Sarajevo

[kerouac2]

Thanks for the information and the link. There has also been recent news of new ethnic tensions in Bosnia Herzegovina. Probably the word "new" is superfluous.

[onlyMark]

New(ish) is probably more accurate -
"Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, announced this month that the country’s Serb-run entity, Republika Srpska, will quit key state institutions to achieve full autonomy within the country, in violation of the 1995 peace accords."

Alzezeera gives a reasonable synopsis of the situation -
www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/21/all-you-need-to-know-about-bosnias-crisis-in-600-words

This is him. The same man who says -
"Dodik described the Srebrenica massacre as a "fabricated myth".
He stated in an interview with the Belgrade newspaper Večernje novosti in April 2010 that "we cannot and will never accept qualifying that event as a genocide", and disowned the 2004 Republika Srpska report which had acknowledged the scale of the killing and had apologised to the relatives of the victims, claiming that the report had been adopted because of pressure from the international community."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milorad_Dodik


He has banned the teaching of the Srebrenica genocide and Sarajevo siege in Republika Srpska's schools.
Some view what he is saying and doing as rhetoric just to shit stir and gain popularity. Others feel he is a real threat.
No matter what is happening in reality, stirring the pot or not, my mental make up makes me start planning what we would do to evacuate. I've already been seeing what the border crossing options are etc etc and due to several pertinent questions from me, Mrs M's work has started reviewing and updating its procedure regarding RV points, hotels, flights etc etc.

[kerouac2]

Everything that I saw or read was from Aljazeera, too. The Western media seem to prefer to believe that nothing is happening.

[onlyMark]

Just off the centre of Sarajevo is a large tower. I posted somewhere a couple of photos of the view from the top but visited again recently and thought I'd add a few on here as well. Initially looking east and then around to the west -










Note the telecoms tower, now inoperable, in the far distance. I'll mention that again soon -








That gives you an over view and rightly enough, there is little to make it particularly interesting - until you get down to street level and there is plenty.

[onlyMark]

We've also been having a few foggy/misty days so we though we'd nip up the ski lift to see what it was like from the top -












The telecoms tower sticking out the top of the fog -

[onlyMark]

I'm now back in Montenegro. Not intending on seeing much as I'm only here for a couple of days and the weather isn't the best. But I do have a few 'on the road' photos to put up when I can grab hold of Mrs M's iPad and copy them off there.

[bjd]

With the way the fog sits in the bottom of Sarajevo's "bowl", I now understand why the city is considered as one of the most polluted in Europe.

I also hadn't realized what a large, modern city it is.

[kerouac2]

The autumn mists of the sesaon are definitely descending upon the city. In France, it is Grenoble that sits in a bowl and has the same problem, as well as too much heat in the summer and very high pollution.

The last photo of reply #33 definitely shows that there are a lot of modern areas that have totally rebounded from the awful times of the early 1990s.

[fumobici]

Incredible views looking down on the city!

[onlyMark]

I was at the top of this tower -



It's called the "Twist Tower" and the lift goes (very quickly) up to floor 35. There is a coffee bar at that level and you can walk up one more level to the viewing platform. That costs 2KM (1 Euro) to enter.

[kerouac2]

That is most definitely worth at least one euro.

[onlyMark]

Rural Sarajevo .
In the hills walking down from the old Olympic bobsleigh track -

[kerouac2]

Rural areas definitely seem to be in easy reach of the big city. I am a bit surprised that all of the leaves seem to have fallen already. Here we are only at about the 50% point (depending on the type of tree of course).

[fumobici]

I'm at pretty near the same latitude as Sarajevo here and the trees are still holding onto nearly all their leaves yet.

Suggestive photos, looks like a very pretty day to be out.

[htmb]

The views of the sheep on the hillside look very tranquil.

[onlyMark]

Winter comes early here but mostly it's because of the couple of storms we've had that stripped a lot of the trees of their leaves.

[bixaorellana]

Went to the US on the 11th, so am only now seeing the latest posts to this most interesting thread.

It's wonderful to see those densely treed areas right in the city. Are some of them parks? Any idea what that wasteland-looking area is in the penultimate picture in reply #33? It looks like either dead vegetation or piles of earth. Maybe a garbage dump?

Lucky to be able to get that very high viewpoint from the ski lift -- great views of the city and the atmospheric fog.

I just love the rural shots.

[onlyMark]

Not a rubbish dump, more a rubble dump at the moment I think. Could have come from anywhere but as they are laying new tram lines only a few hundred metres away I think it is what has been dug up from there and saved to fill back in again if needed.

[onlyMark]

A two minute drone video showing a view of the old centre. There's no snow so I think it was taken mid-January on a typical calm winter morning. You can see the 'mist' is hanging around due to the geographic location in a valley. A little of it is probably pollution but not much as I've been here and there's not be any of note.
The first shot has near the centre of the frame in a triangular square a small wooden building with a green roof. This is an old fountain and in the very middle of the old town. I stay a two minute walk from there.
At 10s, under the A of Sarajevo there appears to be smoke coming out of a chimney. This is almost certainly steam from a central heating boiler for the building.

It the cuts to a view from the west down the valley looking back east to the old town.
At about 18s you can see the pedestrian street cutting through the old town and joining the two halves of the Islamic side and the Christian side, there are very different buildings and shops, - at 27s, directly below, is a line in the pedestrian street and different slabs that demarks the two sides - called the "Meeting of Cultures" line and is a favourite for photo takers to straddle.

At 39s the drone starts to show the more boring new structures and the awfully coloured Hotel Holiday. This is all to the west down the valley by a kilometre or two.
At 44s, on the other side of the main road it shows the swimming pool/sports centre but also the outside ice rink set up each winter.
The large four lane road which runs along the valley was known during the Bosnian war as "Sniper Alley".
At 55s we come back to where we started in the more interesting old town by the fountain. This is where one of the best donor kebab shops is.

At 1m 13s there is the City Hall, destroyed and re-built, and this is just south of the old town by the river.
The story is when this was originally to be built the land was occupied by houses. All owners were paid compensation and moved except one. This man stuck it out and demanded his house be taken down brick by brick and moved just across the river and re-built exactly how it was.
He won out and spent all his time sitting on the nearby bridge watching the workers transporting each brick and rebuild it. The building is now a restaurant translated into English called the House of Spite.

The video goes on to show the difference between the old and the new, separated by just a kilometre or so. I know which bit I prefer.

[kerouac2]

Interesting video. The 'Hotel Holiday' was already yellow back when it was the infamous Holiday Inn. It is pretty much a national monument just for the fact that it is still standing.