Hostel Sebilj Sarajevo

... by the side of the roads and it still makes me wonder that cigarettes are so cheap in Herzegovina that Olga saves money when she buys them there – despite having to pay a bus ticket there and back to Split she still comes out ahead. So it was interesting to see how things were working or not working in Sarajevo, and the small towns we passed as we drove to get there. Locals agreed Sarajevo is a special place with a mix of people and religions, but for now ...

... had no idea what it was about but it'd been recommended by a couple of people so I headed out there.<br><br>During the siege of Sarajevo in the late 90's, the town was surrounded by the Serbian snipers, large artillery and land mines. <br><br>The only gap in the Serbian front was at the airport. It was controlled by the UN to deliver humanitarian relief. <br><br>Bosnians needed access to the rest of non Serb controlled Bosnia but the UN wouldn't let them cross the airport above ...

... Although the scars from the dark days remain, they are used as grim reminders of what is the worst thing that could happen, and eventually serve as catalysts for the people to express their happiness, and gratitude for those days being gone. Bombed out buildings are rare but not difficult to notice. Buildings with bullet holes are everywhere, some people choose to have the holes filled with cement, some don't. Streets (specifically the Sniper Alley) lined with little holes ...

... government and if they didnt there familys would get killed, so its a pretty bad situation for everyone really. I also asked why did they not fight back and he said that if they were to fight back they would enrage the Serbs more so they would attack even more as they just didnt have the weapons to defeat them so for 4 years they just stayed there and took it and got on with it. In Sarayevo they also built a tunnel out of the city where they would sneak supplys into the city ...

... were back to, deciding that the picture taking was not enough to make up for the cold either. Hostel was a movie I hadnt seen, just the second one, and Im glad to say I didnt see it until after bratislava. But then again, no one really backpacks like those guys in the movie. They were sort of asking for it. We all commented about when our "common sense" would kick in, and the consenses was that it was alot of time before it did for them in the movie ...

I woke up at 6 am and headed to the traýn statýon at 630 wýth Marleyse. Our traýn was set to arrýve at 738 am. Whýle waýtýng on the platform, we met an older Bosnýan man and hýs elderly mother. The man heard us talkýng ýn Englýsh and therefore wanted to know where we were from. It turns out that thýs very frýendly man (who you could see loved hýs mother very much) has been lývýng ýn the US for the last 15 years. He left Bosnýa durýng the war ...

... viereiseen postiin. Siellakaan homma ei meinannut ensin kielimuurista johtuen onnistua, mutta pienen vaannon jalkeen loytyi joku englantia taitava ja vihdoin lasitkin. Illalla maisteltiin rakijaa, paikallista kotipolttoista, jotain brandyun tapaista. Lauantaina lahdettiin Ollin ja yhden australilaisen kahvijuontioppilaani, Noelin, kanssa kaveleskelemaan. Tie vei pariin museoon ja yllattaen cevapille. Mitaan sen kummempaa ei sitten oikeastaan tullut tehtyakaan. Saa on edelleen paska ...

... had no idea where to go when we got off and it struck us that there is not a lot of tourist infrastructure here in Bosnia yet. Perhaps there had been before the war but if so then little remains. Public toilets, for example are virtually non-existent and cafes and cheap eateries tend not to have toilets either. Signage is very limited and signage in English is rarely to be found. All of this is made up for by the people who are, by and large, warm and ...

... at the History Museum. Its still a wreck: pock marked with high calibre bullet and shell indentations. It has only two rooms, and it logically isn't very well funded. But it makes one point well: the city was held under seige for nearly 4 years - the longest seige in modern history - and survived. Life was brutally tough: food, water, electricity and every other necessity choked off by Serb encirclement. Yet they survived. Background, as pieced together from a ...

... on in the town of Mostar, but no efforts to remove or preserve the almost destroyed buildings. Many of the husks simply lay abandoned surrounded by new construction. When we asked locals about this the response was that they had to concentrate on what they had left. No one could afford to worry about the past, they were too busy trying to build their futures. To compound this, many Bosnians have not yet returned from the countries which took them ...