Hotel Star Sarajevo

... It’s a sombre reminder of what these people went through, and I couldn’t help but feel guilty of being an Australian citizen, we’re so removed from this sort of thing, tucked away in our little corner of the world. Makes me wonder why we have an army at all? Then I remembered it’s so our ex leader could follow the USA’s ex leader into a war that we had no business being in. Why can’t we be like Switzerland, neutral and good with ...

... are stunning, oh so stunning and the small shopfronts along the cobbled walkways amidst the pine forests in the background makes me feel like i have stepped back through time.
I rdered a local delicacy of sausage, turkish bread, onions and butter curds yesterday evening and was pleasantly surprised allbeit slightly overwhelmed by the proportion of meat. I tried some local pivo (beer) and took a stroll around, perhaps it's just the ...

... will whilst its supplies diminished. To survive, the Bosnians dug a tunnel that let under the city airport's runway, behind Serb forces and into the basement of a Bosnian family living outside the siege. The tunnel carried arms, food, medicine, and even an oil pipe (!!) to keep Sarajevo alive.    The family in question's house is now a museum. Being outside the city it was slightly difficult to get to - we took a tram to the end of the ...

... other language was spoken by either of us. Im pretty sure that we were talking about completely opposite things. But it was fun, and you dont often times get to "talk" to someone who understands absolutely nothing that you tell him. Finally a young girl came in and interpreted. She cleared up ALL my problems, including even where I could catch a bus to dubrovnik, speaking as an interpreter between me and the old man. He was quite a well informed guy ...

... are subtitled in English! What a relief! I also managed to buy tickets for almost every single movie i want to see. Right now i have a total of 19 tickets on my desk. I hope to buy another one or two tomorrow, so i can pass 20. :) The fees for the movies are super cheap. Most vary from 4km to 7km. Which is 2.00 to 3.50 Euro! WOW! I would go to cinema much more often when prices are like that in Holland.... Funny thing as well: just around the corner of ...

I was pleasantly surprised on the bus ride from dubrovnik to sarajevo. The landscape in Bosnia is actually quite stunning and dramatic. There are mountains everywhere, and we drove along a river for much of the ride...it almost feels like you're in the alps! as pretty as the scenery is, i read a warning somewhere not to wander off too much because there are still land mines everywhere!! Being ...

... the agricultural museum. Had a nice meal that night at pizza hut, actually a fairly classy place here serving soup with the pizza. On our second day we headed over the danube river into Buda (on the other side of the river) and up the hill to the castle complex. This had amazing views over the whole city, particularly from Fishermans Bastion which was an amazing almost turkish looking wall which you could walk along the top of. This hill was the touristy area and made ...

... probably tainted by our accommodations, which were by far the worst of the trip so far (maybe even including the ferry from Montenegro to Italy - see future entry). We have mostly stayed in private accommodations (i.e., people's houses) while in the former Yugoslavia, and except for Sarajevo this has worked out great. For example, when we were boarding the bus from Dubrovnik to Mostar, a woman approached us and said that her friend had a room available if we were interested ...

... were hauling all of our fairly hefty bags, it was decided that Dan would leave the bags with Gabrielle and go looking for the hostel, which we assumed was somewhere in the immediate vicinity. Time passed. Dan reappeared occasionally before disappearing in another direction with some vague comment along the lines of 'I really think it might be up here...' We eventually did find the place, which turned out to be lovely, and checked in before heading out ...

... crowded around us, speaking in threatening serbo-croatian and gesturing wildly. After five minutes it was clear that these guys were not going to let us off easily, and so we shelled out the 26 marks each (about 18 dollars) and slinked off. Welcome to Sarajevo.

But the rough start didn't last long. Somewhere west of the center, past the Lateiner bridge - the location where Gavrilo Princip fired ...