Thursday, June 10, 2010

Eastern Europe retroblog: Mostar & Sarajevo

An Islamic graveyard in Mostar. Spooktastic.

We arrived in Mostar pretty late—it's a pleasant town best known for its historic bridge (which crazy locals occasionally like to jump off of), but we were pretty much only there to break the journey to Sarajevo. We chose a restaurant in the old town where the waiter spoke Italian, and I managed to communicate that Kate and I wanted only vegetables on our plates.

The next day we took the train to Sarajevo. Way too many pigeons, strong Turkish coffee for breakfast and delicious spiral-shaped spinach pastries and juniper juice for dinner, shops full of beautiful shawls and metalwork.

(Below: the main drag of the old town, the Baščaršija, which dates to the 16th century; a fountain in the courtyard of a mosque.)



I don't know what this building is—or used to be—but it's a real shame to let such an amazing piece of architecture fall into disuse and disrepair.

Three goofballs at the Sarajevo Brewery. Elliot sampled the local dark lager, Kate got baklava and I had a campari and orange. This was before I became a (very occasional) beer drinker. I think this was Elliot's last night—he took a train back to Budapest to go home, and Kate and I went on to the volunteering part of the trip.

Inside the Orthodox Cathedral.

Next: Brčko, Bosnia, where Kate and I volunteered at a children's summer camp.

2 comments:

Sarah P. Miller said...

The Orthodox cathedral is beautiful, but the graveyard is to die for! No pun intended. Amazing.

Unknown said...

I thought that one photo was the old library that caught on fire?

That picture of the three of us is one of my favorites!