slowly from mostar
had a wicked night last night with the other hostellers. a great group: several from britain and several from ireland (funny buggers they are) and even some from america. decided to get drunk indoors as the beers is cheaper and the locals all go 20km out of town to get away from the 'peace-keeping' soldiers. not that there is any violence in sarajevo but the presence of tourists in camoflauge is, i'm sure, quite impeding to their desire for a normal environment!
got most of this information from a local student who lived through the war and speaks perfect english. incredibly intellegent guy who took us, after we became too rowdy for the hostel, up to an old turkish tower which is now weathered to a big flat grassy stone walled look-out from which we perched and took in sarajevo by night. the local plum alcohol (slile viche - will get the correct spelling someday) added to the somber mood but one of the irish kids started playing the guitar again and they sany many a drunken song.
jumped on an 11:30 bus out of sarevo with several email addreses, new destinations and people to visit later in my trip. portugal was always on the list but is now a definite. bernardo and pedro tell me to come visit them during their student festival, and the same goes with london as I now have several mates from there who i've shared a fantastic experience with. along with rob, leonie, oli and hannah who i met in dubrovnik, chris, benji and simeon are also tip-top people whom i share alot in common (other than just happening to be travelling in the same part of the world). all these people seem to find endless bemusment at the fact that i am a half italian, mungrel irish-british convict australian with a british passport.
just goes to show how ridiculous nationalism is at times..
mostar is another beautiful town with its own "old city" and a bridge which the local youths jump off then collect marks from the crowd for their pains. looks like fun except that my swimmers are in the luggage stowage at the busstop. again tell-tale signs of the war are evident, and if not more telling, in mostar. from what i have learnt most of mostar was destroyed including the magnificant bridge which was only re-built and re-oppened this month. I plan to jump on a midnight bus to dubrovnik tonight, and although I could stay here a night the opportunity to wake liam up in the middle of the night to help me with my bags is too good to pass up, not to mention the fact that i am meant to be meeting lucy at lunchtime tomorrow when she gets off the plane and it would be a bit of a cock-up if i am not there....
the plan for the afternoon is to find a nice restaurant and eat overlooking the river and the old town, and then to go and have a local beer or two while I wait for my bus. it's bloody hot here so if i can be bothered walking back to the station then a swim in the crystal blue-green river is in order.
sent my first postcard today, had almost forgotten how to handwrite. communication has been a bit of a bugger so i hope i can get in contact with liam. the old computers here in mostar don't allow me to view my flashy new gmail account so i guess i'll have to call from my mobile phone which allows me to recieve sms but not send. bizzare
will be sad to be heading west already, but will be going to budapest before hitting central europe so that shall be interesting. really want to go to poland and romania but that may have to wait until next time.
back to the hot hot heat
got most of this information from a local student who lived through the war and speaks perfect english. incredibly intellegent guy who took us, after we became too rowdy for the hostel, up to an old turkish tower which is now weathered to a big flat grassy stone walled look-out from which we perched and took in sarajevo by night. the local plum alcohol (slile viche - will get the correct spelling someday) added to the somber mood but one of the irish kids started playing the guitar again and they sany many a drunken song.
jumped on an 11:30 bus out of sarevo with several email addreses, new destinations and people to visit later in my trip. portugal was always on the list but is now a definite. bernardo and pedro tell me to come visit them during their student festival, and the same goes with london as I now have several mates from there who i've shared a fantastic experience with. along with rob, leonie, oli and hannah who i met in dubrovnik, chris, benji and simeon are also tip-top people whom i share alot in common (other than just happening to be travelling in the same part of the world). all these people seem to find endless bemusment at the fact that i am a half italian, mungrel irish-british convict australian with a british passport.
just goes to show how ridiculous nationalism is at times..
mostar is another beautiful town with its own "old city" and a bridge which the local youths jump off then collect marks from the crowd for their pains. looks like fun except that my swimmers are in the luggage stowage at the busstop. again tell-tale signs of the war are evident, and if not more telling, in mostar. from what i have learnt most of mostar was destroyed including the magnificant bridge which was only re-built and re-oppened this month. I plan to jump on a midnight bus to dubrovnik tonight, and although I could stay here a night the opportunity to wake liam up in the middle of the night to help me with my bags is too good to pass up, not to mention the fact that i am meant to be meeting lucy at lunchtime tomorrow when she gets off the plane and it would be a bit of a cock-up if i am not there....
the plan for the afternoon is to find a nice restaurant and eat overlooking the river and the old town, and then to go and have a local beer or two while I wait for my bus. it's bloody hot here so if i can be bothered walking back to the station then a swim in the crystal blue-green river is in order.
sent my first postcard today, had almost forgotten how to handwrite. communication has been a bit of a bugger so i hope i can get in contact with liam. the old computers here in mostar don't allow me to view my flashy new gmail account so i guess i'll have to call from my mobile phone which allows me to recieve sms but not send. bizzare
will be sad to be heading west already, but will be going to budapest before hitting central europe so that shall be interesting. really want to go to poland and romania but that may have to wait until next time.
back to the hot hot heat
Comments