Day 20 - Mixed Bag

I don't know what to say about Sarajevo. The Winter Olympic City of 1984. The besieged city of 1992 - 1995. 11,000 people died, women and children included. 11 years now the track the city has returned to normal life. But I feel a saddness I can't seem to shake. Sitting in the lobby bar at the Holiday Inn where international jounalists could safely relax during the war was a surreal moment. Just metres down the road from it was dubbed Sniper Alley. If you were anywhere near that strip of road you were targetted by snipers on the hill. The journalists would have drank beer in the lobby and chatted merrily about another world.


L: Holiday Inn. There are some bullet marks at the base of the sign; M: The only completely rebuilt building in Sarajevo. It's a shopping and office complex. R: UN vehicles parked outside. Typical their HQ would occupy such a fancy premise.


The streets of Sarajevo.


L: View of city from one of many cemetaries above the city; R: Grave of Bosnia's first president Alija Izetbegovic. It's manned 24hrs by a military guide as sign of respect.


L: After everything my fellow hostellers and I did find the energy to go out to a local pub. I danced on the table like I usually do, R: Some new Bosnian friends.