Motel Sokak Sarajevo

... of charisma’ – he wasn’t kidding. Probably the most interesting person to talk to that I’ve ever met, we spent a while chattin to Kovacs about his life –(he was burn in Turkey, lived around the world and has been in Sarajevo for the past 3 years) his languages (10, thanks for asking) and would his boss mind if he snuck off to have a beer with us (**** the boss, and then **** the boss’ mother. Lets drink.)

Kovacs took ...

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 ...

... very much evident with a simple walk down "Snipers Alley", even 15 years after the war. Most of the buildings are condemed on side roads, being left for demolition, as they are too battered to restore. But it is an extremely slow process. I read somewhere that the unemployment rate is around 40% and this considers bosnia as one of the poorest former yugoslavian republics, although things are slightly improving. They have a beautiful skyscraper, a ...

... over 10 years ago. Haris then took us to a 15th century Bosnian home. The city keeps a house as a museum for visitors to understand what people lived like way back when. It was a nice diversion from all the sadness we had seen up until this part of the tour. We wandered around the old and central part of town with Haris before ending the tour. We had a few hours before our bus. So, some of us watched "Welcome to Sarajevo." This is by no means a great movie, but it did help the ...

... Sarajevo has definitely been one of the most unique experiences of my entire life. Since i am old enough to remember hearing about the seige on the news, it is just so surreal actually being here, and i just canīt even grasp that this city lived in terror for those years. Everywhere you go there are reminders of what happened; buildings that are destroyed, or covered with holes, pictures ...

... 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 ...