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Sarajevo taster

I arrived in Sarajevo's East or Christian quarter at around 4pm after a 8 hour bus ride. The road from Montenegro was like nothing I had ever experienced and crossing into Bosnia (like all Balkans crossings was very easy handing your passport to your bus assistant and them getting it stamped for you) saw us on the narrowest and poorest maintained road in Europe...A Bosnian welcome road...what an impression. About 10 minutes out of the checkpoints gorge we hit palatial highways.

Prayers during Ramadan
 at Bey's Mosque
Taking a cab from the East Station is my best advice it is about 7km into town and in 35'c heat not really what you want to welcome you to the city...despite thinking of all my hard core backpacking friends who would have done it, I figured the Israeli I had befriended on the bus would get me the best price! €9 each later and we were deposited in the central backpacking district also the posh old town!

Bey's Mosque 
I was helped to a new hostel in the centre of the city where I was to able to arrange to stay on my return with René in a couple of days. That night I took a gander around the city. Walked through the old Turkish quarter and admired the liberal approach to dress and Islam shared in previously war torn city. Over the next couple of days my heart would feel like each of those bullets went through it. The hardships and cruelty these people went through during the Serbian/Croat offensive was something I had seen each night on TV as a young teenager but the ravages of war reminded me of how basic human life is at threat everyday, regardless if you have a flat screen tv or internet, white skin or black, religion, creed, sexuality or sympathy.



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Location: Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Comments

  1. Anonymous6 September 2011 at 05:23

    Hey Jojo. Great reading your blogs. Sounds like an incredible journey. I'm back from Sri Lanka and already mourning the sunny shores.
    Will chat next time I see you on skype.
    Lots of love. Debs x

    ReplyDelete

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