Day 5 of 19 – Sarajevo City tour then onto Belgrade

For the record it wasn’t me taking pictures of scantily clad young males, it was Sue and she also sent me the video🤣

It’s a bit gloomy over Sarajevo this morning, from the ‘not revolving ‘ restaurant😆, although the sun is trying to shine however rain is forecast😪

If I had one criticism of this hotel it would be that you can smoke inside in designated areas like the bars and then the smell spreads throughout the hotel. I guess after years of the smoking ban in the UK I’m not used to it😪

PS I update my blog several times a day so please keep reverting back to.

PPS it’s 5 hours in the coach from Sarajevo to Belgrade 🤦🏻‍♀️

SO IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE LOTS OF PHOTOS OF SARAJEVO PLEASE EXIT NOW😆

City radio station built for the winter Olympics and is still used today

Derelict building never rebuilt after the war. You can see the bullet holes on the side

Apparently 50% of the population is a politician and there’s 40% unemployment so what inference can you glean from that!

Areas around the city marked like this are areas where civilians lost their lives during war. The holes are filled with red paint

During the 1992 -1995 seige there was no access to weapons so they had to be imaginative and make their own. The tour guide shows us a make shift gun made from a gate lock and pipes. If you zoom in. Bit like the A team and BA Baracus 🤷🏻‍♀️🤣

The tour guide pointed this restaurant out and the one below (which was further down the street) and likened them to Manchester United and Manchester City. The red restaurant was opened by their most famous footballer when he retired. The blue restaurant denotes the reds rival team. (I will google this and update when I have WiFi. The tour guide will only eat in the red restaurant and his wife in the blue 🤷🏻‍♀️😆

Buckle up I’m going to tell you a story. This is Gazi Husrev Beg’s mosque. The guide says he was the governor of Bosnia who came to Sarajevo all smartly dressed and was asking the people what they thought and all the things they said were positive. He thought they were only saying that because he was smartly dressed so the next day he went back dressed not so smart and did the same thing and the response was the same. He ordered a drink in one place but then realised he’d left all his money in his smart clothes so he told then to cancel his order as he had no money. They said that it was okay and he was their guest so he didn’t need money. He thought he would try the next place and the next place and each place was the same. He had things for free. He was so impressed with their kindness that he commissioned this mosque and any proceeds from the mosque were put back into the community and he then commissioned a school and a library😊

You’d have thought I’d have taken a better picture than this really. Basically to the right, or West is the new town and to the left, or East is the old town. Hopefully from the previous two photos you can see the left and the right sides🤦🏻‍♀️

This is what most people were interested in. The place where Arch Duke Ferdinand was assigninated which started World War 1. It’s probably the only piece of history that I’ve retained in my brain🤣

Apparently there was an attempt on the Duke’s life whilst he was in his car. See picture below. The perpetrator was caught. The Duke, having gone to their hotel after the incident, decided to continue with the visit however his driver made a wrong turn, due to a language barrier and ended up in front of a coffee shop, where another would-be assign was having a coffee and it was there the Duke and his pregnant wife were assignated. And the rest, as they say, is history 😆

Not really sure what this is or was but looks in a bit of disrepair. I’ll ask Liz!

My lunch. In the Red restaurant was so good. I have to say though some waiter/waitresses have not been to charm school🤷🏻‍♀️

And finally after leaving Bosnia quite swiftly but not entering Serbia quite so, we are now in Serbia for 2 nights. Yeah

It’s 7.30 pm and still not at the hotel. Been on the coach since 12.15 pm. Last ate at 11.45 am. So a bit fed up right now😭

So we’ve gone the wrong way. No one knows where we are. It’s pitch black and a taxi is coming apparently! Not sure what for. Even if Liz had an ism now I don’t think I’d laugh🤦🏻‍♀️. Taxi has arrived and we’re following it!