Seeing Sarajevo

Thursday, Aug. 25, 2016--Sarajevo

I slept 10 1/2 hours last night after the previous tiring day of getting up early and traveling for so long.  It really felt good.

It's cooler here than where I have been.  I had to get up and get a blanket in the middle of the night last night; the sheet wasn't enough.  And the daytime high was only about 74 degrees.  I wore long pants, but I did that mostly because I planned to go to churches and mosques.

I met an elementary school librarian this morning.  I was looking in the windows of an art gallery, and he was sitting at a cafe next to where I was standing.  I looked at a map, and he asked if I needed directions.  We started talking.  He used to be a basketball player with the Bosnian League during Yugoslavian times.  But he got a knee injury in the Bosnian War and went back to school to become a librarian.  I bet the kids love him because of his basketball background and because he's about 6' 5" tall!  When he asked me where I was from, he knew everything about the Spurs.

I spent the morning and part of the afternoon out seeing some of the sights I saw yesterday (since I didn't take any photos yesterday) and adding a few more I had marked on the map they gave me at the tourist office yesterday.  Among the places I saw were the beautiful City Hall, the Old Town including Baskarsija (a famous fountain that if you drink its waters you will return to Sarajevo) and the Gazi Husrev Bey's Mosque (one of the largest in Europe and designed by a very famous architect here in the time it was part of the Ottoman Empire.  I saw the Jewish Museum building and the Old Orthodox Chruch (without going inside either) and I visited the Cathedral of Jesus' Sacred Heart.  In addition, I walked to the edge of town where the Winter Olympics were held and took a photo of the tall monolith with the Olympic rings.  (I didn't go into the grounds, because there are stories of tourists having problems there and because I saw part of the facilities as we came into the city yesterday in our van.)

I discovered this afternoon that the building where I am living has bullet holes from the Bosnian War.  I guess almost all buildings in the city at the time got bullet holes.  I have seen such buildings around the city, but most have been repaired over the years.

It's been another tiring day, so I should sleep well again tonight.  I will be able to have a decent breakfast tomorrow, since I also went to a supermarket today and bought bread, cheese, salami, muesli, milk, and yogurt.