Mostar

After Sarajevo, I stopped in the small town of Mostar on my way down to Dubrovnik in Croatia. Mostar was a great little town with and old section of cobbled streets lined with market shops and cafes, all surrounding a very striking bridge across the emerald green river. I had only intended to stay in Mostar for a day, two at the most, but got stuck there for 3 days due to a very sparse bus schedule.

Unfortunately, expensive, and few internet cafes have prevented me from being able to upload any photos and videos, but there are a lot to come...

Photos: Mostar
Video: Mostar at Night

Sarajevo

After initially planning on just passing through Bosnia, I was convinced to stop off for a few days in Sarajevo if I could spare them. I have to admit, I was very pleasantly surprised. Sarajevo lies in a valley, surrounded by mountains on all sides completely covered in lush vegetation; very picturesque.

The first day was spent lounging after the long, sleepless bus ride. The hostel was very well placed directly next to a tastey, cheap bakery and across the street from a square that`s part of the old town containing lots of cafes. The coffee here is excellent, I`ve been lapping up the cappacinos, and I don`t even really like coffee.

I spent the second day on a tour that talked a lot about the war with the Serbs (pictures are forthcoming). We visited a tunnel that was built to connect Sarajevo with outer Bosnia for ferrying of supplies, men, etc. We saw the sniper alley where people were constantly gunned down by serbs in the hills, and visited the Jewish grave yard used by the snipers. It was very disturbing and and disconcerting to hear first hand account of the war, and especially the total and utter failure of the UN in so many different areas.

Last night I arrived in Mostar, a small town 2 1/2hrs south of Sarajevo, for a brief stop over before heading to Dubrovnik in Crotia tomorrow morning.

Photos: Sarajevo
Video: Sarajevo Panorama

Bus`n it to Sarajevo

I am beginning to realize exactly how spoiled I was by the bus rides in Turkey...

I knew that the bus ride to Sarajevo wasn`t going to be pretty, but apparently my expectations weren`t quite low enough. The ride involved taking one bus across the border with Serbia, over to Nish (about 5hrs) where I would transfer to another bus to continue on to Sarajevo (about 9hrs). Things started out decent enough, the bus from Sofia to Nish, while a bit old, was pretty roomy and had pretty good AC. The 5hrs passed fairly quickly with the help of my iPod.

We got to Nish, had a brief respite before boarding bus number two. I boarded to find seats with half the leg room of an economy class alirline seat, no AC, and prison guard style spot lights to light the walk way from above, strategically positioned to shine directly through ones eyelids no matter how tightly they were held shut. Needless to say, the 9hr ride was a sweat soaked, knee and neck dabilitating journey...I tried to look at it as `training` for Africa.