In Sarajevo, Trying to Dry Out

I left Mostar on a 7:05 AM train to Sarajevo, which arrived Sarajevo about 9:30 AM.  Before leaving, Emir made me Bosnian coffee again.  Because it was raining again, he called a taxi to take me to the station.

Bosnian coffee

Mostar station this morning, waiting

There was some spectacular scenery - deep gorges, snow capped mountains and such.  Unfortunately the train windows were covered with dirt and graffiti so I don't think I could have really gotten any decent pictures.

After I arrived, I found a taxi to take me from the train station to my apartment.  I have a one bedroom apartment all to myself - not bad for about $35/night.  For the taxi, my host Emir (another Emir, same first name as my host in Mostar) suggested that I use the Crveni taxi company because they are generally honest, and insist that they turn on the meter.  The driver didn't have to be reminded.

Arrival in Sarajevo

Sarajevo station

The first order of business was to begin drying out my soaking wet shoes (I am now wearing my Keen sandals) and to do my laundry.  Emir pointed me to a laundromat in the neighborhood, where I went, and I was able to do a load of washing for 4KM (about 2 euros).  After getting back to the apartment I put the clothes on radiators to dry  and went out exploring the city and getting some lunch.

In my neighborhood looking down towards the city center

Walking along Marshall Tito 

One of the famous trams

Freshly squeezed pomegranate juice

Playing giant chess

Serbian Orthodox Cathedral

Gazi Hursrev-Beg Mosque

Cemetery outside mosque

Old market area

Feeding the sky rats

Lunch - burek

Old market area

Old market

Marshall Tito

Those lamps just like they sell to tourists in Sultanahmet, Istanbul

Having coffee

The eternal flame, memorial to the World War II dead in Sarajevo

I have discovered, in researching how to get to Belgrade, that there is no longer a train service between Sarajevo and Belgrade.  I could take a train to Zagreb, wait 15 hours, then get another train to Belgrade.  Nah, I'll just take a bus.  This useless web site is, unfortunately, the web site that is used to look up international bus timetables in Bosnia.  Why are there so many broken web sites in the Balkans?  Doing some research, it seems that to get a bus to Belgrade I will need to get myself to not to the main bus station, but a bus station in Lukavica, a suburb of Sarajevo that is in the Republika Srpska entity.  I can take a city bus or taxi there, apparently.

I figured out that I miscalculated how long it will take me to get to Istanbul and I could, if I wanted to, have an extra day here in Sarajevo (or an extra day in Belgrade, or Sofia, or Edirne).  I'll sleep on it.  Sarajevo is very nice.  I may spend an extra day here.