Finally, Canadians!

Now, I absolutely love Jeremy and Melissa (and of course Hunter who isn't on this trip) but there are quite a few differences between Canadians and Americans. Don't ask me to explain what these differences are, there are many and some of them are very subtle and difficult to explain. On the train from Budapest to Sarajevo, we happened to have seats right next to two Calgarians (a brother and sister named Brandon and Jessie). They are the first two Canadians I've met during our backpacking adventures and it was really nice to be able to hang out with fellow Canadians! The funny thing about us meeting the two of them was the fact that our seats were reserved for the same compartment, in the same car, while the rest of the train seemed to be almost deserted. Meeting them was just the beginning of our litt e Canadian party...

Before we get to that, I'll tell you about my first impressions of Bosnia-Herzegovina. First of all, I was a bit nervous about going to this country. Everyone knows about the war, but no one really knows what it was about. We only know what we saw on the news between 1992-1995, but Bosnia was always this faraway and exotic place, with faraway problems. All I really knew (and especially because I was quite young) was that we had peacekeepers stationed in Bosnia and were accepting refugees from there.

During our train ride to Sarajevo, I quickly saw that Bosnia is a far more beautiful country than I had ever anticipated. It's very mountainous and we were lucky enough to have sunny weather during our train ride. We passed by many valleys, mountains and small lakes, peppered by hillside houses. So far, nothing to be scared about and in fact, I felt totally safe during my entire stay in Bosnia. When we arrived in Sarajevo, it was dark and Brandon and Jessie hadn't yet booked a place to stay. I had already made arrangements for the hostel we booked with to pick us up and the lady who came to get us said that there was room for the two of them, so together we went to the Ljubicia Hostel (most likely I butchered the spelling on that). We were greeted by Sonny who doubles as hostel receptionist and tour guide. The next day I took a city tour with him and learned a lot about the war.

Again, I'm not going to bore you with a history lesson. Those of you who are interested can look it up. What was evident during Sonny's history lesson was that Bosnians are a very resilient and proud group of people. There is quite a bit of bitterness towards the UN because Bosnians feel that the UN's presence was completely unnecessary. Although Bosnians aren't huge fans of the UN and went through a horrendous war, they remain optimistic about their things and have even retained a certain sense of humour about everything. One of Sonny's favourite jokes to tell (and you can read it from all the other travel bloggers who have taken his tour) goes something like this: A man is swinging on the tire swing of a tree. Another man stops and asks why he's swinging on a children's swing. The first man answers, "I'm just fucking with a sniper." Sonny told us that all Bosnians could do was laugh during the war because nothing else could be done. Sonny has a very wry sense of humour and it broke up the very sad stories he had to tell.

During the tour, I met three additional Canadians: Greg (Niagra Falls, Ont.), Erika (Abbottsford, BC) and Helen (Hope, BC). The Canadian party was on! That afternoon, Brandon, Jessie, Melissa and Jeremy met Greg, Erika and Helen. The Canadian ratio stood at 6:2. We spent the evening having dinner on one of the hills Sonny showed us during the tour. The view was magnificent - you could see the whole city-centre from the hill as well as all the hilltop houses surrounding the centre. You could also see all the mosques, cathedrals and synagogues in the city. Sarajevo has the distinction of being only one of two cities in the world where a mosque, cathedral and synagogue are within 150 m of one another. It is a very liberal-minded city in terms of religion and culture. Bosnians are very proud of this.

One of the most beautiful and haunting sounds I have ever heard (probably in my whole life) is the Muslim call to prayer. It is especially beautiful to hear this on the hill because you hear the praying from all over Sarajevo. We heard it twice that evening and both times, all 8 of us were in complete awe and silence.

The next morning, we were introduced to yet another Calgarian! Mike and Brandon have been interning at an engineering firm in Switzerland for the past year and Mike decided to meet up with Brandon in Sarajevo for a bit of travelling. The ratio now stood at 7:2! The nine of us wandered the streets of Sarajevo, visited a local brewery and had a really fun evening at the bars that night. We all decided that we wanted to continue together to Mostar (a small but lovely Bosnian town) and left the following morning bright and early!

There's not a lot that I can say about Mostar except that it's small and beautiful. It's home to the famous "Old Bridge" and has a really nice and quaint centre. We opted to see as much of the Old Town as possible, instead of staying overnight and then we took a bus to Dubrovnik, in Croatia.

Next up: my birthday in Dubrovnik!

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