Day 10: Sarajevo - dinner

Later, when voting on "Best Moment" of the trip, dinner in Sarajevo came to mind for both Justin and me. The food, the setting, the views, the company - everything was fantastic! Our waiter was a big, disheveled, sweaty guy who seemed a little suspect but, when we asked what to order, he quickly and authoritative told us what we wanted to eat. Everything was delicious but the highlight was the appetizer which appeared to be something like deep-fried dinner rolls slathered in a sour-creamy type butter. Mmmmm....devine! I didn't get a great shot of the beautiful views but I did get a nice one of my trusty travel companions - the iconic brothers Nee.

Day 10: Sarajevo - the lookout

It was hot (probably low to mid 90s) and yet I was determined to make it to the lookout point described in my guide book. I left Pigeon Square heading up through a residential neighbor and the graveyard beyond. Huffing and puffing a bit, I climbed a last flight of stairs onto a grassy plateau. I was greeted by the most wonderful and welcome breeze along with fantastic views of Sarajevo. It was only me and a couple at the lookout.  As I got closer to them, the voyeur in me took over and I wondered if they were lovers or simply colleagues on a break for lunch. Of course, I'll never know, but the romantic in me decided they were the happiest of couples enjoying a magical afternoon together.

Day 10: Sarajevo - cemetery

Many of us are probably familiar with images of the Sarajevo sports stadium whose field became a graveyard during the war.  Because of the siege, it was nearly impossible to move anything in and out of the city including corpses.  Along with the stadium (which I didn't have the opportunity to visit), there were several plots of land right outside of the city center that also became graveyards out of necessity.

Day 10: Sarajevo - Pigeon Square

Pigeon Square was, as you might imagine, full of pigeons.  Which begs the question, which came first, the pigeons or the name?   Did they build and name the square hoping the pigeons would show up?   Were the pigeons already there and they built the square so the pigeons had somewhere to hang out?  Was it originally named Mosque Square but there were more pigeons than mosques so they changed the name?   In any case, it's a beautiful setting and a great place to sit back and enjoy....the pigeons!

Day 10: Sarajevo - the city center

Central Sarajevo was all hustle and bustle.  Crowds of tourists filled pedestrian streets lined with boutiques and outdoor cafes - quite charming!  And, right in the middle of it all was this guy selling animal pelts (Sheep maybe?).  It was awesome!  I snuck this picture while standing inside the courtyard of a mosque.  I'm not sure if I was allowed to be there but, ya know, I could always pull the "dumb tourist card" if needed.

Day 10: Sarajevo - Lunch

Lunch in Sarajevo ended being one of my favorite meals of the trip. The weather was hot. We wandered through the pedestrian streets of central Sarajevo before deciding on Club 'To Be." Originally named "To Be or Not to Be, the "Not to" was crossed out in tribute to the war years when not surviving was not an option.  Our guide book urged us to "Try the daring, tongue-tickling steak in chilli chocolate."  I did and it was fantastic!

Day 10 - Sarajevo

At the bottom of the hill from our hotel was a church.  On the corner up the block sat a mosque.  In the infamous words of Rodney King, "Can we all get along?"  In Sarajevo at the moment, it seems like the answer is yes.  However, I still kept wondering, "What turned neighbor against neighbor?  These different places of worship?"  It doesn't make sense. 

Day 10: Sarajevo - bullet holes

After leaving the war museum, we passed building after building riddled with bullet holes. The owner of the apartment building on the left has gotten around to repairing them while the ones on the building to the right have gone unfilled. The bottom photo provides a closer look.

Day 10: Sarajevo - the war museum

I think you'll be able to read the description of this exhibit at the Sarajevo war museum so I won't add much.   Needless to say, I found the exhibit quite powerful.   During the trip, we were in several areas of recent, brutal conflicts and I was struck by the evil in men's hearts.  What makes neighbor turn again neighbor?   How do you hate or even kill someone you previously lived peacefully next to?   It was a bit overwhelming.

Day 10: Sarajevo

Being the main stage for one of the wars I grew up watching yet never truly understanding, Sarajevo was as sobering as I imagined.   It was also beautiful, charming and even a little bit magical.  But, we'll start with the sobering part.  One of the first things we did was visit the war museum.  One exhibit explained that the kitchen became the family hub since most kitchens are located in the center of the apartment away from windows.  Families visited with neighbors, children did homework and laundry  was dried in the kitchen amongst other activities in order to avoid sniper fire.  Another exhibit explained that classes were moved to stairwells for the same reason.   Horrifying!

Day 9: The train from Budapest to Sarajevo

Not the most picturesque picture but it's very representative of our day.  We knew that it would be a long one - about a 14-hour train ride from Budapest to Sarajevo.   What we didn't know was the dining car would de-coupled a quarter of the way through the trip leaving us with no access to food.  We didn't anticipate that the A/C on the train would be essentially ineffective in the 90+ degree termperatures.  And, of course, we couldn't have known that the train would be completely off schedule turning a 14-hour ride into 16 long hours.  So, in the picture, we have a group of hot, tired, grumpy people stranded at a train station seemingly in the middle of nowhere.  It was easily the least enjoyable day of our trip.  However, I did meet a very nice French-Canadian woman who is the on-air tennis correspondant for the Quebec version of ESPN.  We ended up running into her and her boyfriend a couple other times on the trip.