Hotel Octagon Sarajevo

... to the ‘Balkan café’ a funky bar/live music venue that later on that night would host a evening of jazz meets Sevda (local Bosnian music - a bit soviet, a bit middle eastern, very cool) and we talked some more. It was hard to understand a lot of what Kovacs was saying (he’s prone to a rant or two) but from what I could understand he considered his religion as ‘Heart’, he enjoyed drinking šljivovica (local brandy) which he keeps in a ...

I was back in Bosnia this year to explore some other cities and to (again) visit the film festival. For me this visit was part of a much bigger trip which went from Italy to Berlin (via Croatia, Bosnia, Hungary, Poland)

This time i decided to invite two Dutch friends. We would meet up in Mostar and be traveling together in Bosnia for twelve days. I would be guiding them around.. since i have been here several times before.

The cities we visited were Mostar ...

... br>That was an amazing view. Two Korean guys took a photo of me and I saw
they were trying to light a mini hookah they bought. What's crazy is
one of the guys speaks English, german and Korean because his parent
migrated to Austria when he was young.



After the tour I just headed back to the hostel. There, I started my
drinking games with two guys from ...

... history, when in 1914 Gavrilo Princip assassinated Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, the leading cause of World War I.
Another reminder of the recent war is the artillery scared Library which was once the old town hall. A beautiful example of Austro-Hungarian architect.

It amazes us that in 1984 it hosted the Winter Olympics than only 8 years later it had become a war zone that lasted for four years ...

... But perhaps even more sad than that is the history of Bosnia and the Balkan Wars. Whereas Slovenia escaped with only a week of war, and croatia was moderately successful in defending its territories, Bosnia was one of the most ravaged areas in the Balkans. The Serb Army had no doubts about making the Bosnians pay for trying to declare independence and pretty much razed down most buildings in Saravejo, Mostar and other important bosnia cities. And its ...

... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1031951/ <--looks good Los *******os 2007 Mexico http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0841922/ <-- looks good too Boogie 2008 Romania http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1132578/ Srebrenica's Cenotaph 2008 Bosnia Divorce Albanian style 2008 Albania If you are watching this mum 2008 Bosnia (another film about Srebrenica) Buick Riviera 2008 Croatia http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0995712/ Snow 2008 Bosnia http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1146295 ...

Sarajevo reminded me a lot from Helsinki. It was a bit dusty, odd atmosphere but I felt like I belonged there. I could easily think about doing exchange studies in Sarajevo from a year or so. And I think its a perfect location too. In The Shade its around +40 Celsius degrees. I dont want to be complaining since I know its getting worse. I wonder how much does that make in the ...

... cheap (30 NZ dollars) in NZ! We,ve really struggled with the Hungarain money however as 131 Hungarian = 1 NZ - not easy to convert at all! The following day we got up early in the dark to head on the metro to the train station to get the 12 hr day train to Sarajevo (as no night trains). Unfortunately julia left her ipod camera charger and my conversion plug at the hostel, but it was too late to go back. Our only major issue came at about 7pm when after many border ...

... 3) Lonely Planet talks up the tunnel museum a lot but then fails to tell you how to get there. Turns out, you really can't get there by public transportation - you have to take a tram and then a cab, so you might as well sign yourself up for a tour. We balked at our hostel owner's offer of round-trip transportation for 8 euro, but this turned out to be a mistake as the cheapest tours are 10 euro and they only leave once a day. He says: This is where our opinions tend to ...

... pot and consisted of a stew type meal full of potatoes and meat that was so tender it fell apart at one touch. It was very thick and rich and flavoured with herbs. Perfect on a rainy night. The other meal, called the 'Sarajevo Plate' had many parts. First, there was the meat, as tender as the stewed meat and deliciously flavoured. Next came the vegetable selection: onions (stuffed with meat), green pepper (stuffed with meat) and grape leaves (stuffed ...