Waking up today and going down to breakfast was a large wakeup call. Actually there were two wake up calls. First of all, our across the hall mates, had a fight. It must have been really big, because the girl decided to leave the tour. Secondly we found out our hotel was very muslim, and there were few girls showing their shoulders. It was defiantly the push I needed to go back to my room and change before we went out for the rest of the day. I changed to a dress that covered my shoulders instead of the spaghetti straps I had before.

We had a 9am-1pm tour set up with a local Bosnian guide. Since we were all out late the night before, not many of us were quite ready for it. Our local guide was a girl in her twenties. She had trained at university I think to be a doctor, but could not find work in Bosnia, so now was a full time tour guide. Apparently like the rest of the world, university graduates are having a really had time getting their first jobs.

Our first stop on our tour, was to go to the The Sarajevo Tunnel. It was an underground tunnel constructed between March and June of 1993 during the Siege of Sarajevo in the midst of the Bosnian War. This was out chance to learn more about the history of Bosina and what the war was like. Our guide was very helpful in bringing the stories to life, since she lived it.

So short recap on the Siege of Sarajevo. So the city of Sarajevo was completely cut off from the rest of the Bosnian territory by the Serbian Forces. Sarajevo is surrounded by mountains on all sides, so the Serbs could hide in the hills and release mortars on the city. The Airport outside the city was held by UN Forces, and had Bosnian territory on the other side. The Bosnians built the tunnel under the airport, so that they could transfer food and supplies into the city during the siege. The tunnel was used from 1992 to Feb 1996.

Our tour guide told us that her memories of the war are fading, since she was really young at the time that this was all happening. She does remember that often the telephone lines were out, so that the people in the city, would spend their day crossing the city going to visit their relatives to make sure they had survived the night, all the while creeping building to build, car to car to avoid gun shots and mortars. It is terrifying to think about. I wonder why the families would not just move in together instead of making the dangerous trip each day to visit.

Back to the tunnel museum. We started out by watching a video on the history of the war. It was crazy to see the bombing of buildings we had just been exploring the night before. We were able to walk a 25m stretch of the tunnel. It was hand dug, on both sides, and they miraculously met in the middle. The tunnel was short. I wasn’t able to stand upright. Less than a year after it was created, a small railway track was laid and small carts were built to transport supplies through the tunnel they also put in a 12-megawatt voltage cable, pumps for pumping underground water, an oil pipe, and permanent lighting.

There were two major problems with the tunnel. The first was flooding by underground waters which could rise to levels waist deep. The second was air quality. The tunnel had no ventilation and consequently everyone entering the tunnel was forced to wear a mask. However this was the lifeline for this city, allowing families to escape and food and supplies to come in.

We climbed back into the bus and drove into the city centre to  explore the city. Sarajevo is divided into two parts, the catholic side and the muslim side. We started on the Catholic side. It was very similar to a lot of european cities we had seen before, so needless to say, we were not that interested in it. But it was beautiful. They also had a lot of the modern stores in this part of town. Like Addias, Puma, Gucci. One thing of note that we did see, was in Bosnia, they have some street art. Basically they have left some of the mortar shell impacts that are on the ground and filled them with red paint. They are now scattered across the city in memory of the war.

This brought us to the “Sarajevo Meeting of Cultures” is the message of an inlaid marker on Ferhadija St., near Gazi Husrev Bey’s Bezistan. The location of the marker, “Sarajevo – Meeting-place of Cultures”, is unique in that it is right where these two cultural influences clearly meet and it seems to be the very spot in town where, with one step, you can cross from one culture to another. On your “eastern” side you have a scene that looks very much like Turkey. If you turn toward “the west”, you’ll be met by Venetian buildings, and Catholic churches.

We saw some of the mosques, walked the main streets of the muslim district, and was lead to the main government building. This building was totally burnt down during the Siege of Sarajevo, and is now rebuilt. We learned that all government buildings were painted in stripes so that the public could easily identify them. This included libraries, schools, post offices, you get the idea. Our guide told us about the confusing current government structure that Bosnia has. The short version is that they have three prime ministers that are in office for 4 months of the year, then switch so that another prime minister with opposing points of view take over. This results in not a lot of things getting done in government.

We walked along the Miljacka river, and saw a lot of Italian styled buildings. We walked to the Latin Bridge which is right next to where the spot where Franz Ferdinand was assassinated which started the First World War. We had to laugh, because our local guide did not stop to let us see the spot where he was assassinated. Instead she pointed it out, then kept moving. Half the group got separated, because we wanted to take photos of the corner.

At this point our guide finished up our tour and we were able to get some lunch. We got a quick lunch of basically shawarma, and then we made a decision to go up to the 1984 Bobsled tracks. So in 1984 Sarajevo hosted the winter Olympic games. Everything olympic related has basically been left as ruins to decay into the hillsides. Locals have spray painted the ruins, and they are now really cool to see. Plus where else can you hike along a bobsled track? The plan was to grab three cabs, in groups of three, to make sure no one has to pay too much to get there. We asked out tour guide ahead of time if it was safe to go up to the bobsled track. She said it was fine as long as you stay on the track. However she did warn not to go off the track, as there could be hidden land mines, or rabid dogs to worry about.

The message was not circulated as four people hopped into the first cab. This meant we either had to find a cab for five people, or leave a group of two to fend for themselves. Luckily, we found a cab that was willing to take the five of us. However, the drive spoke zero english. First we had to figure out how to tell the driver where we wanted to go. A tour mate pulled out a souvenir map from the 1984 games, complete with Bosnian writing. Perfect. The driver understood. He would take us to “Bob i sankanje” (which, for the record, sounds a LOT like “Bobsled”). The driver wrote “25km. 5x5e” on a piece of paper. This seemed like an ok deal. 25 KM (18.45 CAD) seemed reasonable, as we were only going up into the hills.

However our ride when down hill from there. The driver pulled over on the top of a hill. It didn’t seem like it’d be the place. He got out of the car,  opened the rear driver-side door and removed the “Sarajevo Taxi” sign from the roof. Super scary at this point. Why weren’t we a cab anymore? Where was he taking us? Were we going to get robbed? eek.

Another ten minutes and we were driving under the bobsled track. I handed him the 25 Kuna and he said, “no no no no. Euro.” He then told me. “km is kilometer.” It is, of course, also the the short form for Bosnian Convertible Marka currency. I’m pretty sure this was a standard taxi scam, but there wasn’t much we could do We weren’t exactly going to be able to hail a new cab on a mountain. So we paid and negotiated that we could stay for half an hour.

Stressed out but determined to make the best of it we wandered up the bobsled track. It was pretty cool. I would recommend a group of four to go up here for sure. The area right by the parking lot was covered in graffiti, but it trickled off as we ventured further away from the starting point. Overall it was beautiful in the mountains. It was a nice break from the heat of the day. But if you can arrange an hour here, it would give you time to see the bobsled without being rushed. After 30 mins. our driver returned. He drove us back down to where we started (although tried to take us to the Tunnel museum, first), and we paid the overly expensive rate.

At this point we decided to wander old town and get a refreshing drink. We got some fruit juices and watched the people walk by. It seemed like that was a major activity in this town. At 5 pm we were able to catch a bus back to the hotel to change and get ready for dinner.

Tonights dinner we had the option to eat anywhere we wanted. Since we ditched the other time we had a free dinner, we decided to eat with the group. We pretty much overwhelmed the restaurant. Thirty Five dishes in the tiny kitchen where they could only make 4 meals at a time. Time was running out before we had to go back to the hotel, and food was not being served. We had to be on the road for 8:30pm so that we could leave early in the morning to get to Serbia. This was due to EU driving regulations.

The food was not actually that good. But it was a smoke free restaurant. And they hired a Bosnian band to play for us. So they tried really hard to make it fun for us. Most of us decided to go home with the bus. Our bus left at 9:30, so we would leave an hour later the next day. That just meant less time in Serbia. We were sunstroke and ready to get a good nights sleep.