Sarajevo, pretty scary start
Trip Start
Apr 19, 2008
1
3
6
Trip End
May 03, 2008
Sarajevo,
Sarajevo,
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Next, outside i got -BOMBARDED- by taxi drivers and other people who wanted to offer me a sleeping place. It was dark, no single person on the street and three bags on my back. Things felt scary. Especially when my friend from the hostel showed up. (i arranged a free pickup) What followed was a huge fight between the people and my friend. It got really scary. At one point i feared one of them might pull out a gun...
And only because they knew they wouldn't get any money. In the end the police got involved to solve the problem...
But... i am still alive. My friend told me those taxi drivers/people have been harassing other tourists as well the past months. He was very sorry.
i hope not many people from Sarajevo/Bosnia do this kind of behavior. It is very bad!
So, when i got in the hostel (Harris Youth Hostel, run by a ~20 year old guy, who was in Sarajevo during the war) i was SUPER hungry. As i said in the previous blog: i didn't have lunch/dinner for 24hrs because of the long train trip and the fact that in Belgrade they didn't want my Euro's when i had a one hour stop there. I ordered a medium pizza for about 6 Euro. Well, i don't want to know what the large version looks like because the medium was VERY BIG... it definitely made me feel better again.
I was alone in the hostel which was very good.
scenary from train
I slept for 11hrs the first night. The next morning a guy from Sheffield checked into the hostel. We talked some, head into the city and then split our ways.I decided to go to the 'Sarajevo Tunnel Museum' first. During the war the Bosnians dug a tunnel from the western part of Sarajevo to a nearby town in Bosnian territory. Because the Serbs closed down Sarajevo from the mountains it wasn't possible to get any supplies or food into the city. This tunnel solved that problem a bit... people were able to get some food and the Bosnian army received arms. However, it wasn't completely safe. The tunnel got regularly shelled and many people died when trying to fulfill this heroic task.
When i got back into the city i decided to head into Bascarsija. One of the oldest parts of the city with a big Turkish influence. The atmosphere really brings you back to medieval times. Do you know the game Assassins Creed? Well really, the cities like Damascus which you see in the game look a little bit like Bascarsija. While wandering around in Bascarsija i ran into an Australian guy who was also traveling alone in Bosnia. We decided to team up and head to the Sarajevo Olympic stadium, one of the dozen cemeteries, the Holiday Inn (the home base for journalists during the war), the bridge were Franz Ferdinand was killed, 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.
i was so hungry after not eating for 24hrs
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 stories about Bosnia, then of course the famous Cevapcici and Burek. I forgot the places we went to next, but it was local adventure big time! Bosnia!In the end the guy brought me some DVD with Bosnian films, music and pictures. We said good bye and arranged to meet the following day.
So i did. First we went to a cafe to have some traditional Bosnian coffee.
Then we went to a friend of him who is a musician. He gave a demonstration of some traditional Bosnian music. After that he took me to a mosque in Bascarsija. I was able to look inside, make pictures and also video footage. In the end we were a bit tired, so it was time for some relaxing 'Nargila' ! (water-pipe smoking) I never done this before, but it was really great.. and i felt kinda dizzy afterwards. We went to some 'Nargila' place in a nearby street at the pigeon square. It had a really nice decoration and it gave me the feeling i was in the times of Ali Baba. :)
I don't recall what we have seen more, but he also gave me a tour in the Islamic university of Sarajevo. I was able to talk to a professor there and he explained to me what lessons are given and how they do it. I told him about the situation in Holland. Geert Wilders and his movie, but also radical imams in Holland who (short summery) say non believers should be killed, are pigs, etc. Both my friend and the professor were very sad about this. Basically they pointed out the people who say this are not real believers of Islam.
View from hostel over Sarajevo
"Also, at our university we have Christian and Catholic professors and students from all religions. Everyone is welcome." It really gave me an new insight. And i was surprised how different it is compared to Holland. To my feeling such a tour and look inside a mosque or Islamic university isn't possible here. There is too many misunderstandings.
I can't remember what we have done else. But we have seen a lot. In the end he called some of his other friends and we ended up with about 4-5 people i think. I got some more dvds, music, pictures and a lot of email addresses and telephone numbers. "When you will be here again, please call us. We will arrange a sleeping place for you and tour you around" AHHH, Bosnian people! Really friendly...
The Bosnian people (i of course already knew, because i have been in Bosnia two times before) are one of the kindest i EVER met in my life. I am considered a king here.
Some small notes:
The train trip in Bosnia was very good. Much beautiful scenery. Recommended. I traveled from Strizivojna, Doboj, Zenica to Sarajevo.
A train station in Bosnia/Romania, one guy for every task: besides the machinist, someone holds the whistle to tell the machinist to leave, someone is a mechanic, someone checks the tickets, another one is selling the tickets and then there is someone who keeps an eye on the wagons. In Holland this is all done by machines or a single person. :)
On the night train the conductor will take your train ticket and give it back in the morning. He needs to do some administration work for the customs.
When you travel in Romania, Serbia, Bosnia and i guess any country in Eastern Europe by train, be sure to have a complete travel scheme with you, so you know when and where the train will stop. They will not announce anything. If you are 'lost' you will have a big chance to miss the station.. because you will not have much time to hop off.
Comments
Love it!
I love your blog and your writing style! I am submitting a couple of your phrases into a t-shirt contest in TravelPod.
Check it out:
http://www.travelpod.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8066
Louise Brown
TravelPod Community Manager
Re: Love it!
Thanks for the heads up! It is the first time i am writing about a travel and i really liked it. :) More will come for sure. Especially since i would like to become a writer/filmer about these kind of subjects as my future job. (still studying!)