Hollywood Hotel Sarajevo

... the traditional coppersmith area (Kazandziluk Street) and saw all the handicrafts. We then headed down the pleasant Ferhadija Street to see the shops and to people watch. The upbeat scene was interrupted only a few times when we saw the "roses" on the street indicating where shells had gone off during the war and noticed names on plaques off to the side of those who perished during that attack. The holes from the attacks have been filled in with red ...

... This one didnt care too much about saying hi, it just went straight for the bag of food we had.<br><br>Nina and I figured, lets just feed it half the loaf of bread and hope it gets full. I fed it a whole load of bread, soaked in water hoping to fill the dog up quicker, it only just worked.<br><br>We got our campsite set up and eventually started putting together something to eat. Our stray tried coming over again but I convinced him otherwise - glad he backed off when i whacked ...

... war. None of them happy stories. Everyone has lost a loved one in the war (the memorials are everywhere), but they choose to remember them not by constant mourning, but by showing the world a side of Bosnia that CNN and BBC were never interested in. Peace is never newsworthy. I was a little apprehensive about talking about the war with the locals here, for fear of touching on a sensitive or hurtful subject, but people want to talk about the war. They want everyone to know how ...

... The music was really awful but the crowd seemed to love them, non of us could really understand it at all and the dress sense of the band was just werid they all had wake mustaches and shinny black clothes on, I guess what ever floats your boat but non of us really got it at all and we were all from different places as well, The UK, Ireland, Aus and the states so it must just be a Bosnian thing. I have noticed the Bosnian people are very freindly and ...

... Despite the fact that Serbia had most of the JPA, Croatia and Slovenia both had their own armies to fend off the Serbs. Bosnia on the other hand, didn't have an army. The war began in 1992, and almost immediately the Serbs were able to take control of most of the country. However, they were unable to invade Sarajevo, and so they surrounded the city with tanks, snipers, landmines, and artillery guns. Thus began the longest siege in modern warfare, which lasted for ...

... actually lost each other ýn the museum and ended up tourýng teh cýty on our own for the rest of the day. I walked around untýl 6 pm and saw some ýnterestýng sýghts. One place worth mentýonýng was the spot where Duke Ferdýnand got assasýnated. It was thýs assassýnatýon that sparked WW I. I was hopýng Marleyse would be there as she had the only key to the room. SHe wasnt. I ended up waýtýng FOUR hours for her. I was pretty pýssed. I was stuck ...

... hopeless. With a map it was still rather impossible. So once we finally got to Sarajevo (strongly cursing the B roads!), navigating to the hotel was a whole new challenge. Having gone round the block a few times we did manage ...

... of a tunnel: 800m long, 1m wide, and 1.6m high. It took four months to construct and went underneath the airport, giving the surrounded city a route to freedom. While in Sarajevo, I went on a tour to the Tunnel Museum, led by Haris, the affable 19-year-old host of my hostel. He explained the particulars of the war and the tunnel, through which 3000 people could pass per day. If you could afford it, from outside the tunnel, you could flee to Croatia then on ...

... who host a couple of the tours initially hold their tongue, but when pressed, burst with exasperation before releasing their complaint about why this couldn't have been done in 1992, and why they had to endure 4 years of Smurfs (their description) in the interim. The Serbs managed to shoot down a couple of hundred million dollars worth of stealth fighters, and perversely show off this trophy in Belgrade, presumably not yet learning shame. Odd. Thats our next ...

... beer and what we were told was ethnic Bosnian food. The owner of the restaurant was an older man, strongly built but haggard looking. He spoke no English but did speak limited German, and so did we, so with that we managed to place an order. Every time he came over to our table he still spoke to us in Bosnian and gestured like we could understand him. He was an absolute riot, full of big smiles and descriptive body language, and we were left falling ...