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Today was quite a busy day. After landing in Sarajevo around noon local time, we all hopped on a bus and headed to Hotel Sokak, our home for the next two weeks. I'm rooming with Zach, who is a student who took this trip last year and is coming again as an assistant. The rooms are moderate; I was lucky enough to land one that has two twin beds. Several kids on this trip are sharing a king with another (no worries to all you parents...genders are split by room!).
Between the 7 hour flight to Munich, the hour layover, the hour and a half flight to Sarajevo, and the half hour bus ride, there was plenty of time for bonding. I know at least know the names of pretty much everyone on this trip. Some of this bonding came through natural conversation prompted by our immediate culture shock. Given how recent the Yugoslav Wars took place, many reminders still stand, including bombed-out and abandoned houses, stand-alone walls, and one sight that took me in particular: a brand-new, modern science center flanked on three sides by rocky house shells.
After arriving at the hotel and dropping off our stuff,
we had the rest of the day to ourselves. I went and found one of the other guys' rooms (there's 9 males split over 3 rooms) and spent the rest of the day with them. We rested, then explored the local area, changed our dollars for Bosnian Marks, and found some food that, although I could not tell you the name, was delicious, and best described as ground meat wrapped in phyllo dough, like a sausage, wrapped in a spiral until it is - no joke - 2 feet in diameter, and then fried. The three guys I was with and I took this and hiked to the top of one of the streets.
For those of you that don't know, Sarajevo is built on hills and valleys, so finding a flat section is noticeably rare. The view from the top, as you can see, is amazing. The mountains surrounding Sarajevo remind me of The Green Mountains for their color, but The Rockies for their shape.
After coming back to the Hotel to meet up with a few other kids and get local SIM cards for communication with each other, we headed out in search of somewhere to
watch the upcoming World Cup matches. While there was a big screen set up in downtown, there was a dearth of places to sit, and the refreshments were scarce. We headed back in the direction the hotel, where we'd remembered seeing several cafes and bars that might have the game on. We ended at a place called Lavazza, and from 6:15 to 12:30 am - basically the entirety of both matches - some members of our group were there (people came and went, but we held the tables). As sad as it was to see the US lose in overtime, it was awesome to have a group of 20 American students all rooting together (and, of course, singing The National Anthem before the game) in a country where we couldn't understand a word the commentators said.At this point, it's 1:30 in the morning, and I have been up for most of the past 36 hours. I got 2 or 3 hours of sporadic sleep on the redeye from Boston, but as many of you know...those don't really count for sleep hours. As such, I now plan on passing out for at least the next 8 hours, and I certainly look
forward to it.
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