Blogs from Sarajevo, East, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Europe - page 9

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Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » East » Sarajevo August 20th 2010

Last night, I took the overnight train from Zagreb to Sarajevo. Sarajevo has been on my hit-list of must-see destinations since I was a wee one... stemming from watching the war unfold in Bosnia on TV growing up in Germany. Now that the war is over, I wanted to see how the city has recovered from the rubble that I had always associated with it. More recently, I have also been intrigued by the unique history of this city as the cultural meeting ground between the Austrian-Hungarians and the Ottomans. Between the vicious mosquito attacks and the temperature fluctuations, there was little sleep to be had, but I was in good company in my compartment. Besides, even in the sleep-deprived state, seeing the Bosnian country-side emerge as the sun rose was simply spectacular. Amidst the beautiful ... read more
Giant Chess game
Orthodox Church
Catholic Cathedral

Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » East » Sarajevo August 12th 2010

Crossing the border into Bosnia & Herzegovina, I observed that the flags flying were not Bosnian ones, but ones closely resembling the old flag of the former Yugoslavia. A read-up on the country revealed the true meaning of those flags. Bosnia & Herzegovina is still essentially, a country divided. And no, the two entities making up the country are not in fact Bosnia, and Herzegovina. At the end of the Bosnian War in 90s, it was agreed that Bosnia & Herzegovina would be split into two parts; the Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina (the Muslims and Croat portion in the south and west including Sarajevo) and the Republika Srpska (the Serb portion in the north and the east). We were obviously passing through the Serb section. Despite the division, Bosnia & Herzegovina is still one country, ... read more
University of Sarajevo
Bullet Holes
Parliament Building

Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » East » Sarajevo August 7th 2010

Started off the day with a leisurely stroll around the Turkish quarter once again before heading a little east into Novo Sarajevo (New Sarajevo) for a look around. Had to see my new passion, Eastern Bloc architecture. Also, had to pick up a few things for the rest of my trip (headphones & batteries) and it had a few electronic stores with cheap goods so that was nice. Had some more burek for lunch. Got a combination of spinach, potato and meat. They asked if I wanted yogurt with it and I figured they meant it as a sauce so I said yes. Then they bring out a full glass of yogurt and I was just perplexed. Wasn't sure if I was meant to drink it or pour it clumsily out of the glass onto my ... read more
peace
graves1
hike

Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » East » Sarajevo August 6th 2010

Took the 8am train ride up to Sarajevo. Only cost 5 euro, so cheap for a train. The scenery was amazing, reminded me of Switzerland. Except it was almost like I was in the past century. Saw tons of little cottages up in the hill, barns with thatched roofs and people herding sheep. Had a great time sticking my head out the window of the stuffy train letting the rain cool me off. The three hours flew by and soon I was checking into my hostel/guest house. Great little place run by a few locals who go out of their way to help you enjoy your time in Sarajevo. Feels more like staying in someones house than a hostel. Soon after getting organized I was out the door with a few British girls to check out ... read more
train
chess
turk

Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » East » Sarajevo August 3rd 2010

Sarajevo - then and now This summer we have been travelling around in the Balkans for three weeks. We visited four different countries namely Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Albania. Here in the blog we will start by telling you what we did in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first city we visited in Bosnia and Herzegovina was the capital Sarajevo. For Emma this was the first visit to Sarajevo but not for Ake. Ake travelled in central Europe in 1997 and one of the places he visited then was Sarajevo. Sarajevo then and Sarajevo now are two very different cities. In 1997 Sarajevo was a city of ruins after having been under siege from April 1992 to February 1996. Today Sarajevo is rebuilt and repaired and there is very little that reminds a visitor of ... read more
City in Central Europe
City in Europe
The Eiffel Bridge

Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » East » Sarajevo June 25th 2010

I arrived at the bus station in Sarajevo without more than a satellite image to tell me where to go. I had my hostel marked on the image, but wasn’t sure where I would be dropped off. I went with the assumption that the bus station would be at or near the train station, and luckily I was right. It was about a 30-minute walk from the center of the city, and the hostel was a bit closer. The first buildings I saw were a mix of older buildings which had noticeable damage in the form of bullet holes, burns, and other defacement with some modern all-glass buildings. The most appealing was the twist tower, or Avaz building. This is a blue-glass skyscraper with four sides. However, the sides do not go straight up and down, ... read more
Building by the River
Cathedral
Parliament Building

Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » East » Sarajevo June 16th 2010

As paredes ainda são perfuradas por buracos de bala; remendos no asfalto escondem o que um dia foi uma cratera de granada; dentro das casas, fotos de soldados que se foram; no cemitério, 90% dos túmulos marcam o ano de 1993. A guerra da Bósnia, que culminou na separação do país da antiga Iugoslávia e a formação de uma nova nação, deixou marcas visíveis em todo canto. Não fossem por elas, dificilmente seria possível imaginar que o povo bósnio passou por uma guerra civil tão sangrenta há poucos anos. A vida nas cidades é agitada, o povo alegre e falante, prédios modernos se misturam com outros muito antigos e a sensação é de que poderíamos estar em qualquer outro ponto da Europa. Em Sarajevo, inclusive, as marcas são menos aparentes do que na pequena Mostar, mais ... read more
paredes cravejadas
Mostar
Welcome

Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » East » Sarajevo April 6th 2010

Held hostage The bastard is late. I’m sitting in the garage of this crazy university – or at least what was supposed to be the garage before they ran out of money and had to turn it into an office – waiting for the Turkish Prime Minister to arrive. The PM is coming to Sarajevo for the grand opening of this University my friend Zoe works at, and because he is late, they have barricaded the door to prevent anyone from leaving before he arrives (to further inflate his ego). Let me tell you exactly how I came to be held hostage at an international institution, waiting for this foreign chief executive … A worthy introduction to Sarajevo There is a marvelous stretch of modern, wide, actual freeway for about 20 kilometers, leading South to Sarajevo. ... read more
Brennan in Sarajevo
Sarajevo at night
Along the River

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

Today we got up and went to the market one last time to get some more souvenirs for friends. At 10:30, we met our tour guide in the hostel. He drove a Mercedes SUV with Texas license plates and registration stickers. I have to say.. this definitely put a smile on my face! Our first stop was the "Goat's Bridge." The story behind it is.. a shepherd was herding his sheep near the river and found gold, so they built a gold mine around the river in that area, but they needed a bridge to run over that area so they could carry supplies over the river. He said that the bridge was over 500 years old! Next stop: the Jewish cemetery. This was probably my favorite part of the tour. The Jewish cemetery was used ... read more
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Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » East » Sarajevo December 5th 2009

After a restless night of hearing the Slovenians downstairs dancing, banging on the walls and singing "We all live on the Yellow Subamarine..." we woke up at 8am. We went to the bakery next to our hostel and got a loaf of bread and some juice, and we were on our way to explore the city. We walked through the copper markets which sold Bosnian tea sets (almost identical to turkish tea sets), and through the old part, but continued to the new part of the city which we soon found to be a little bit depressing and empty. We walked down the main street for about two hours... We saw bullet holes in the sides of buildings, condemned structures, graffiti, etc.. The National Museum was a beautiful building, yet it hasn't opened again since the ... read more
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