July 11:
Sarajevo, Bosnia
Arrived at six am,
a bit late as our bus broke down for over an hour on our trip. Slept about six
hours on the bus though so didn't mind. Met Azra (friend from Innsbruck) and her sister and then went
to their home! Had an amazing breakfast that their mom made for us. Homemade
donut like things with Nutella! Then since we all had not slept much we
went to sleep again! Woke up to delicious coffee and got ready to see the capital
of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Sarajevo! Population of about 400,000 and nearly
doubled when all the students are in town! A really different city than you
would expect! Half of it is typical European but the other half is somewhat
Turkish and Asian influenced! Makes it really interesting.
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| Sarajevo |
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| Souveneirs |
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| Mosque towers |
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| Streets |
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| Eternal Flame Memorial |
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| Strawberry tram! |
There are three
major religions here and also three presidents from the three religions!
Muslims, Catholics, Protestants. You can hear the Muslim signal five times a
day blaring throughout the city which reminds them to do their prayers.
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| Mosque |
For a snack I tried a spinach pita which was
quite good! Azra's potato pita was even better! A really hot day too, 34 degrees celsius which is over 90 degrees
Fahrenheit.
There are mountains
around Sarajevo also which make it that much better. There was a war from
1992-1995 where Serbia attacked Bosnia. You can still see in a lot of places
where it was affected. Azra and her family went to Germany for four years
during this. Sarajevo is also one of the places where WWII started, as Franz
Ferdinand was stabbed on a bridge here. Okay enough history lessons for now!
Well one more thing, Sarajevo had the Olympics in 1984!
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| The bridge where Franz Ferdinand was stabbed |
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| What far too many building looks like as a result of the recent war |
Walked around and
explored with our great natives! Then went to this cool Hookah place and just
chilled their for a few hours talking and relaxing. As soon as we finally
decided to leave, we stood up and it started raining but the sun was shining! Then
there was a lightning strike not far away and a loud thunder! I love thunderstorms, it was great!
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| Hookah place |
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| Ally, Azra, and I |
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| Raining |
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| Downpour |
The little Bosnian I know:
doberdan (hello) hvalla (thank you) nasdravia (cheers) ciao (goodbye) prostitit
(excuse me). Basically Im fluent. Haha! And I know I butchered spelling those
words, but at least I know how to pronounce them!
Went to have dinner. Ally tried the typical sausage like meat here that is famous. I had an
amazing BBQ chicken salad, can't get over how cheap everything is here. My
salad was six Marke which is 3 euro! Walked through the cool part of the city
more and then went to try their famous drink: Rakjia. We all tried
different flavors; cherry, walnut, and honey. They failed to tell us it's not drank
like a normal shot. You apparently only drink half of it and then have the rest
later. Well Ally and I took it all at once and Azra's sister, Lucky had the most
shocked facial expression! It was hilarious!
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| Ready to try it! |
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| Amazing sisters |
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| Wiping off sweat..but making it into a dance move! |
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| Bosnia Plank |
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| Gorgeous, not a full moon yet! |
After we walked
through the city more, had Bueno ice cream and then went to a nice park and
eventually back home to make CDs for our mini road trip tomorrow!
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| Kicking the air.. Ally failing to capture the moment about 10 times. |
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| Too late. |
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| Power Rangers! |
July 12:
Excited for today!
Mini road trip to Mostar and also to some waterfalls a few hours outside of
Sarajevo! Going to be 97 today too! Crazy! 39 degrees Celsius!
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| Interesting house! |
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| My secret addiction |
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| Music and hot weather! |
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| This is Bosnia? |
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| Looks like Asia to me! |
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| Love it. |
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| Absolutely breathtaking. |
After driving for quite a bit, we made it to our destination: amazing
waterfalls in Kravecia. Definitely in the middle if nowhere but so
worth the drive! Don't believe I've ever actually swam in and around
waterfalls. Absolutely gorgeous and extremely refreshing!
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| Fake? |
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| Looks so refreshing! |
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| Let's jump in! |
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| Perfect on a hot day! |
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| The gang! |
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| Loving it. |
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| Wow. |
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| Soaking it in... literally! |
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| Panorama shot |
After swimming around and in the waterfalls for awhile, we then dried off and had some ice cream. Ally had a disposable waterproof camera which I can't wait to see those pictures! We then headed to our next desintation; Blagaj.
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| Very old village we drove by |
We had dinner at Blagaj which has a cave and mountains with extremely
fresh water. Delicious dinner too!
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| Another hidden gem |
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| The cave! |
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| Our view from our dinner table |
Waiter failed to give us water, so I went
down by the river and filled up our glasses. Insanely clean, fresh, cold, and
delicious.
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| Filling up! |
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| Did this about four times! |
After dinner we
went to visit Mostar. A really cool city. The bridge was destroyed in the war but
was rebuilt and an icon of Mostar. Definitely an old city with an amazing river
going through it. Even with it being 39 degrees, the water was still quite
chilly.
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| Cobblestone streets |
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| Shops |
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| The river |
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| The Bridge |
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| View from the bridge |
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| Another view |
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| Very old buildings |
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| How relaxing does that look? |
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| Lucky and I! |
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| Another view |
After seeing part
of the city we went to a cafe by day, club by night. But get this, it's inside of
a cave! Very unique to say the least and chilly in there which was great. We
had some coffee and relaxed for a bit.
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| Amazing setting |
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| Why not put a bar inside a cave? |
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| Enjoying a bit of relaxing time! |
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| Cave Plank |
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| Lock her up! |
We eventually left to go back to
Sarajevo.Guess what happened
next on our drive? We were stopped by a cop for speeding! Hilarious because the cops just
hold up a sign when they want to stop you and expect you to pull over. No
ticket though! Lucky sure is lucky! Had more jam out sessions on the ride home
and held our breath through so many tunnels!
July 13:
Our ;ast morning in
Bosnia! How did this trip go by so quickly? I love Bosnia though, especially
since Azra and her sister showed us around and told us a lot about the city and
history. Woke up to another breakfast and then went to a giant park to walk
around for a bit.
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| Mini waterfall |
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| The Park |
We then went to a
tunnel for quite the history lesson. As I said before, Bosnia had a war from
1992-95 with Serbia and Sarajevo was almost completely surrounded by Serbian
forces during this time. Those left in the city needed to get out and they built
a secret tunnel that took over four months to complete and ended up freeing a
lot of people in Sarajevo. Insane that a war this bad happened just 16 years
ago. Many people lost family members and had a drastic impact on their lives.
The city is definitely being rebuilt, but there are many remains and reminders
of destroyed buildings around the city.
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| Entrance sign |
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| Just a random house where the tunnel began |
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| Visible signs from the war |
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| The entrance |
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| The map |
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| The tunnel |
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| What saved many people |
After our history lesson, we went back to the house
for an amazing homemade vegetable lasagna that their mom made for us! Wow! Eventually it was time to head to the airport to catch our flight to Istanbul,
Turkey!
One last video for our friends!
