Take a Hike!


Work preceded as normal today, but at 16:00 I had the chance to present my website ideas to an IT specialist who is working on our new website, and he liked my layout and ideas! No work day is bearable without a good lunch however, so Joy and I took a lunch break by going to ASDŽ Restaurant for Dolma... however we didn't get dolma. The language barrier has been a significant obstacle when alone since less people than I expected speak English. We asked the owner for Dolme and he asked in English "chicken or tomato?" so Joy asked for tomato and I asked for chicken. Turns out we ordered two bowls of chicken soup and tomato soup with bread . . . however, the soup was delicious and it only cost us 6KM total = ~$4 - a happy mistake.I kept walking and I loved looking at the variety of restaurants, cafes, shops, and vendors. I look forward to trying them all and reporting back


 After a long day at work, I decided to explore the city on my own for a bit, so I crossed the main river, walked along a variety of Austrian, Austro-Hungarian, and other styles of buildings including, eventually, skyscrapers. I walked around the city for over an hour and noticed that it was more like a hike than a walk because of how steep the valley is.

 I came across a children's memorial for the lives lost during the war and it was sad, but also nice to see community members walking through this park with their families or their partners recognizing the history and moving on from it.
There is so much to see and so much to learn about in this city - I look forward to exploring it over the next 10 weeks!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sweet Home Sarajevo

Image
With only three days left here in Sarajevo, I have begun to reflect on my time here: the places I've seen, the people I've met, the food I've tried, and the friends I've made. As was cheesily sang at a restaurant here, "Sweet Home Sarajevo, where the skies are so grey!" Sarajevo really is home despite the rainy days because there's always a warm and friendly coffee shop to duck into, or it's not that bad to stay in your house with the stunning views of the mosques, catholic churches, and cathedrals side by side. Though it is a small town, I've never grown bored, never run out of things to do because there is ALWAYS something happening. Events are organized into nice booklets, which are updated each month with music events, places to eat, and sites to see. The friends that I've made here, locals and foreigners, have shown me true friendship. I know it sounds cheesy, but being with my friends here have shown me the friends
Read more

Surfing the USA < Couch Surfing the World

Image
I am still learning the best ways of traveling alone in a new place, and tonight I found an amazing tool: Couch Surfing, the app. While I originally thought it was just good for staying at locals' homes for free, there is a social feature in which you can meet up with people living or traveling in the area. Recently I saw an event on the app for someone's birthday party. A couch surfing member organized an event for her birthday at a local restaurant/ old cinema and opened it to any travelers or locals interested in attending. I decided to give it a try last night, so I brought a girlfriend that I actually met through the Facebook Sarajevo Young Ex-patriots Group with me. We found a table of 10 people from Couch Surfing that consisted of people from the following countries: Wales, Argentina, Chile, Spain, England, Turkey, Finland, America (only me), and Bosnia! What lively conversations we had. Not only did I get to check out this restaurant/ old cinema, Kino Bosna , but I
Read more

Telling Stories

Image
An important part of understanding the city of Sarajevo and more broadly, Bosnia and Herzegovina, is learning about the war in 1992-1995. Today, I visited the  War Childhood Museum  and the  Genocide Museum  to gain a better understanding of the context of the country. I could not more highly recommend the War Childhood Museum - the curation of the exhibit is exceptional. The creator's idea was to collect short stories or memories from now adults who were children during the war, but he ended up collecting one item that meant something to each individual and that further told their stories. I don't want to share the details because I genuinely feel it is something you have to fully experience. The Genocide Museum was disturbing, as it should be, in order to show the importance of remembering the war so that it will not happen again; however, I did not enjoy the curation of the museum. Perhaps it was intentional, but it was overwhelming. In my opinion there were so many
Read more