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Published: December 7th 2009
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Skakavac 16 secs
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Skakavac
That's me on the bridge!Mark and I left the kolej at around eight, caught a bus to the airport, and checked in an hour early. As we sat waiting for our flight to board, I realized I had no idea of what to expect n Sarajevo, Bosnia. It's one of those places you hear about on the news (Yugoslavia war 1992-1995), and learn about in school, but to actually be there? It would be like being in Bagdad 15 years from now. Or something like that.
When our plane was descending, both Mark and I looked out the window, anxious and curious about where we were landing. The airport was sooo small.. only four or five gates! We found a taxi to take us to our hostel for ten euro.. we got him down from fifteen euro. We also went to the atm to get their currency.. 1.30 Bosnian mark to 1 USD. Our driver tried to tell us about Sarajevo in his limited English. We got to our hostel and settled in. We walked around the city- first the old part where our hostel was, then the new part. The first thing we noticed was that there were graveyards everywhere. You will see
this if you look at all my pictures. We found a Bosnian restaurant. The food was good, but probably not the healthiest! We had what was kind of like turkish kebabs served in pita bread. However the Bosnians claim that it is MUCH different.
After dinner, we went back to our hostel to ask them if they knew of a good hookah bar.. (Bosnia was occupied by the turks for hundreds of years so there us still a huge influence). Mark had never tried hookah before, so it was quite an experience for him! We ordered turkish apple tea and had orange flavored hookah. We couldnt even finish the coal because we are both NOT smokers! After the hookah session, we went to bed!
The next morning, we were out of the hostel by nine.. We decided to take a fresh air day and go hiking. The guys at the hostel recommended Skakavac, the biggest waterfall (vodapad) in the Balkans. We walked to the bus station, which was 25 minutes away, but the bus never came (common in sarajevo), so we took a taxi. The taxi drive said "i take you as far as possible, then must you
walk." We nodded our heads in agreement and got in. He told us he had a brother in Atlanta "My brother is American, but I Bosninan." I think it was supposed to be a joke, so we laughed.. He took us up these winding narrow roads. He whipped around the curves and squeezed past other cars at such high speeds!
We arrived at the loose stone road and he wished us luck (in his way). We were already so high up! The view was beautiful. We walked on the gravel road four about 2km, then we came to a fork in the path. There was luckily a house next to the path so we asked the man working outside. He was in sweatpants and his house was falling apart "take left, 4000meter away.." Soon the gravel went away and we entered the woods. It was SOO green.. it kind of had a green mist. Then the path led us to a ledge and we looked down at the "path." It was more like mountain climbing! But finally we made it to the waterfall. It was beautiful, especially after six miles of walking up hill and down a cliff! We
met some Bosnians down there who told us about the Bosnian mountains. The winter olympics were held in Sarajevo in 1984.. didn't know that! They offered us a ride in their jeep, but we said we would walk (later we regretted this).
The way back was a LOT more difficult! The path was in even worse shape and we spent more time in the woods than the nicely graveled road! But we finally made it. Then it occurred to us..hmm this time we don't have a taxi! So we walked down the winding hilly roads until we found the bus stop where we bought a couple oranges and waited.
When we got back from the hike, we were filthy. So we took showers and took a half hour nap.. We calculated that we walked 12-15 miles! After we were rejuvenated, we went to another Bosnian restaurant with great food.. I had minced beef wrapped in grape leaves and we also got perogie like dumplings with beef in the middle. After dinner, we walked around the old town for a bit, and passed out early!
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Mom
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What an adventure! You deserved a good dinner after all that!