Sarajevo

So, one picture from holiday 1: a view of Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina.
We dubbed this trip our 'Balkan Bonanza' but since we visited Munich, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Dubrovnik and Split it was rather a Germany-Balkans-Adriatic Coast-trip. However, Sarajevo made the most lasting impresion on us and so this photo seemed appropriate to symbolise the whole holiday.

It's a very likeable city: small, diverse, cheap (or poor, depending on one's point of view - there's stray dogs and an archaic public transport), with many beautiful sights to see, and always with a hint of the exotic. And then there is of course a more tragic side to it: the war of the nineties, with the 4-year siege of the city as its all-time low. Having happened just recently, it is still very much present in both the city and its inhabitants.

The war is also present in the picture: the graveyard on the bottom right is filled with headstones with dates of death from the nineties, and while looking at those hills that surround the city you have to realise that's were the Serbian artillery and tanks were firing at the city (on average 330 projectiles a day, for 4 years). The archives and their valuable contents (bottom left) were totally destroyed and have recently been restored.
Fortunately, more joyous subjects are also portrayed. There is the narrow streets of the old town where all kinds of rugs, jewelry and other goods can be bought - just as great (street) food and Bosnian coffee. And there is the mosques: as it was ramadan when we were there, as soon as the sun went down crowds of people showed up in the streets and the restaurants. Behind the old town is the more static and grand Austrian part of the city, and behind that, the communist-era apartment buildings begin.