Sarajevo

I am in Sarajevo. You all must know that name. Be familiar in some way with what happened here during the war in the ‘90’s. I am still embarrassed by how little I know about this. About how little I know about so many things going on in the world even now. Being here makes the connection more important. I want to know more.

We took the train from Mostar with 4 guys from the hostel, Mitch from Brisbane, Tim from San Francisco, Marcus from Melbourne, and Bernie from Toronto. It is freezing and as we approach Sarajevo, we see snow on the ground. A lot of snow. The cold front is here and poor Morgan only has her slip on shoes.

We make it to our hostel via a well decided on cab and find that Thomas and Stijn (2 Belgian guys we briefly met in Mostar) are our roommates. We know everyone in our room which is really cool.

We all head out for the tour led by the owner of our hostel, Harris. After taking Bata’s tour, any other was hard to compare but it was fun, other than the cold. We started at a tunnel that lead from the city, under the airport and out into the free Bosnian territory. It was very interesting to learn that the UN was there trying to help but it seems that most things they did were more of a hindrance. Again, I need to read more of the history. After that we went to Sniper Ally which was a street where there was sniper fire constantly. We could see the bullet holes in the walls of the buildings all over. Then onto the Olympic Museum about the 1984 winter Olympics that Sarajevo hosted. At the time they were awarded for being the best host the Olympics had up to that point. During the war the Olympic stadium was bombed and has since been rebuilt in hopes of hosting the Olympics again. Our last stop was at a traditional Bosnian house which was beautiful but by that point we were so cold that we kinda didn’t care anymore. Then it was time for lunch and we ate čebapshi (spelling?) which was like a pita with little lamb sausages in it. Add onion and cream cheese and you are set to go. I really like the food here although it is a lot of meat.

After the tour, the 6 of us from the train and the two Belgian boys decided to go to a bar. Cause what else should you do when you are freezing in a city you don’t know. We found a good little spot and proceeded to drink beer and play stupid games. It was a blast! We were going to go out afterward but ended up staying in and watching the movie, ‘Shot Through The Heart’. It’s a movie about a Muslim and a Serb who are friends before the war and then have to fight each other during the war. I totally recommend it.

The next day Morgan and I made a big breakfast. It is really nice to cook sometimes so we went all out. It was a bit warmer and we decided to walk around the city a bit with our pack of friends. We saw the old part of town and the place where Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, pretty much starting WW1. We got a recommendation for a really nice place to eat which was lovely. Then Tim was off to catch a bus and we were off to regroup before going out that night.

Harris took us out to a local bar which was ok but Morgan and I wanted to go dancing and kept pushed the issue despite Harris telling us it was Tuesday and there would be nothing going on. We took a really long walk to what is apparently the only dance club in Sarajevo and it was empty. We decided to go back to the hostel. The one good thing about the overly long walk to the club is that we got to see the Sarajevo Rose (a grenade blast in the sidewalk turned art) and learn a little more about Harris and his life in the war. He was 5 years old when his house was destroyed with grenades. His family slowly rebuilt it and when he was 15 he asked his parents if he could start a hostel. They told him to do whatever he wanted. So he started it. He is now 22 and has one of the most successful hostels in Sarajevo. Wow. When I was 15 I was dressing like a punk rocker and causing a ruckus with my friends…hmmmm.

We stayed up way too late and then had to get up early the next morning for the ubber long trip to Rome.