Hotel Konak Sarajevo

... beginning of they trip so we see a trend here, by the way they do not make you remove your shoes in Munich which is nice. Once at the airport we purchased a bottle of soft drink price listed at 1.90 euro but with deposit came to 2.50 euro, but that's not all, we had to provide our passport and ticket information before they can process the transaction.

At about 2100hrs and we arrived in Sarajevo. We were picked up by Mumo from the wonderful hotel ...

... It took us about 30minutes to say good bye to these guys who were all insisting that we come back again. Hard to explain but it was quite something, these guys had been through so much, have close to nothing and are still so welcoming.

The next day we went to Srebrenica.

Srebrenica was the site of the killing of more than 8000 men and boys in July 95, right under the nose of the UN peace keeping force who'd declared it a UN safe haven. It was the largest ...

... set, and when the movie was finished, they left the set as it were and it became Sarajevo. Narrow alleyways and paths around the old town give it a cozy feeling, handicrafts and coppersmiths thrive in these little streets, producing true Bosnian crafts to sell to people from around the world. The novelty of being an Indian here has its advantages, people smile, express their love for India (which is a feeling that is common all over the former Yugoslavian countries). In four ...

... I first got into Bucharest in Romania I really didnt like the place but Sarajevo was a different story. When driving on the bus past the tower blocks you can still see loads of bullit holes from the Serbian war. Sarejevo is surronded by hills which makes it really beatiful and green. When I got off the bus I managed to navigate my way through the old part of the town towards the hostels reception shop and then they took me up the road to the backpackers ...

... of Yugoslavia, a communist nation that also contained Slovenia, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (not to be confused with the neighboring Greek province of Macedonia), Montenegro, Kosovo, Serbia, and Albania. Pretty much all the slavic countries. Sarajevo was a moderm cosmopolitan city back then, and it was chosen to host the 1984 Olympic Games. Yugoslavia spent considerable time, effort, and money to make those games (in the words of the then chairman of ...

... All of hıs clothes and personal belongıngs were stıll ın the room. I got the feelıng that he normally dıd not rent out hıs room but needed the money to buy some materıals for the renovatıons (or for some other reason). You could tell rıght away that he dıdnt have backpackers stayıng at hıs place regularly. The kıtchen sınk was fılled wıth dırty dıshes, the bathroom was dırty and he only had one extra key to the house. The young guy also ...

... no disrespect to Bos of course. It amused us somewhat that upon entering each different place in Bosnia, there would be roadside stalls every few feet selling exactly the same thing, but in each different place, this item would be ...

... to haggle over the price, but I accepted on the spot this tremendous bargain. We climbed onto the carriage and got underway. The driver turned around and asked if the girls would like a turn behind the reins. Maggie took up the offer and spent the rest of the journey up the front. The driver sang to Maggie as we headed back up the path. We reached the end of the ride then walked back to catch our return tram ride, marvelling at the excellent day we had enjoyed.

... after this, unsurprisingly, the Serbs start to shell Sarajevo indiscriminately in an effort to get the population to flee. With them fled, they will be able to get ethnically Serb people in and then point out to the international community that, hey, its all Serbs here, why not acknowledge that this is part of Serbia. Good logic. Zero ethics. The UN respond as only the UN can. Blue helmets are deployed around the city. Shiny new armoured personnel carriers ...

... grand ceremony, speeches and hopes for a better future. Both the old bridge and the new one have always been a major tourist attraction, along with Mostar's bridge divers, a group of local men who have perfected the art of jumping from this bridges great height into the fast flowing river below, when they have collected enough tourist dollars. The funny part of this is that they have become somewhat of a bridge mafia, charging people 25 Euros (50 NZ ...