Blogs from East, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Europe - page 5

July 4th. American Independence Day. Also known as: The Day the Bosnians Couldn't Care Less About or The Day Chris, Dave, Ian, Hana, Nick, and Karis Had the Coolest Server Ever. We went to a Jazz Bar called Monument (apparently in the "posh" area of town. If a 4KM bottle of beer is posh, I'm moving to Sarajevo). Our server not only spoke English, but spoke it well and had been to the States. He taught us new drink names (like a Tom Collins...apparently called a Gimeš here), and we in turn taught him new drinks (a Jägerbomb is apparently very American. I shouldn't be surprised). We talked with him, watched the soccer (sorry, football) game, ate Burek (remember that food I didn't know the name of the first day? That's it!), and just bonded with ... read more

There's nothing quite like your first morning waking up in a new place. Particularly when you only got 8 hours of sleep after 2 almost-sleepless days, and, according to your body, it's approximately 4:00 am. Although the realization that breakfast is almost over does wake you up quite quickly when your stomach is grumbling. We went from breakfast on a walking tour of Sarajevo. While we certainly didn't hit all the city - I went further on my own the day before - it was interesting to get a local's perspective. Mo, our guide, was quite knowledgeable and enjoyed telling his jokes...which were that much better with his broken English. There are so many things about this city, like any, that you simply wouldn't know (or at least understand the gravity of) without a guide. For ... read more

From Belgrade, Mirela helped me arrange a shuttle bus that picks you up and drops you off in Sarajevo where you would like. This was especially helpful as it rained most of the day. I left quite early in the morning, around 6am and was in Sarajevo by lunchtime. The drive was interesting, through mountain roads, really fast, in the rain. Sarajevo is quite a cool town, very alive and yet still mending after the war in the 90s. I really enjoyed my time here. I stayed in a dorm, which I said I would not do on this trip, but sometimes it is inevitable (especially when you are traveling for so long and don't want to spend all your money on accommodation). But, I stayed for four nights and three of those nights I had ... read more

Nun bin ich also in Sarajevo, dieser faszinierenden Balkanmetropole mit der bewegten Geschichte und etwas abseits des Mainstream-Tourismus. Die Fahrt hierher verlief dann doch ohne Probleme. Mit dem Bus von Zagreb über mehrere Zwischenstationen hierher. Auf dem Weg durch eine bergige Landschaft mit vielen schönen Schluchten. Minarette gab es auch jede Menge. Die Namen der Städte hat man in den 90ern oft im Fernsehen gehört. Von Überschwemmung war auf dem Weg hierher nichts zu sehen. Ich bin abends hier angekommen, zum Hotel gefahren und habe begleitet mit bosnischem Wein schön gegessen. Nur für die Online-Tagesschau ist das Internet hier etwas langsam. Bilder muss ich noch nachreichen. Ich hoffe, das schaffe ich morgen, weil das ohne PC anscheinend nicht geht. Dann werde ich auch das Tunnelmuseum aus dem Bürgerkrieg und den Platz des Attentats, welches sich dieses ... read more

The other major event in the relatively recent past that brought Sarajevo to the international attention is the 1984 Winter Olympics. We set off confidently up the hill in the direction of the Stadium. The Man in the Middle suggested a short sit down was in order half way up the hill. It was steep to be fair – perhaps a different approach route would have been a better bet. We had reason to be at the Stadium. It was Bosnian FA Cup quarter-final Wednesday and FK Sarajevo were playing at the Stadium in the 2ndleg of their tie with FK Vitez. It was finely balanced at 1 – 1, although we didn’t know that at the time. We had taken our detour to look at Princip’s grave and arrived in good time. The approach to ... read more