Japan to Australia via Eastern Europe - Part 22 - Day 18 Continued....
As Ant has a somewhat "freaky" obsession with visiting former (and present) Olympic sites of the world... we had to visit the Sarajevo 84 site... No - not of the summer but of the winter variety....
It took us about 20 minutes to walk from the station to the site... we had to pass through Sarajevo's version of Sydney's M5 East tunnel - complete with a strange "motor noxious odour"… mmm M5 East fragrance… Also on the way to the stadium – there was a huge muslim cemetery. Although all the tombstones (which aren’t that too dissimilar from Christian tombstones – just a bit more phallic) were newish – Ant was sure that the cemetery might have been rebuilt after the war. Also – it was a little discomforting to see the many graves of people who died in the early to mid 90s period…
In true run-down Olympic venue style – all of the stadiums and former venues were shut. I took a few “desperate” happy snaps through the back fence – but whoever had designed the place had done a good job – keeping those who haven’t bought tickets away from seeing any of the actual action in the stadium. It was interesting to see that the IOC had done a bit of a restoration job of the former ice skating venue in the late 90s.
After wandering around a bit at the Olympic site – we decided to go into town and check out the Sarajevsko Pivo Brewery as it was highly recommended in LP. The “Brewery” or former brewery has been converted into a swanky beer hall / restaurant… Although the “Pivo” is traditional Bosnian fare – surely the gangsta rap playing at “eleven” with multiple mentionings of that MF word isn’t traditional Bosnian music. (Inappropriate music for a beer hall number 1 – Gangsta Rap with lots of MF usage). Despite the heavy MF usage – Ant and I decided to order a couple of nice Sarajevsko beers. We both had a bit of a LP Eastern European lesson on a few scary places including Moldova – sounds like heaven on earth or something… Meanwhile the traditional Bosnian music continued to play – with J’Lo songs circa 1999 being played at “eleven” on somewhat repetitive rotation. Despite the traditional music – this place managed to get in the 2006 Hot Beer Tables or something (their award was framed next to our table).
We go to a nearby-ish internet café (what I mean by nearby-ish is that Ant made us go on a forced hike for about 1 and a half kms to get there) and book our Mostar accommodation for tomorrow.
We headed back into the main part of Sarajevo for some food and went to a beer-garden-esque pizza place which, despite what was said on the menu, they did not have any beer. Maybe it has something to do with them being situated right next to a Mosque? Anyhow – it was a pretty cheap pizza (at $3AUD for a biggish small pizza).
On our way back to the Banana City Hotel (or should that be the photoshopped city hotel?) – we thought we would be “smart” and just buy one tram ticket for our trip to the bus station tomorrow morning without validating it on our way back to the hotel. Sarajevo has the whole “Melbourne Tram Deal” – where you can buy a ticket – but you need to validate the ticket in the machine (which seems to be somewhat “optional” activity both here in Sarajevo and in Melbourne). We both had bought tickets from the seemingly uninterested driver – but as soon as we just loitered around the front of the tram with our tickets not being validated – he got another passenger to tell us in English to validate them… damn – there goes our idea to save $2!
As Ant has a somewhat "freaky" obsession with visiting former (and present) Olympic sites of the world... we had to visit the Sarajevo 84 site... No - not of the summer but of the winter variety....
It took us about 20 minutes to walk from the station to the site... we had to pass through Sarajevo's version of Sydney's M5 East tunnel - complete with a strange "motor noxious odour"… mmm M5 East fragrance… Also on the way to the stadium – there was a huge muslim cemetery. Although all the tombstones (which aren’t that too dissimilar from Christian tombstones – just a bit more phallic) were newish – Ant was sure that the cemetery might have been rebuilt after the war. Also – it was a little discomforting to see the many graves of people who died in the early to mid 90s period…
In true run-down Olympic venue style – all of the stadiums and former venues were shut. I took a few “desperate” happy snaps through the back fence – but whoever had designed the place had done a good job – keeping those who haven’t bought tickets away from seeing any of the actual action in the stadium. It was interesting to see that the IOC had done a bit of a restoration job of the former ice skating venue in the late 90s.
After wandering around a bit at the Olympic site – we decided to go into town and check out the Sarajevsko Pivo Brewery as it was highly recommended in LP. The “Brewery” or former brewery has been converted into a swanky beer hall / restaurant… Although the “Pivo” is traditional Bosnian fare – surely the gangsta rap playing at “eleven” with multiple mentionings of that MF word isn’t traditional Bosnian music. (Inappropriate music for a beer hall number 1 – Gangsta Rap with lots of MF usage). Despite the heavy MF usage – Ant and I decided to order a couple of nice Sarajevsko beers. We both had a bit of a LP Eastern European lesson on a few scary places including Moldova – sounds like heaven on earth or something… Meanwhile the traditional Bosnian music continued to play – with J’Lo songs circa 1999 being played at “eleven” on somewhat repetitive rotation. Despite the traditional music – this place managed to get in the 2006 Hot Beer Tables or something (their award was framed next to our table).
We go to a nearby-ish internet café (what I mean by nearby-ish is that Ant made us go on a forced hike for about 1 and a half kms to get there) and book our Mostar accommodation for tomorrow.
We headed back into the main part of Sarajevo for some food and went to a beer-garden-esque pizza place which, despite what was said on the menu, they did not have any beer. Maybe it has something to do with them being situated right next to a Mosque? Anyhow – it was a pretty cheap pizza (at $3AUD for a biggish small pizza).
On our way back to the Banana City Hotel (or should that be the photoshopped city hotel?) – we thought we would be “smart” and just buy one tram ticket for our trip to the bus station tomorrow morning without validating it on our way back to the hotel. Sarajevo has the whole “Melbourne Tram Deal” – where you can buy a ticket – but you need to validate the ticket in the machine (which seems to be somewhat “optional” activity both here in Sarajevo and in Melbourne). We both had bought tickets from the seemingly uninterested driver – but as soon as we just loitered around the front of the tram with our tickets not being validated – he got another passenger to tell us in English to validate them… damn – there goes our idea to save $2!
posted by NicknAnt @ 3:09 AM
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