Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Europe

Today started out with a nice breakfast at Majda’s of French toast. It wasn’t traditional French toast that I’m used to in the US, but it was more savory. It was served with a few different toppings that you could spread on top. There was a marmalade made from dates, a salsa made from peppers and onions, and greek yoghurt. It was a very interesting mix, but it was tasty. I hung around at the hostel until about 10:30am talking to the other travelers and got my things packed up.

I said bye to the other hostellers and went for a walk around the old town. It was a beautiful morning, so it was a perfect time to check out the city. I went back to the old bridge, walked around the small cobbled streets, went to the mosque and climbed the minaret. I have never been afraid of heights, but even this thing made me a little uncomfortable. It was a very very narrow spiral staircase all the way to the top of the minaret. It was lucky that no one else was coming down the staircase while I was going up because there is absolutely no way we could have both fit.

The view from the top of the minaret made it worth it though. It was really impressive, and the fact that there was some sun made it even better. I had planned on staying in the city until 3pm but I realized that the old city is really small and I’d seen everything I wanted to see by 12:15pm. I remembered that there was a bus leaving for Sarajevo at 1pm as well, so I decided to get that bus instead.

It was a stunning ride to Sarajevo! I never expected the scenery to be so amazing, but the gorges were massive, the mountains were high, and the water was a beautiful blue-green color. The bus ride lasted just over two hours and I managed to avoid the rain almost the whole day. Unfortunately, the mixture of the sunny skies and the dirty bus windows meant that I couldn’t get any nice pictures from the bus. It’s a real shame because it was some awesome scenery.

I got off the bus and hopped on the number 1 tram into the city center. It was a really old, rickety tram that looks like something that was abandoned for ten years, then spray painted. It was a heck of an uphill walk from the center to Haris Hostel where I’m staying for the night. At least it wasn’t in the rain. I met Haris, moved my stuff into my dorm room and headed back out to check out the city. I went down into the main square and had a bite to eat. It was a traditional Bosnian meal of a large pita bread filled with meatballs and a creamed cheese on the side. It was very good. While I was eating I saw two Americans walk by who I had met on the bus from Kotor yesterday, Jake and Annabel. They are going on a tour in the city tomorrow and have invited me along, so I might go with them. It would be good to be shown around the city and having the war explained.

I walked around the city for a couple of hours and then made my way back to the hostel. I am in a six bed dorm and it looks like so far there are only three of us in there. One of them is an indian guy who is travelling around while he’s here for business. He’s probably about 35 years old and he got wasted just sitting in the hostel. He was drinking white wine when I came in at about 7pm, and by 7:30pm he’d finished the bottle. He then went out and got a few beers for good measure. He’s a really annoying drunk. He keeps telling me the same stories over and over and laughing at really random things. I’m typing now hoping that he will leave me alone, but it’s not working. I think it’s going to be a long night…