| Page Views: 297 Last Visit to Sarajevo: March, 2007 | SARAJEVO!!! SO EXCITED by catherineneill - last update: Jun 5, 2007 |
We arrived late in Sarajevo after a looooong all day train from croatia. It was dark and when we arrived we stood around trying to work out what to do. The train station in sarajevo is the eeriest thing ever. a big empty arrivals hall with 3 cafes and a 'tourist information' shack. I tried to communicate to the guy there (it was a 12 year old boy) and said 'can you tell us where X hostel is' ........he had no idea what we were saying and a dodgy looking couple tried to take us in their car.
Luckily the post office is right next door - we changed money and used the phone booth to call the hostel ..........the hostel man said 'DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES WAIT AT THE TRAIN STATION - walk up to the holiday inn instead and wait there'
The post office lady also looked at our bulging wallets and shook her head, 'no no no, you make in underwear money......many bad men'
I had the feeling that money in my underwear would NOT deter any bad men, but we obliged.
A quick drive with our host in the back of a clapped out lada through the ruins into the ottoman quarter, a large blue mosque and finally a climb uphill in first gear through the ottoman graveyard up cobbled streets to the hostel.
It was, and to this day is, the eeriest city i have ever been in. And ive been to many. Maby it was due to living near a graveyard, or the fact that hearing the Muslim call to prayer in europe echoing off the mountains freaked me out. |
|  | Ottoman Quarter I really cant describe how STRANGE the ottoman area is. You see women in headscarves sitting in bars, the call to prayer bounces off the mountains, there are mosques on every corner. And you are in europe! And then we saw beautifully dressed bosnian women eating in the same pricey restaurants as us! A jehovas witness tried to convert us aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Down the old cobbled streets there are carpet shops, arabic signs, halal restaurants...........its SO STRANGE and still so very eerie. |
| | Uptown Not much to see here in contrast to the culture of the ottoman quarter......lots of falling apart buildings, a few shells............buses drove past with 'UNHCR courtesy of Japan' on the side............we walked from the new part (train station) to the ottoman quarter looking for mcdonalds (we try to eat one in every country we go to) but to no avail.
You all remember sarajevo, its the place where the assassination that sparked WWI took place and was the city sieged (one of the longest in military history) in the war of Bosnia. Go see for yourself! Its not dangerous............. |
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 Comments for catherineneill about Sarajevo | | | | |
Jim_Eliason Wed Dec 19, 2007 03:18 UTC
Great page Catherine! |
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