Day 6 - 02 April 2019 Vienna to Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina

Checked out of the Mercure in Vienna this morning and caught a cab to the airport, check in and security was relatively quick and painless.  

After an hour or so flight and a plastic glass of white wine we landed at Sarajevo, this was a bit like landing at Albury or Mildura airport as it had a bit of a regional feel about it.  Anyway they stamped my passport I got some Bosnian Marks from the ATM and was in a cab before you could say welcome to Bosnia.

The drive in was, as they say interesting.  Through what appeared to be some of the poorer parts of the city.  Many of the buildings are still damaged or only half rebuilt from the war and the siege.  I may talk about the siege on another occasion, when I have had a bit of a chance to come to grips with it.

The economy here is really battling with high unemployment, low GDP, low wages, high levels of organisational inefficiencies and corruption at many levels.  But apparently it is gradually improving.

My hotel is one of the newer ones in Sarajevo and is on the river and on the street that the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were driven down before their cruel assassination.

My hotel room

View from my hotel window

This is a very exotic city with a mixture of religions, muslim approx 50%, orthodox 30% and catholic 20%.  I am having a beer in the hotel bar and looking across the river at a mosque and minaret.  My room also faces in that direction so I am a little worried about what time in the morning is going to be the call to prayers.

I am doing a couple of tours over the next two days which will hopefully fill in some of the blank spots about the history of the city and of which I shall share as much as possible with my dear readers.

I had dinner this evening at a restaurant behind the hotel.  I tried one of the local delicacies which was a bit like a beef stew with potatoes and carrots, accompanied by a couple of the local beers.  The local beer is Sarajevsko and is either bottled or draught, served cold and very drinkable.

Where the Archduke and his wife were shot

A bit arty from my hotel window

Fun Fact: A 1/2 litre of beer in Sarajevo is 4 Marks, about half the price of the same beer in Vienna.

Number of Steps: 6911

Observations:  Vienna airport still has a smoking room.  It appeared that most of the people on the plane were young things working for various NGOs.