//Day 63 /13-05-22 /Sarajevo

A Sarajevo resting day…

Today would be a relaxing day sightseeing Sarajevo. Yesterday evening I fell quite quickly asleep after the mountain-gravel adventure and had hoped to have a lengthy sleep….. The sound from the minarets woke me around 6. I tried to sleep some more but without succes. I read and completed the post from yesterday instead.

Around 9.30 I had a lengthy breakfast and around 10.30 I started walking around in Sarajevo’s city center. I had no specific plan of things I wanted to see but  the Gaza Husrev-beg mosque , the cathedral and the location where Archduke Frans Ferdinand (leading to WWI) was assassinated were on my mental list. 

I walked though the old part of town, which is mainly Islamic. Small streets,tourists shops, old bazar feeling. The place for tourists to dwell around. In the distance I  could see a cable lift in operation and decided to take the lift. One of the places I wanted to see was the 1984 Olympic bobsled piste…I was not sure if the lift would take me to the right place but it was already warm in the city center and I was looking forward to some cooler temperatures in the mountains. The modern cable lift brought me to 1200 meters where it was indeed cooler and the location of the bobsled piste. The now derelict bobsled piste is today one long graffiti wall and used by courageous cyclists to cycle down..I walked a couple of 100 meters on the piste before to return to the lift and go back to the city center.

In the old town I visited the Mosque and a a museum in the Gaza Husrev Begova Medresa. Both beautifully restored after the war. I

After my walk though the old town I headed to the newer part of the city where i hoped to find a sport shop to buy a new pair of shoes. The soles of the sport shoes (adidas) which I’m using have already worn out and in addition  they have become really smelly…I found a shop and bought a fresh pair of hiking-biking shoes…

After I changed into my new shoes I walked to the location where Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife was assassinated on June 28th in 1914 by Gavrilo Princip which set the wheels in motion of WW1. On the other side of the street  there is a small museum on the assassination but it was just closing for lunch when I wanted to enter.  

I headed to the cathedral which was closed, afterwards I walked around without a a real goal, except to have an icecream, a beer and some food. I returned to the old part to find this 3 items. As in most  Cevapi restaurants beer or alcohol is not served I had first a beer in a bar before having my lunch. I had preferred to have both on the same moment….By now it was already 3 in the afternoon and warm in the city so I decided to chill in my hotelroom until the late afternoon to meet up with Robert.  I plotted the route for tomorrow to Zenica and tried to avoid teh main road as much as possible. It will be a relatively short ride of 75 K with limited climbing. In Zenica I will connect with a cycle route which will bring me back to Croatia..

Sarajevo is really a nice and vibrant place to visit, a nice old center, the interesting (and in the past deadly) mix of religions and cultures. The war of almost 30 years ago is although still visible in the city: bullet holes, dedicated musea, remembrance plaques, cemeteries,…the renovated old center and the tourist shops feeling as a thin varnish over the violent past.

Robert had found a nice fish restaurant. Fish soup,garlic calamari, salad, white wine and a farewell grape alcohol thing…..Thunder and lightning said it was time to say goodbye…..I walked home, passing the Sarajevo “Vlasmarkt” and arrived  just in time at my hotel to avoid the cats and dogs which started falling down….a splendid evening to conclude cycling together 3 days….

Lessons learned :

• People you like can be found in the middle of nowhere.
• Coffee after dinner is not a widely known concept 
• Bosniak ice cream is not champion league ice cream.

Song of the day : Ecoute-moi camarade - Rachid Taha