Off to Sarajevo

My train left Belgrade at 10:30am. I wasn't very happy about losing a day in travels from Belgrade to Sarajevo but I didn't really have a choice in the matter. I could either take the train or the bus. The bus left at 11am and arrived at 11pm the train left at 10:30am and arrived at 9:30pm at least the train was a bit smoother. Not wanting to miss the once a day train out of Belgrade I arrived at the train station at 9:00am and proceeded to do what every tourist does about to leave a country, I spent the remaining cash I had on anything that looked somewhat interesting; which mainly consisted of breads ;) . 

The train was typical old European style. It didn't look particularly fast nor modern and it had probably had spare parts that were older than me and my parents. It crawled out of Serbia inching along and stopping every 30 or 45 minutes. We only made 5 stops from Belgrade to the Serbian border but I felt as though we made 50. The Serbian countryside is very pretty covered with corn fields and sunflowers that are all dried out in the sun and ready for harvesting. Corn is mainly grown for cornmeal thus the stalks were still in the ground and dying/drying in the hot sun. 

After six hours we arrived at Strizivojna-Vrpoljie the transfer point over to Bosnia-Herzegovina. Before arrival my passport was checked and I was stamped out of Serbia, I also had to pass customs while on the train (quite convenient). Once in Strizivojna-Vrpoljie I got off the train with four others all of which were foreigners. One German, one Swiss, two British and I. We were all headed for the same place. 

There was a difference of about 45 minutes between the trains and the station was so small that there was no attendant. 20 minutes past and a train entered the station and all of us stood up for it. Rushing over to the train we showed them our tickets only for them to tell us that it was the wrong train. We all sit back down and waited. After another 15 minutes or so a small engine came putting down the train tracks. Behind it was a single train car. This was our train. 

We were all taken a bit by surprise as we had thought a destination such as Sarajevo would have a decent sized train traveling to it but well.. there is history here. The five of us boarded the "train" and occupied half the car. OK not literally but if felt as though this was the case. The next six hours passed rather quickly. The countryside was pretty and the closer we got to Sarajevo the hillier and more "mountainous" it became. It was a pretty and nice relaxing ride. 

Landing in Sarajevo was slightly surreal as the station was very empty. While on the train I found out that none of the foreigners had made hotel/hostel reservations and we were all "winging" it. It was good to hear that I wasn't the only one. At the station most of the foreigners went directly to the hostel booking office that was located in the main station. I decided to make my life harder and headed out of the station into the town. 

Outside the station I ran into the German and Swiss gentlemen that I had met in Strizivojna-Vrpolje. They were pouring over a map and trying to decide which route to walk in order to find a hostel or hotel. A gentleman approached us all and asked us if we had accommodations to which we instinctually replied "yes". After some discourse we found out he was about to start walking home and it was situated in the middle of town. We could follow if we wanted to. We look at each other and just shrugged in sort of "why not" manner. The guy seemed nice and harmless enough. I means its only Sarajevo what fighting ever happened in Sarajevo. 

It turned that the guy was actually quite a nice. A 60+ retired sports instructor that just likes to talk. As we walked he told us about the Holiday Inn were the foreign journalist stayed during the war, he pointed out the various embassies, lots of the famous churches and so on. The most interesting though was when he walked us by the infamous "Sniper Alley" where the bullet holes still remain on the churches, building and apartments. He pointed down at the ground where large mortar shells had landed and spewed shrapnel everywhere and pointed to where that shrapnel ended up. 

The walk to his house walked right down the war path in the middle of town, he turned out to be an amazing guide. Later in the evening he walked us down to the Latin bridge where Franz Ferdinand was shot triggering WWI and then over to the large mosque in the center of town. He showed us the drinking wells, a local Bosnian restaurant where we could eat good Bosnian food for less than 2 Euros and eventually dropped us off at a Turkish cafe. The two guys and I ended our night smoking a Hookah and sipping on very nice Turkish tea. 

So far its been 3 hours in Sarajevo and its amazing.