grow flowers. We could spend our life in the mosques and pray to all gods, shadows of the past will not die. Plastic flowers never fade. It will be great to see the kids smile at something else that a dive from the old ... read more

This is the extended version of http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/Varna-Province/Varna/blog-531481.html. _______________________________________________________ The travel was planned differently, but there was some trouble at the Serbian border so we changed the route, and now, later on I must admit that the fortune was on our side, since we could see the most amazing things just because we took a different route. We even accidentely ended up in Turkey (which for sure was never planned ;) Latvia When we started the travel it was kinda rainy and cold and we didnt believe that our car could really take this travel and already had an emergency plan made up what to do when it suddenly dies in the middle of a lonely road. However it did not happen, after the Europe travel it worked for much more time after some pimping. Poland In ... read more

After more exploration it seems that my initial impression of Sarajevo as a run-down post-Communist city was somewhat exaggerated: the outskirts that I passed through on my way to the hostel from the airport were like this, but the Old Town (where my hostel is located) is much bigger than I first realized, and is really beautiful. Furthermore, there are significant areas which are very modern, with a 100% Western feel: the high street could easily be in Paris or London (if it weren't for the mountains in the background); the parliament building is very modern, with impressive water features outside; and I visited the nicest, cleanest, most modern shopping mall that I've ever seen. It's really evident to me that Sarajevo is on its way to economic rebirth, with a lot of new construction and ... read more