Sarajevo
Trip Start
Nov 21, 2007
1
132
158
Trip End
Oct 01, 2008
Sarajevo,
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Sunday, August 24, 2008
How can a city with so much turmoil end up with great vitality and spirit? We both we interested to see how Sarajevo would leave us feeling. Lonely Planet talked it up so much we thought there was no way it would ever live up to the "bible's" (what lots of travelers call Lonely Planet) expectations. For those that don't know (which we did not until we came here), the city was basically where WW I started and then the war from 1992 - 1995 is still apparent on almost every street you walk down. The history has been rocky to say the least.
First of all, we stayed at a Hostel called Haris Hostel. This place was not the nicest place in the world and only had one shower. However, we are not sure we have stayed in a hostel with so many great, like-minded travelers. People were great to provide help, suggestions and thoughts. We heard that Haris's city tour was great, but he did not have enough people for the first day we were in the city which we were sad to hear (because we wanted to see the city and we were finding it hard to motivate ourselves!)
So, we slept in and took care of some personal stuff.
cool drive
We roamed around the Bascarsija area which is the central market area and lots of things to keep tourists busy with like shopping, eating and drinking coffee. We also made it to the History Museum which was a one room museum (our kind of place) filled with photos, documents and examples of life in Sarajevo from 1992 - 1995 when the city was under siege. This was a great exhibit of how life was in Sarajevo during the war. We then sat and had not one but TWO coffees. This is what the locals do. Most Bosnians are Muslim and don't drink. Therefore, their social time with friends is drinking coffee. We liked it so much we went to another place and had another cup! The second time, we had it served in traditional Bosnian style (see the pic below). While we were enjoying our coffee, we heard a guy from the mosque singing from the balcony of the minaret. Muslims sing/chant when it is time for people to pray during the day. In Sarajevo, we could see and hear the men singing from the minaret (not over a loud speaker) since there were "local" mosques everywhere in town, at one point Layton counted 16 that he could see from one location, which we had never seen before...pretty unique and traditional way to call people to prayer. After dinner, we headed to the Sarajevo Brewery to have a few beers which ended a great day in this wonderful city.Our second day we did get to go on Haris's tour! Yea! So glad because he helped us understand from a local's perspective what it was like to live in Sarajevo during the war.
beautiful lake near Bosnian border
First of all, you have to know that Haris is only 20. He started the hostel when he was about 15, and it was the 3rd Hostel in all of Bosnia. They say the war ended childhoods early, and Haris is a perfect example of that. He is friendly but also means all business too. We would say he has done a great job of making a name for himself, and we think he is helping Sarajevo build its future too!On the tour, we went to the tunnel museum that claims to have saved Sarajevo. This tunnel was used to smuggle food, water and help to the city during the war since the Serb forces surrounded the city. We also went to a look out point where we could see the different parts of the city and how it is still separated today between the Serbians, Bosnians and Croats. We could also see the famous yellow Holiday Inn where the journalists and aid workers were kept safe in the city during the war. Haris then took us to 'sniper alley.' This is what it is...however, how can one area be called 'sniper alley' because NONE of the city was ever safe for anyone. The Serbs would shoot anyone for no reason, even people waiting in long lines for food. This was something neither one of us had much knowledge about...this war seems so unconceivable until you walk around the city and see ALL of the destruction from just a little 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 understanding of the war and what people went through on a different level.
FOOD...now this place had GREAT food! We had two meals of the same thing and might have gone back for a third if we had a little more room in our stomach! This meal is called Cevapcici which is made of fresh pita bread, raw onions and WONDERFUL ground meat rolled in to links and then grilled. Haris told us we had to have it with the cream cheese too which Jana absolutely loved. This seriously has been one of our favorite meals on the trip! We also enjoyed the coffee. We felt like this was the first city where we "enjoyed the cafe life" like you are supposed to in Europe.
RANDOM
We had another great example of girl drivers who are TERRIBLE. Yes, she was about 3 years old in a cute, little, battery-operated car. She and her dad were just out on a stroll when all of a sudden we saw her run right into the wall! She had just been looking the other way and not even paying attention! SO FUNNY!
