Sarajevo (the rest)

so long time, no blog. I'm prepping for yet another exciting journey in a few weeks (Krakow, Poland!) so I need to get on the ball with the rest of my summer (and my half-term french travels in May). I had this brief and fleeting thought about how much money I might have if i chose not to travel. It'd probably be a lot. Then again, I might just have more shoes. And then, instead of being just boring, i'd be really boring with good shoes, and no one wants that.

Anyhoo, here's the rest of Sarajevo. I wish we would've stayed longer, possibly cutting out the Belgradian portion of our journey. But as I've left the blogging of the trip far too long, I'm relying on scant journal notes to relive funnier moments of the trip. Seeing as I couldn't find a journal until Belgrade, it's proving rather difficult to remember anything. Maybe I should stop drinking the cough syrup straight from the bottle and stick to the recommended dose.



the entrance to Begova dzamija (Bey's mosque), central Sarajevo's biggest mosque


fortunately i left my machine gun at home




Across the Latin Bridge, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was killed, sparking the start of WWI


keeping with tradition, Jen and I frequented 'Hacienda Cantina Mexicana' for the most unauthentic margaritas we've ever had. Which is, of course, part of the fun.


in the maze of pedestrianised streets peddling copper wares, smelly foods and tea


more market


Sebilj, a Turkish style fountain in the middle of 'Pigeon Square'. Suffice to say, we did not spend a whole lot of time anywhere near this place

we had a bit more luck with dinner this time and took Lonely Planet's dining recommedations. The vegetable platter was adorned in actual grilled vegetables, but we unfortunately ran into another issue:


i will have to disagree with this opinion, disguised as a fact.

So, other than the people, the place, the spirit, what did i love about Sarajevo? Ya no se. But I did. It felt like somewhere you could sit, be a fly on the wall and come out with three-hundred interesting observations. I loved the mix of religions, though jen and i had differing opinions on the sound of the call to prayer piped through the city five times a day--me: haunting, her: transfixing. Maybe it also had something to do with the eerily similar to British weather we had during our stay in the city. Is it possible to become used to rain, mist and fog?

We ended it all with a 5am taxi ride to the bus station, followed by an eight-hour bus ride snaking our way through the city's crammed cemetaries, monuments and post-war construction then out onto the open road of rocky precipes, deep valleys and blue, blue lakes. To make the experience truly authentic, we had a Bosnian rest stop, complete with toilets that one must strategically suss out before making a move:



Onto Serbia!