Angharad Dowse

Will was on alarm duty this morning because he had the bottom bunk with the phone chargers but he only got us up at 10:15 for a 10:30 tour 😑 panic ! Lol
Lucky they have a similar system to African time so we made it 👊🏿👊🏿👊🏿 haha

Our guide was fantastic. Probably the best speaker we have had - not once was there an awkward pause or story like so many other guides.
She had the most ANNOYING mole above her lip though ... but she was such a good speaker she distracted me enough to not notice... well almost 😅 ha

She started with a history lesson which goes Sarajevo was first occupied by the ottomans, then the Austrian Hungarian empire before becoming Yugoslavia then they had a war before gaining independence.
There is obvious buildings from each era - for once I could actually tell.
Turkish is Bazaar like
Austro Hungarian buildings are pretty
And the Yugoslavian are boring communism.

We walked through a park and around 25 men were gathered around a big chess board. It was really cute. There was a final showdown going on - only like 5 pieces left.

She talked about politics which is confusing as all hell. They have 3 presidents. One catholic (Croatian) one Muslim (Bosnian) and one Orthodox (Serbian)
You must be of the religion to be elected.
And all 3 must agree if things are to happen.

I can't remember it all because it made zero sense but their system is one of the most confusing ever!

There is only one active synagogue in Bosnia and it's in Sarajevo which we went and saw.

Jews come under the 3% "other" religion in Bosnia and don't get represented in the government. There is a movement that our guide took part in - their sort of census thing happened and a lot of people made up religions to make the "other" group bigger to hopefully one day get recognition.

The most important sight of the tour was next.
The spot Frank Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated which started WW1.
Its on the corner of a street. Well, he was in a car but that's where the assassin stood.
There were actually 6 assassins waiting along the street.
One threw a bomb and missed. People were injured but not killed. When the bomb went off - The driver drove them to the town hall in a panic - it was as they drove back down the street later that it happened.
Funnily enough the 2 that actually did something - the bomb and shooting were the only 2 to receive 20 years in jail because they were underage (19 but then that was still underage then ) the other 4 were executed. the reason they did it was to try and get the Austro Hungarian empire to leave... like that was ever gonna happen if you kill the prince 🤦🏼‍♀️

Because after the war Yugoslavia was formed the 6 people actually were viewed as heros and the bridge opposite was named after them. They have since been recast as villans and the bridge returned to its original name (Latin bridge I think) the guide said it's really interesting to read her parents old history text books and note how differently things are phrased.

We had a quick break and I had my second sip of coffee ever that I liked - times are changing lol

We then went to the Emperors mosque just to have a look. Sarajevo has 200 mosques. More than the capital of Iran 😂😂😂 it was because every section of the city was to have 3 things - a Mosque, bakery and fountain.
We then went to a church and beer factory. The church has a nice system I think. Once a week it opens its doors to every religion. Anyone can come and pray to whoever their god/s are.
While it makes me feel funny I like the notion. I like to think that if I lived somewhere without Christianity and no churches I am given somewhere to go and pray.

We walked along and there was dog on the roof. I had basically been the only person taking photos the whole tour but suddenly everyone whipped them out - he was the main attraction of the tour hahaha

We went to town hall. Over 2 million books were destroyed during the siege (91-95*) So much history gone. 70% of all the cities books.
The guide was alive during the war - she was 7 so old enough to remember a lot. She remembers the book ashes floating through the air. People also burned there own collections to keep warm + their furniture.

There is a house near the town hall thats name translates to "the house of spite."
He didn't want to move when they were going to build the town hall. They came to an agreement - they must move his house brick by brick - and they did 😂

We found a Sarajevo rose. There is about 50 left around the city. They symbolize a spot between 3-60 people lost their lives in the siege.

We walked through the old town and ended up in some old school hostel which concluded our tour. We gave a shitty tip but it was a big tour group and she didn't even say it was tip based.

We went back to the hostel to brush our teeth then went back to the old town for food. Cheap again yayayaya and we were both very happy with the quality. Bosnia you keep winning me over.

We then went to Gallery 11.7.95. It's a memorial of sorts to the 8000+ victims of the Bosnian genocide.
It wasn't free as I thought - 6$

You walk in and it's victims faces. I always like this type of display because I find them powerful.

You then walk into a gallery with some very very powerful images of the war in general. Some were very provoking.
There was also a video that we watched with more images and then a scenario skit.
One man in Rome having his photos developed in 10 minutes and then 10 minutes in Sarajevo where a boy went out to get water - attacks coming from everywhere and came back to a dead family.

During this film it came to our attention I had dog shit on my shoe and it stunk!!

We went to a shopping centre to loom around and I tried rubbing the poop off on the escalator spikes steps 🤗

We then went and had a tea/coffee and chilled out.

We saw the eternal flame 🔥 on our travels.

I bought Turkish delight or "Bosnian delight" as they called it 😂 but I ate too much I think. I feel funny.

I have started reading Jane Austins pride and prejudice and honestly my brain hurts. Who the hell speaks like that?
I've never taken so long to read a page in my life. You cant skip a single word. It's like reading Shakespeare - ive got to translate the whole thing.

I've read 35% tonight though so a good effort - it was completely free off the amazon kindle store too so happy about that. Don't know why it's free but I'll take it!

My super expensive left hiking boot has a hole in the bottom and I keep getting wet socks. Not happy. It means I'll need new shoes for winter - can't be walking around on snow with holes!
$$$$$$$$😑

I had a good laugh this evening - I was tempted to give the kid money .... Some gypsy kid was singing and he had about the same skills as mum except he had a microphone and was soooo loud 😂😂😂😂 it was awful.
And yet bloody fantastic.Read more