Hotel Emona Sarajevo

... off and couldn't get hold of us so met up with us after the game.<br>Wish we had made the game as the photos Mark had of the game looked crazy with flares and fireworks going off. Mark said his pants got burnt from a flare at one stage.<br><br>All met up at the Brewery again as it's such a convenient meeting place with great beer and then went to dinner and Sloga Club with Arijan and most of the hostel. Club was packed - DJ played dance music ...

Today we made it to Sarajevo. The drive being much of the same as that from the coast to Mostar. In some areas, there is enough reconstruction that has occured that it made you think twice and wonder if there really was a conflict here 15 years ago, but in many places there is the constant reminder of war. <br><br>We are staying in a hotel that is close to the Turkish and the Austrian quarters. The first thing we did was book our ...

... were able to see the effects of the recent war. Sarajevo was basically pummeled from 1992-1995 and it was really confronting and moving to see the destruction of this in the buildings as you came into the town. Many were partially destroyed, a lot were just riddled with bullet holes. It was sad to see that there would have been a lot of really old and beautiful buildings around that were now just crumbling shells. The mountain slopes surrounding Sarajevo's town are ...

... Great views, space to stretch out, walk around, lay down, whatever. Hungary, outside of Budapest, did not have the most exciting landscape. Flat farmland...very much like Kansas. Corn, wheat...but, acres and acres of sunflowers. You could see patches of yellow for hours. Immediately when we passed into Bosnia the terrain changed...mountains and rivers. Bosnia is breathtaking in every sense of the word. You can clearly see evidence of the war...many many ...

... et la femme me prend par le bras et me dit MUSKI, MUSKI... je lui repete ces mots en levant les epaules lui signifiant que je ne comprends pas... elle me conduit vers une autre salle que je reconnais comme la salle des HOMMES... quand je remonte, nos regar5ds se croisent et nous nous sourions...la ville est remplie de cafe-bars car toute la journee il y a du monde sur les terrasses qui sirotent un cafe ou une biere en regardant le monde passer... fascinante cette sarajevo... a demain.

... hill so they got us a taxi - what service. When we got in we were met by a lady and shown to our rooms but she said "I still need to clean, but my son he very busy he come later to see you" any questions were answered with a short but good attempt at English then, "my son he come" or Leah getting a pat on the back. We hung around a bit so we could both get a shower as we were both feeling pretty disgusting after our 12 hour bus ride with the smokers. It was almost ...

... The locals looked on in bemusment as a few of us on the way back to the hostel reenacted the assassination of ArchDuke Franz Ferndinand on the street where World War One was sparked in 1914. Took a trip, via what was sniper alley, to the excellent tunnel museum - which tells the (Bosnian side of the...) story of the war. During the siege of Sarajevo these 800m long tunnels under ...

... another bridge where the first two victims of Sarajevo were reported, the market place where about 85 people died when it got shelled, one of the many public parks where people are buried, because there was no space left on the cemeteries (!) and so on..... When we had seen all this we went to a big mosque in Bascarsija to look around. Suddenly a Bosnian guy asked us where we were from. We got into a talk. He called a friend and off we were. First some personal ...

... We began to edge out of her apartment. She proceeded to take us to other hostels. Finally, we came to the Halilovics. They were dressed in pajamas, not too surprising since it was 7am when we arrived. They were full too which apparently does not happen too often as there are "few tourists in Sarajevo because bad propaganda". But the couple took us in and readied their living room as a secondary sobe for us to sleep. Then we would move upstairs to a ...

... idea, especially with all that surplus weaponry nearby. At night Michelle and I dined on pizza and pivo (beer) at one of the many restaurants on the river's edge and watched large bats circling the lampposts. There was a small stage set up in the valley just across the river from us where a middle-aged Turkish woman wailed into the microphone while playing a jazzy disco melody on her keyboard. I love Arabesque music; it's so off-key obnoxious yet catchy at the same time.