Boucing around Bosnia

Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina
December 5th 2007

Published: December 20th 2007

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td impulse

The holiday inn...

the only hotel in the city that didn't close... it's now a famous site

Hello, hello

Well, we simply couldn't help ourselves, we saw Bosnia on the map, and thought, who visits Bosnia?! Well, that in itself was enough to convince us that we should make a stop there. So, Sarajevo was our destination and we knew this time we were city bound and not tenting due to the unexploded land mines that haunt the city.

So, after a crude introduction to the local food (imagine a McDonald’s cheeseburger without the cheese, but with a bit more grease) for breakfast, we set out to see the city. It didn't take long for the lingering history of the city to flood the sight and sense, but it was interesting and inspiring to see people my age, walking about and just knowing what they have experience over the last decade and constantly seeing the reminder of that.

In every neighborhood, the houses were riddled with missing chunks from the shrapnel, and the few houses that had been rebuilt were such a blatant contrast, and often painted so bright and colorful. Many other houses had the damage of bullets and shrapnel patched over, but the house had not been painted, so it stood out even

This image really struck us

more.

The rest of the city was quite developed, and in the center there was a large bustling area and a nice walk along the river that bought you up to a point looking over the city. However, even this was impossible for us to experience without the haunting past as the perch was the view one described in history where the snipers were so able to take out those trying to pass through. It also looked over an enormous graveyard, with freshly painted white graves.

The following day, we made out way out through the city and got quite lost in the suburbs, on our way to see the infamous tunnel that had been built under the airport when the UK took hold of the airport for humanitarian reasons. This was one of the most fascinating museums as the fellow that ran it was heavily involved in the building and use of the tunnel, and we heard his personal account of it and what it was like during the war. We listened to the stories and made our way through the remaining tunnel before trying again to walk back to town.

All in all, Bosnia was