NOTE: I know I’m a few days behind. But this is going to be some serious content so buckle up.
Some of you might know that Sarajevo was the location for the Olympics in 1984. Fewer of you might remember that it was where Franz Ferdinand was assassinated sparking the First World War. Others of you might remember that there was some sort of war here. All of you would be right, but you don’t know Jack about Sarajevo.Sarajevo is an amazing city. While not as large as many of the other European capitals it is nonetheless working to outdo them all in so many ways. Yes it’s remembered for the Franz Ferdinand assassination (see the gallery), yes it was the site of the Olympics in 1984 and yes there was a war here. As part of the Serb-Bosnian conflict that raged through the 1990s Sarajevo was laid siege to for an astounding 43 months. That’s four years that the inhabitants of this city lived with fear of snipers, rocket attacks and other violence. They lived without water and electricity and had almost no contact with the outside world.
And yet, they survived. They grew stronger and heartier and they are united from all appearances. This is a melting pot of culture and religion. An Orthodox Synagogue stands only stone’s throw from an Islamic Mosque. To complete the triangle there’s a Catholic church steeples, clock, bells and all just over opposite the park.
It’s a place where the hamburger and hot dog are as popular as čevapi (meatballs but not round) and pita bread, where coffee is the national drink (they have multiple names for it that I will get to in time) and tend to spend a lot of time in cafes.
Unemployment in the country is an astounding 45% I’m told and yet, the country functions and Sarajevo leads the way. Where Mostar made me slightly uneasy, Sarajevo made me feel welcome with open arms. I felt a warm city full of life. In fact, there’s so much life there that I will return this coming weekend because I don’t feel I got it all.
Upon arrival I was somewhat wiped out. It was an early train and we all know how well I handle anything before 10am. So bags on back, friends in tow we set out for our respective hostels.
That’s when the Andrews (Tall and Small – not their real surnames) and Paul from Holland met Haris, the astounding owner of the Haris Hostel. The story goes like this (I picked up the pieces while I was there):
At age 15 Haris decided he wanted to run a hostel. The upper floor of the family house had pretty much been destroyed so they rebuilt and started with just two beds. As people came and stayed they purchased more and more until it is now a great place with an amazing community of travelers passing through. Haris is 21 now I hear and when we were there he was studying to finish some exams for uni. He’s studying tourism, go figure.
My first day there was Monday – that meant I had work to do. So I spent much of that terribly rainy day at the hostel. Josje, who I should have mentioned by now if I haven’t was there and was shocked to see me.
Josje (Who is a lovely young Dutch woman) and I met at the Alibi hostel way back in Ljubljana. We were both heading for Zagreb and were going to try and hitch a ride with some guys going that way with a car. Well I hopped the train as we all know and she stayed and tried for the ride. While I was checking out some apples in the Dolac market in the center of Zagreb I heard some people speaking English behind me. Turning around I found it to be her and some guys from her hostel there. We all remember that I was couchsurfing there right? (What up Tomi!) Well she was handing out with, of all people, someone from Sheboygan (Drew) heh. Really small world syndrome. So that was meeting number two. Through Facebook’s wall-to-wall she told me she was in Sarajevo when I was in Mostar and wanted to know when I was coming. I said Monday but she hadn’t read it. So…SURPRISE! That’s now city three. We have made plans to meet in Skopje, Macedonia on 3 July and then travel together to somewhere else in the country.
Where was I? Right, first day in Sarajevo. I basically worked until about 7pm and then went out and met Emily and Russell (see Mostar) and then Iain and Mhairi showed up (the Scots I met in Mostar). We hung out and drank a bit, Russell pretended to be one of the guys from Peter Pan (see the photo gallery again) and we generally had a great time on the beer and burger binge. Well it wasn’t really a binge, but the burgers were ‘lovely’ as the Brits might say.
There are only 7 photos in the Day 1 gallery but Day 2 and 3 are huge and you’ll love them.
KPICASA_GALLERY(SarajevoDay1)