Nikola, Two-Face, and the Dead Duke

Sarajevo is weird. And I love that about Sarajevo. I love the quirky decorations, the sense of humor, and the odd ways they commemorate things.

I just liked the view of the snowy trees on the mountains

We went out exploring on Christmas Day. One lovely thing about Sarajevo is that things are open. It is a city of many peoples. The Croats are primarily Roman Catholic, so Croat owned businesses were closed on Christmas. But the Serbs are Eastern Orthodox and celebrate their Christmas in January. And the Bosniaks, who make up the majority of the population of the city, are primarily Muslim, so Christmas is just another day. That's fantastic for me, because I wanted to use my few days in Sarajevo to see what I could see, eat what I could eat, and enjoy what I could enjoy. (Plus, for me, along with almost 70% of the world's population, Christmas is just another day.)

For lunch, we started with gelato. I know that usually gelato is not considered an appetizer, but we were passing one of Syarra's favorite gelato places on our way to one of her favorite lunch places. You wouldn't expect us to go back and forth, would you? After yummy gelato we moved on and had pasta for lunch. And then we still stopped at a slaštičarna, which is a sweet shop, where one buys desserts. We tried tufahija, a traditional dessert made of an apple soaked in simple syrup and stuffed with cream and nuts. This is only one of many amazing desserts you can try in this country. We also enjoyed tulumbe (which is a fried dough dessert with a star shape somewhat like churros, though tulumbe is not filled like a churro) and hurmašica which is another cake soaked in simple syrup. Let's say this: If you like dessert, then you will find lots of please you in Bosnia.

This is bear territory

Both sides of the street are bear territory

Walking about with our full and satisfied stomachs, we found a bar protected by bears. It was actually one on each side of the street. And sitting nearby was Nikola Tesla.

Just inventing something else brilliant, don't mind me.

That's right, Tesla, the genius behind alternating current, Tesla coils, and plasma was just chilling (somewhat literally as it is winter) in Sarajevo.

Continuing on we found a large snowman. Someone or someones had collected up the snow in a particular street and turned it into this snowman. But this was no ordinary snowman. Here is what we saw as we approached. (Note: he has buttons on his non-existent shirt.)

I'm so fancy!

But when you walked past the snowman and turned back to see him, he had another front side! That's right, this snowman has two faces (and two chests for non-existent shirt buttons with the shirt being the non-existent part and the buttons existing.)

I'm fancy too, but less happy about it

Finally, we visited the Latin Bridge. This is a very cute bridge from the Ottoman era. But it is most famous for what happened there. This is where Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sofia, were riding when they were assassinated by Gavrilo Principe. It was this event which sparked the War to End All Wars (the first world war, which apparently did not end all wars, since there was a second world war.)

Over troubled waters?

Here you can see the footprints marking the spot that Principe stood as he shot the Archduke and Archduchess. (I assume the wife of an archduke is an archduchess, but maybe she is a catenaryduchess or a paraboladuchess.)

Even the snow doesn't want to stand there

One thing we didn't get to see much of are the Sarajevo roses. During the siege of Sarajevo, there were many bombings and other violence. Places where three or more people were killed by a mortar blast were then marked. The mortars left these scars in the pavement, and Sarajevo later filled them with red resin to commemorate the loss. But because these scar patterns are vaguely floral in arrangement, they have come to be known as Sarajevo roses. We didn't see these because there was a layer of snow or slush over the streets, so the roses were hidden away.

The next day we headed out of Sarajevo, taking a bus to Podgorica, Montenegro. That was over six hours on a bus. But we did get two breaks and we got out twice to cross the border. We all exited the bus with our passports, made a line, walked to the border control station in Bosnia, and got stamped out of the country. Then we got back on the bus, crossed a bridge, drove about a kilometer more, and repeated the line up to get our passports stamped into Montenegro. Some of the people on the bus have cards instead of passports, probably because they cross often enough that they don't need stamps over and over. Imagine if the bus driver had to get new stamps everyday. He would go through a lot of passports.

A single lane bridge that connects two countries

It was a short trip to Sarajevo, but a fun one. Now we will see if Podgorica is as weird as its neighboring capital city.