Blogs from Bosnia & Herzegovina, Europe - page 35

When i arrived in Sarajevo a lady the worked for hostel Ljubica or however ya spell it.. showed me that she worked for the hostel which is the hostel i intended to stay at so she took me there... Sarajevo was my favourite city i went to durin the trip. it is alot different and more interesting to me then, every other city i went to. Sarajevo was a place id heard or read that you can easliy end up spending alot more time there then you intend to.. and i did and could of stayed even longer.. i stayed there 8 days, duin that time i went on the war tour which is deffinatley worth it..went out to several bars, went out with few bosnians to a place where theyd sing there songs and drink ... read more

Bus from Dubrovnik to Bosnia Herzegovina. Lots of farmland in Bosnia, very sparse, sporadically there were houses that were destroyed in the war, or bullet holes all over the place. Pretty sobering experience. Sarajevo itself is beautiful and small. Especially nice is the Turkish quarter, a pretty small area with lots of interesting shops and stuff. We (Nick from Chicago, and myself) were there during Ramadan, which was cool. Occasionally we could hear the call to prayer being broadcast from the spires of mosques throughout the city, a hauntingly beautiful sound. Also saw the eternal flame, which is dedicated to those who faught in wwi, as well as slavic unity. also saw spot where franz ferdinand was assassinated, starting wwi. next was belgrade, serbia, interesting place kinda, not really. next was budapest hungary. amazing amazing city, ... read more

OK, everyone relax and take a deep breath...we are OK. Fiona and Marcus learned a valuable lesson in Bosnian civil society and local law enforcement. As we entered our blog entry on Budapest last night (trying to catch up) at an Internet cafe, Fiona's digital camera was stolen from her zipped coat pocket. We realized this only as we got up to leave. It was obvious to us who had stolen it and our hostel manager called the police on our behalf. We are fortunate that the office manager speaks very fluent English, as did one of the police officers. We provided a detailed description of the suspect and we were asked to go to the police station to deal with the paperwork. The police volunteered the hostel manager to come along as a translator. Our ... read more

Whatever her sister Croatia was lacking in personality, Bosnia made up for tenfold. The sayings that “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” and that conflict breeds character serve to explain why this last of my Balkan sisters was not only the most controversial, but also the most interesting as well. Though I had been easily mesmerized by the physical beauty of Croatia, it was about on par with Tijuana or Cancun in offering any sort of memorable cultural insight and I was thirsting for real inspiration. In addition, my EU area tourist visa was due to expire soon and the border patrols failed to even look at my passport upon entry into Croatia, let alone to stamp it (the underlying reason behind this whole trip!) So I started flipping through my excursion options from the ... read more

Anticipation has run very high about my visit to Mostar. Its Stari Most, or Old Bridge, is its eternal symbol of the link between the city’s Muslim and Croat communities. My excitement and pace picked up during my brisk walk to the center as I envisioned the impact of casting my eyes upon it for the first time. But that eagerness propelled my right by it, as I missed the right turn and continued a few more hundred yards, almost completely out of the downtown area. I realized I had gone too far only because the density of tourists had become more sparse. Moreover, the bridge I did manage to reach was a metal monstrosity for motor traffic. This was embarrassing, having come all this distance to miss my intended target and to have to double ... read more