We left Zagreb early in the morning on the 26th. The train ride was about 10 hours to Sarajevo and almost everyone on the train was smoking. It was really hard to deal with that, but somehow we managed. After the long ride we were really happy to be in Sarajevo. No one really spoke English at the train station, so we figured out which tram to get on and took it to the center. Luckily, the driver spoke some English and told us where to get off. He was extremely nice! From that moment I knew I would like the city. We easily found our hostel in the center (Hostel City Center...aka the best hostel I have ever stayed at). Right away we felt welcome by the staff and all the people staying there. It was like staying in a ski chalet. That night we hung out with a bunch of people staying at the hostel.
The next morning we took a tour of the city with a local who lived through the siege. It was great to hear about the history of the city and the recent conflict. I had a lot of questions for him, but he had a hard time talking about it. It is extremely sad how the Serbians came in and destroyed their city and killed hundreds of thousands of people. I don't understand how no one helped these people...not the U.S., other European nations or the U.N. I never thought much about it until I saw it with my own eyes. If you don't know much about it, a great movie to watch is "Welcome to Sarajevo." Its amazing to see a city that has buildings (to this day) that have been blown up. They have reconstructed most of the city, but some still remain. There are still mines in parts of the city too, but mostly outside the city in the woods.
At this point we learned that it would be impossible to take a train/bus to Sofia, Bulgaria (our next stop). We would have to go through Belgrade, Serbia first then to Sofia and finally on to Istanbul. Apparently this takes about 30 hours by train/bus, so we decided to stay an extra night in Sarajevo and fly directly to Istanbul. I was glad we stayed because the city is so great. We ended up going out with a bunch of people from the hostel that night and had a great time. It was sad to leave Sarajevo, but I will return there one day!! Not the most beautiful city in terms of sites, but one of my favorite cities for sure. Its unbelievable how nice people are and how upbeat they are after going through such a hard war in the 90's. I highly recommend going there!!
Picture: Old part of town. The city has an Arab influence, which is about 75% Muslim (I think).
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