Blogs from Sarajevo, East, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Europe - page 10

Advertisement

Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » East » Sarajevo December 3rd 2009

Mark and I left the kolej at around eight, caught a bus to the airport, and checked in an hour early. As we sat waiting for our flight to board, I realized I had no idea of what to expect n Sarajevo, Bosnia. It's one of those places you hear about on the news (Yugoslavia war 1992-1995), and learn about in school, but to actually be there? It would be like being in Bagdad 15 years from now. Or something like that. When our plane was descending, both Mark and I looked out the window, anxious and curious about where we were landing. The airport was sooo small.. only four or five gates! We found a taxi to take us to our hostel for ten euro.. we got him down from fifteen euro. We also went ... read more
The Old Part of Town
Mosque in Old Town
Mosque in Old Town

Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » East » Sarajevo November 13th 2009

Hicran Cigdem Yorgancioglu bu geziye ait günlüklerinden parçalar , notlardan bir demet 5846 sayılı Fikir ve Sanat Eserleri Kanunu’ndan doğan mali ve manevi hakların gerçek sahibidir. Sarajevo Bosnia Herzogovina / BOSNA HERSEK Bir hafta ara ile kış turizmine elverişli iki destinasyon seçimi tesadüf olsa gerek . hatta bir hafta ara ile önce Adnan Polat’in memleketine sonrada Tarik Hodić ‘in memleketine gidiş daha da büyük tesadüf idi. Balkanlar'da İstanbul’un yaklaşık 10 katı büyüklüğünde 51.129 km²'lik yüzölçümü olan ve Bosnak , Hırvat ,Sırp gibi 3 farklı etnik gruba ve geçmişte de 1984 Kış Olimpiyatları'na ev sahipliği yapan ve Eski Sosyalist Yugoslavya'nın 6 federe cumhuriyetinden biri olan Dinar Alpleri ile çevrili Bosna-Hersek,’in başkenti Saraybosna ilk diğer adı ile Sarajevo durağım . Havalimanı merkeze 12 km ve yakın. Olimpiyat zamanı eski bir olimpiyat şehrin... read more
Cigdem Yorgancioglu Bosna
Cigdem Yorgancioglu Bosna
Cigdem Yorgancioglu Bosna

Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » East » Sarajevo November 3rd 2009

I thought traveling through the Balkans would be a quiet way to end the trip. I wasn't even going to write a blog here (that's right, Joanne). Fortunately, or unfortunately, I am shocked and awed by how deeply the war has wounded this region. Being the powder keg that ignited WWI, Sarajevo is a microcosm that showcases the complexities in the Balkans. Over the centuries, people are forced to take on different religious, cultural, and political identities. Orthodox, Catholicism, and Islam are practiced on the same street. Austro-Hungarian, Turkish, and Communism (let's call it a type of culture for a moment) crafted the city into distinct neighborhoods. Serbs, Bosnians, and Croats all want a distinct homeland of their own. The demarcation of the Yugoslavs let to the polarisation of each other, as everyone strives to hold ... read more
Reminder
The Start of WWI
Shell Shocked

Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » East » Sarajevo October 6th 2009

Traveling around the Balkans I have been amazed by the range of vehicles people still use to transport themselves, their families and other livestock. Suffering a rush of blood, I started photographing these and now the best are added to the Blog as "BBB". Some real classics. For me these evoke the sights and smells of this fascinating part of the world.... read more
BBB2
BBB3
BBB5

Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » East » Sarajevo October 6th 2009

Central Bulgaria was certainly a very positive surprise for us. After Plovdiv we headed north east towards Veliko Tarnova and through low rolling hills. We specifically stopped at places that at least Lonely Planet or Alex & Jill said were picturesque or of particular significance. In general this has been a good match with our interests over the years: we just tend to get there with marginally more comfort than LP's core demographic. Tryavna has an excellent crafts community operating out of the central medieval village. Superb wood carving and wrought iron work despite the plainness of the suburbs surrounding it. We were tempted to stay the night - again - and particularly given the lack of the tourist hordes. Pushed onto Veliko Tarnova and were stunned to find a sophisticated city perched in the same ... read more
Tryavna
Veliko Tarnova
Veliko Tarnova by night

Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » East » Sarajevo September 28th 2009

A 3 hour bus journey from Mostar on Friday (through more great mountain scenery) brought me to Sarajevo. Now this was a total change of pace from Mostar, a sprawling city that speads west from the old town to the communist monstrosities of the new town and beyond. The city's heart lies in Bascarsija (the Turkish quarter, still have no idea how to pronounce this) and the adjacent Ferhadija (the Austrian quarter) which lie north of the river. These are surrounded on all sides by hills covered with red-roofed houses and countless minarets from the neighbourhood mosques. It was from the summit of these hills that the Serbs wrought so much carnage during the three year siege. Bascarsija is characterised by a maze of cobbled alleyways and courtyards, filled with jewellery and antique shops, cafes and ... read more
Bascarsija
View from Haris Hostel
Red Bull ice-cream

Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » East » Sarajevo September 2nd 2009

Sonia and I came to Sarajevo in 2001 with Maja and were very excited to come back! All I wanted to do was find the good cevapi place. And of course make sure the boys got to see the sights. We had a great couple of days in Sarajevo. We stayed in the Old Town and walked everywhere easily. We ate cevapi, stopped for coffee, and had dinner with Maja's cousin Ines one night in a fabulous restaurant what seems like only the locals (and friends of the Palekas) know of. It was great fun! It was also our 1st wedding anniversary there and Shane was not feeling well that night so couldn't come out to dinner, which was a bit of a bummer. But considering we remained healthy all summer long, we can't really complain! ... read more
View of Miljacka River that runs through Sarajevo
Site of assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which set off WWI
Dinner at Inat Kuca (the Spite house)

Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » East » Sarajevo September 2nd 2009

Wednesday 2nd September A few hours in Sarajevo city We weren’t sure last night whether we should be concerned or not by the presence of a security guard and his large alsation dog sitting in a shipping container located between the hotel and the main road that runs past the building.It looked as though he may have even slept in the container.The hotel location is sort of isolated with only 3 or 4 other uncompleted buildings that could be houses adjacent.The hotel website on booking.com did say that ‘your car would be parked perfectly safe and secure’.Welcome to Sarajevo!! We didn’t hold out high hopes for what would be produced at breakfast and we joked to each other that we could smell the bacon and eggs cooking as we went down the stairs to the dining ... read more
Bullet scarred building,Sarajevo
River through Sarajevo
At the end of our walk up the river,Sarajevo

Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » East » Sarajevo September 1st 2009

Tuesday 1st September South to Bosnia-Hercegovina(hereafter called B-H) We face probably our biggest challenge of our adventure today as our plan is to drive south through Croatia to B-H and a 2 day stop in Sarajevo,a city that was at was just 14 years ago and by all accounts is still finding its way after a peace deal was finally hammered out between the 3 warring factions. Although we had breakfast included in our tariff at the Retro Hotel in Pecs it was fairly basic and for a moment we thought we were going to have to pay separately for our coffee at HUF200 a cup!!Thankfully the pleasant woman proprietor came to the party saying that we didn’t have to pay because we booked through Booking.com.Funny how we didn’t notice that coffee was going to be ... read more
Tailgate lunch in Gradiste,Croatia
Following a van cross country around the accident scene
The Hungarian Plain

Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » East » Sarajevo September 1st 2009

I had made some really lovely friends in Kotor, but I was very ready to leave the buzz of tourists behind after 3 days. I headed onto a bus to Sarajevo; left at 19:30 and arrived at the uncomfortable hour of 5am. I was not happy to be dropped off in the middle of relatively no where, and had to get a taxi to Sarajevo, which as I was about 30 km away, had to fork out 20 euros for a taxi which was about the same price as my bus there. When I eventually got to Sarajevo, the taxi driver took me to the wrong hotel, dumped me out and I managed to find a friendly hotelier at a big pricey hotel to give me directions to my hostel - Hostel City Centre. Once I ... read more




Tot: 0.149s; Tpl: 0.007s; cc: 9; qc: 88; dbt: 0.0877s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.3mb