Day 4: World Cup

(This photo was taken literally seconds after midnight Sarajevo time, so I have judged that it counts as a different day)

In the early hours of this morning, Bosnia and Herzegovina played the first minutes of their first ever world cup.

To say that Sarajevo was gripped by World Cup Fever would be an understatement.

For days before, there were loads fo people selling funky hats, flags, scarves, shirts etc, and playing national (football?) songs. Yesterday was brilliant, everyone was walking around in their gear and singing and blaring their horns.

I watched the match at the car-sponsered Fan Park, which was great. There was live music in the hours before hand, and an awesome atmosphere. Everybody there was so excited for their team and country represented on the international stage for the first time.

Until the own goal. But things started to look up after that, the fans kept positive (the guy behind me was repeatedly saying to his mate, no it's fine, it's gonna be good). They played really well I thought, had a couple of near-misses, and I fancy their chances against Nigeria and Iran. I can't imagine how crazy Sarajevo is going to go if(when?) they win those matches.

The only thing about the fan park was that the massive screen at the front was running about 3 seconds behind a smaller screen at the back and side. So 0nce everyone realised this a couple of minutes in, we all turned around. It was pretty comical.