Hostel Skend Sarajevo

... to see him again before he left. He didn’t show, but we had few drinks anyway watching the young crown dance and make out to the jazz, and I wished I could stay longer.
The next morning we were up early to catch the bus to Mostar, famous for it’s bridge and funky little town. Unfortunately when we arrived we noticed that the only other bus to Split which we could take that day departed in half an hour, and seeing we spent way too much money in ...

... wasn't surprised. As he is a hotel owner he has encountered this problem before. "A short while ago one of my guests, American tourist, bought a ticket, and stamped it. An officer came in, asked for the ticket and swapped it for a invalid one. Result, a fine!" He said he even called the newspaper for this, cause it gives a bad picture to Sarajevo and Bosnia. No ****, it definitely does... A Dutch friend of mine who regularly goes to Bosnia because of company visits told ...

... where people trying to leave Sarajevo got shot at from the Serbs in the hills. Next, we did a tunnel tour, and were suprised to see Tarik as our guide. Sarajevo was surrounded by the enemy on all sides except for one little stretch. They built a tunnel under this section to smuggle goods (food, military equipment...etc.) into the city, which didnt even have electricity for the four years. We got to walk through a ...

... making you feel as if you have just left Europe behind, when we were suddenly drench from head to toe as it started to rain buckets.
Feeling we had had a big enough adventure for one day we retired to our hostel with the rest of the travelers to whittle away the day planning what to do in our next city. It didn't take long for others to arrive from Mostar and we were soon around old friend exchanging travel stories and drinking beer until the wee hours of the morning.

... bad film wise. The subject was interesting, but the result just badly put together. This did not matter. Every Bosnian in the cinema was either in tears, shaking the head or covering the eyes. After each film, and after an applause of like five minutes, some reps from the festival would come on stage. Quote: "We know there are international distributors in this cinema tonight and we really hope that this film will be picked up and distributed around the world. People ...

... was using muslim traditional costum for her earlier performance (years ago). Since west and east meet in Bosnia, Turkish culture is strong in sarajevo, but still it felt really European city. Serbian music feel funny, fast and joyful. Bosnian is more calm but cheerfull too and then they play some Turkish stuff in the middle. Bosnians like spending time driniking coffee. If I ...

... the buildings around us. Five minutes from Halvat Guest House and we were in 'Pigeon Square', the focal point of Sarajevo's renowned Bascarsija district. Pigeon Square was living up to its reputation with thousands of them milling around. Some musicians were in the middle of making a film clip and we watched for a while as they mimed in various poses to music coming from a tape player around the neck of the ...

... what is here just through a guidebook or a webpage. The city itself is part classical Europe, part Turkey - unsurprising after 400 years of the Turkish Ottoman empire being here, but astounding given its just a couple of hours lazy train ride from the traditional European feel of Croatia. Its a city like nothing I have ever seen - a big call given how similar much of the world comes to seem after a while. Sarajevo was once one of the most truly multicultural ...

... some pictures. It is famous for a bridge which connects two sides of the city. The bridge was also really nice, though it had been destroyed during the war, its rebuilt now. The town also has Muslim mosques and Christian churches intermixed. It is quite interesting.