Sarajevo in Snow

A Walk in the Opposite Direction

Just turn left out of our building...keep going...and eventually you'll find something worth looking at....



No, I don't mean that--although that is rather impressive.
I meant something more like this:



Yes, it's a big, yellow Holiday Inn, but it's kind of a big deal. And there's also the Twin Towers (see above picture), the new parliament building, a [obviously new] church, the National Museum, and the History Museum.



Some of the must-see items are actually behind the History Museum, so don't forget to turn the corner. (I love me a giant can of beef!)



Straight ahead is the Miljacka River and Wilson Lane (thank you, thank you). It's a picture-esqe walk which I know we'll love even more once the weather warms up.



And that will about do it for this walking tour. Until next time, thank you and enjoy your stay!

A Walk Through Sarajevo

After looking at our recent posts, I noticed that we haven't shown very many pictures of Sarajevo. We could be living in, say, downtown Detroit and you'd never know the difference. So to prove to our readership that we actually are in Bosnia, how about a picture stroll through town?
(You're giddy with excitement, aren't you?)

We live conveniently downtown, so if you take a right turn out of our building you'll see the National Theater just across the street.



Go down to the river and you'll quickly come to the bridge on which Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated--and consequently WWI began. (Kiddo looks thrilled, doesn't he?)



Take a left and you'll run into the pedestrian street (aka the street with stores too expensive for us to shop at), which also has it's share of cultural-ness. For example, a beautiful Orthodox church, old men playing chess, the Man of Peace statue, the Catholic church where Pope John Paul II served mass during his 1997 visit, and some of the last remaining Sarajevo Roses.



If you continue down the pedestrian street, you'll run right into the Turkish Quarter (the Baščaršija). Five-hundred year old Mosques, "pigeon square," and a shopping bazaar make this area one of our favorites. However, a word of caution: DO NOT FEED THE PIGEONS. They will attack you en masse and you'll likely be pigeoned to death. We barely escaped with our lives.



Where in Sarajevo will we show you next? How about the opposite direction?
(I think I hear some ooh-ing and aah-ing out there.)

A Little Kiddo To Go

With all the moving around and new places to see, I feel like I've neglected to take as many pictures of Kiddo as I should. I've been trying to rectify that lately and, as a result, I have a plethora of pictures to share. (This is for you, Grandmas and Grandpas!)

A Balkan Burger

We live above a hamburger stand.

Well, not directly above it (thank goodness) because we're on the 4th floor, but we pass "Ad Hoc" every time we leave or enter our building. And we have, on one occasion, even eaten the food. Yes, we have had a Balkan burger.

It was interesting to watch the vendor make our burgers right in front of us: after taking two very large, flat patties out of the refrigerator and putting them on the grill, he conscientiously put his cigarette out in his ash tray. He then proceeded to microwave two large buns and then placed them on top of the meat on the grill until the meat was done cooking, thus giving the buns a grease glaze. We asked for sve, so the burger was topped with lettuce, tomato, ketchup, and mayonnaise.

How did it taste? Brandon loved it. (No surprise there.) I, on the other hand, couldn't get over the fact that I couldn't identify what kind of meat I was eating.

And now I know why. Brandon happened to catch this article from the New York Times about hamburgers from the Balkans, which was very enlightening. But, after reading the article, I have a couple of questions. Just what was in my meat? And, since our burger doesn't sound very much like the ones described in the article, are we having the real Sarajevo burger experience or are we missing something?

Drinkable Yogurt

The View Here

The view of our living room window (yes, the one with the bullet hole)


The view from our living room window (not bad, Sarajevo!)

A Very Secure Hungarian Hotel

We had an overnight layover in Budapest on our way to Sarajevo and, since we knew it would be late when we landed, we stayed at a hotel near the airport. It looked pretty sketchy when we first arrived (after seeing their neon green, pink, and black sign, Brandon thought it was a "place of ill repute"), but we were pleased with our large room. And nothing says classy like pictures of fish on your toilet seat.

We sadly didn't have time before our connecting flight the next day to go into downtown, so we meandered a bit around the hotel grounds and let Kiddo play in the snow. He loved this picture of a dog he found:





Is that a machine gun?

(By the way, if anyone needs a good hotel in Budapest, I can recommend a place.)

Auf Wiedersehen, Deutschland!

Now that we're leaving Germany behind, we've been reflecting on our experiences here. So, to commemorate the past five months, here is our


"Top Ten Things We Never Knew We Loved About Germany Until We Lived Here"

10. Potato pockets (They're like giant tater tots filled with goodness.)

9. Black-out shades

8. Relaxhosen

7. Altstädte

6. Lederhosen (We knew about lederhosen before living here, but they're just so awesome!)

5. Zigeunerschnitzel

4. Castles (Five down, a few hundred more to go!)

3. The autobahn (Three words: No. Speed. Limit.)

2. Hot bratwurst in a fresh roll with curry ketchup on top

1. Döners


Auf Wiedersehen, Deutschland! We're out!

Dinner and a Show

For us, New Year's Eve means pizza, spaghetti, and mashed potatoes for dinner. It's a tradition that we imported from Felicia's side of the family.



But if you're in Germany, New Year's Eve means fireworks. A LOT of fireworks. It seems like there is no such thing as "illegal" fireworks, either - bottle rockets, 20-foot fountains.... You name, we saw it ringing in the new year. We heard explosions starting at about 5 minutes before midnight, in persistent succession, until we fell asleep sometime around 12:45. The view from our kitchen window was fantastic, although we got a little nervous when we realized that every bottle rocket our neighbors let off was followed by a swig from the bottle. pyrotechnics + alcohol = dummkopf