Welcome to Sarajevo

Its pouring down in Sarajevo and its such a relief to escape the opressing heat! We arrived here on Friday morning after a night in Mostar. Sarajevo is truely a beatuiful city, despite the many buildings which still remain either bombed-out or pock-marked by schrapnel and bullets. There is not a building that has not been touched. The oldest part of the city if cobbled stoned and contains lots of mosques, churches and synagoges within close proximity. Yesterday we went on a tour organised by the hostel we are staying at.

Our guide Sonny was 13 years old during the siege. He absolutely hates the UN and told us straight out how useless they were!
We saw the tunnel dug by hand under the airport which connected the city to the outside world and gave the citizens a life line during the war. We also visited the old Jewish graveyard where Serbian snipers shot civillians in the valley below. Sonny said there were countless stories of snipers shooting people dead through their windows while they were eating dinner in their apartments, or just letting them know they were being watched by shooting holes in water canisters being carried home (people had to wait hours in line to get water). The snipers would also kills peoples pets while they were being walked. All this was done to destroy moral.

The food is great here. It consists either of grilled spicy meats or stews, all served with turkish bread. However, most of the restaurants are muslim owned so they dont serve alcohol. Bosnian coffe is dark and syrupy and served with turkisk delight.