Grand Sarajevo

... day with an amazing breakfast cooked by the folks at the Halvat Guesthouse. Friendly Valida provided wonderful bread, yogurt, fruit and eggs that were a perfect counterpoint to the rubbery mess we had on the plane. We then headed out to explore the Old City. We started very early (around 0800) so the city was just waking up. Still, we were treated to a beautiful setting at the Pigeon Square with the Bascarsija Mosque and Sebilj Fountain. Behind we walked ...

... seemed to have no issue. I wasnt going to be out done by a chick so I had to suck it up, ignore the snake sounds and grabbed the first big stick I could find just in case.

We eventually got to the top, no snakes.

That night we set up camp, in a field about 5min drive up into the hills north of town. There was a field next to this old ruin of a house it looked perfect.

As we were setting up camp a stray dog came up to say hi. There are stray dogs everywhere in ...

... enclosed by enemy troops.

I can't say enough about how amazingly gorgeous this city is, I really hope some of you reading this will decide to put this city on your list of places to go to. Its already climbed up to my top 5 favourite cities in the world, and its knocking on the number 1's door. Different religions and ethnic minorities, which were the fundamental cause of the Bosnian War now co-exist peacefully and respectfully. Everyone here has a story to tell about ...

... just generally looking around and doing shopping and Sarayevo gives off a real buzz it really is a cool city and definatley one of the highlights on the European leg of the trip. I managed to get to a view point of the city but with the haze it didnt provide me with great shot of the city but was still lovely regardless. In the evening I went out with some of the other lads from the backpackers we went to a couple of bars and then went to a rock ...

... no,' and war broke out. What kind of sucked for everyone except Serbia was that the Yugoslavian Peoples Army consisted of 80% Serbian troops. Slovenia had a devastating ten day war in which Serb troops didn't even cross the border into Slovenia. Croatia had it a bit rougher, their war lasted a couple years but they were able to shorten it by secretly holding meetings with Serbian leaders and making a plan to help Serbia attack Bosnia in exchange for a small piece of Bosnian ...

... After we settled ın, MArleyse and I toured the cıty together. It ıs a very beautıful cıty. Lıke mostar, you could see several homes wıth bullet holes on theır walls. Mostar had more destroyed homes but Sarajevo had more homes 'decorated' wıth bullet holes. In some areas, all of the homes were left wıth sıgns from the war. Its amazıng consıderıng how long ıts been sınce the war ended. At one poınt Marleyse and I went to vısıt the Art Museum ...

... roads between places, which was kinda surreal, like they should have had knapsacks on their backs. So one warning with the roadsigns - without a map, and a strong grip of Bosnian, attempting to drive round the country would be ...

... in and took back the airport from the Serbs, allowing the distribution of food and humanitarian aid. However, unable to cross through the airport, the only break in the Serbian noose, to free Bosnian territory on the other side, the Bosnians remained unable to escape the constant violence. Humanitarian aid was all well and good, but the Bosnians also wanted weapons to fight the Serbs, something the UN stalwartly refused to give them. A solution was found in the ...

... marketplace and killing 120 civilians in one go. A photographer captures two or three unignorable photos, and to his credit, President Clinton orders NATO airstrikes. Clever. Bypass the UN and use a body that doesn't have the sound democracies of Russia and China wielding a veto. With a galling ease that a couple of the former soldiers justifiably seethed about to us, US airpower routes the Serb positions in four days. Four days. Ex Sarajevan military ...

... the rest of Mostar lived. The war took a heavy toll on the small town, with more than 2000 people dying during the siege. With the cemetery outside the town, and inaccessible during the fighting, the central park was turned into a cemetery and is filled with graves, mostly of young men, almost all dating to 1993. Later that evening we went out to look at the bridge lit up at night time. We ran into another one of the backpackers and sat down for ...