Sarajevo
Two days in Sarajevo so far. The bus trip from Skopje was a bit of a mission, with the drivers, friendly that they were, turning the air conditioning off and on all night, meaning we froze and baked, baked and froze. That combined with regular passport checks as we crossed into Serbia and then Bosnia kept me awake almost the whole night. Chooch was a bit luckier - maybe all that time on Japanese trains has paid off for her?
We got into the international bus station at about 10 in the morning and got some cash out from the money machine there when a guy from Miami (of course)and his friend came up to us and asked us if we were looking for a place to stay. He was from the place we were planning to stay at anyway so it worked out well when he set us up with a ride across town to the Hostel Ljubicica (Mula Mustafe Bašeskije 65, Bašearšija, Sarajevo, 71000, Bosnia-Herzegovina). 10 euros a night still seems a bit steep to us coming from Xinjiang, but seems to be the going rate in most of the Balkans. The hostel is very popular and at times it can be tricky to get much sleep with so many people around. On the plus side it is a cool place to meet people - I met my first Icelanders yesterday.
Sarajevo itself is an amazing place. We had expectations related to the 92-95 war, traces of which still scar the majority of buldings, but the thing that strikes one most about this city is how the citizens have got back on living. The majority of the famous buildings, mosques and churches have been restored. Life goes on.
One gets a strong message that it is living that is important here - whether it is in the many cafes that, in that oh so European way, are scattered through the city, or in the smiles and friendliness of the local people. We watched the German team beat Argentina in such a cafe this evening and a large crowd gathered, with roughly half supporting each side, and it was really nice to be part of the crowd, especially when the game went into penalties and each side cheered the goals.
Tomorrow night we head up to a dance party above the city. Looking forward to that!
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