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Published: December 3rd 2007
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We were not sure when we woke up whether our city tour was to go ahead or not. At breakfast the two guys from New Zealand (Dubrovnik bus, Mostar, restaurant etc) were on the table adjacent to us and in chatting we discovered they had also signed up for the tour. Breakfast was chicken soup for Rob and chickenless soup for me. If soup wasn't weird enough we also both had a little pot of rice pudding.
The tour was run by Mustafa, the guy that picked us up from the station yesterday. He introduced himself and told us a little about what we were driving past. Our first stop was the tunnel museum which is quite far out of the center near to the airport. The museum is run by a family whose house the tunnel was in. We watched a fifteen minute film which showed fighting during the siege of Sarajevo all filmed unprofessionally. The film also showed many clips of people going in and out of the tunnel. Once the film had finished we looked around the small exhibit which was largely in Serbian. There was a map that showed the occupation of Serbian troops in the
mountains Surrounding Sarajevo; we looked at it in disbelief. Tactically Sarajevo shouldn't have stood a chance, the entire city was disconnected from the outside world including necessary resources like food, water, electricity etc. Bosnia didn't have an official army when they were initially attacked so cities like Sarajevo depended entirely on the courage of its citizens. Mustafa was 12-16 when the war occurred and it was strange to hear about it all from him. The actual tunnel stretched 800m from inside Sarajevo, under the U.N controlled airfield to Bosnian controlled territory. The majority of the tunnel was destroyed after the end of the war but you could walk through a tiny bit which gave you a pretty good idea what it was like.
From the museum we drove through the Republic of Srpska which was drawn up according to the Dayton Agreement. Personally I struggle to understand how the two communities can live in such close proximity to each other but Mustafa said people in Bosnia just want peace, they are tired of fighting.
Second on our city tour we drove up one of the mountains surrounding Sarajevo to the site of the winter Olympics. We drove past
something that looked to me like standard graffiti but the UXB sprayed on the wall actually stood for Unexploded Bombs. We parked up next to a bit of the bobsleigh track and walked a little further up the hill. We stood in front of the taped off mined area and looked down on the city. It was so quiet and the snow carpeted everything making it look like a scene from a Christmas card. We stood in a group and asked more questions until we had bothered our guide enough. As we began to walk back to the car Rob and I broke away to take a picture of the remaining bobsleigh track. Mustafa asked if we would like to walk down it, so we did.
Back at the van we all hopped in, hoping to warm up and be on our way; but the van had other ideas. It wouldn't start, even with a few very convincing attempts at a jump start. Eventually Mustafa conceded defeat and called a colleague to come to our aid. He turned up in a nice shiny new van and gave us a lift back to the hostel. At the hostel we went
to the café area to have some local food which really wasn't that great.
We left the hostel to see the city slightly later than we anticipated and therefore missed the opening hours of the museum. Instead we walked down to the river and looked at the famous bridges. The most well known of them is the Latin bridge which is where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. Amongst the other Bridges were the Eiffel bridge, designed by the designer of the Eiffel tower and the bridge where the first victim of Sarajevo was murdered; a student at a peace protest. It wasn't exactly a relaxed amble alongside the river as the temperature was approximately -3°C and we were bloody cold. We walked further away from the center towards the infamous Holiday Inn where the international journalists stayed during the war. Despite facing sniper alley it was the only hotel that still functioned throughout the entirety of the war and you can still see evidence even though it has been renovated. We walked back towards the center down snipers alley and we found a stall where Rob finally bought a scarf and some gloves. It was just in front of
this stall where I saw my first Sarajevo Rose. (a scar in the ground,painted red where a motor killed people)
We followed the high street back towards old town and there we decided it was time to thaw out. We spotted a Cute Turkish style café and ordered two of the thickest hot chocolates imaginable.
We returned to the hostel to relax a while before going out for the evening. It was ever so cold in the dorm room and so we got under the covers to read. Around eight we awoke and opted for a meal at the brewery which came highly recommended by both Lonely Planet and Mustafa. We got there and asked to have a look at the menu.(we were asked to move to the side) We looked it over and found there to be a few vegetarian options and attempted to sit down. The waitress took the menu from us and gestured towards a seating area. We had barely sat down and removed our gloves etc when a waiter asked us what we wanted. Rob laughed slightly and asked if it would be possible to have a look at the menu. The waiter rudely
rolled his eyes, walked away to get a menu and shouted something in Serbian. Rob was very annoyed by this and wanted to leave however I thought it better to play him at his own game. When he returned to get our order we barely looked at him and ordered in a rather brusk manner. We had a cheese plate to start and then I ordered a vegetable risotto with a mixed salad and Rob ordered spicy sausage with a seasonal salad. Two identical salads arrived and I thoroughly enjoyed pointing the mistake out to our waiter. Despite the rude service, the food was good, the beer was nice and the brewery itself was charismatic and buzzing with activity.
At the hostel we packed our bags and read a while before going to sleep in separate bunk beds.
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kate
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remembering the war
Hi I can remember the war and how awful it was. It was reported in great detail and seemed quite close to us here in England and I can remember thinking how we would cope in a similar situation. It must be interesting seeing the signs of war up close but feeling safe.