Sarajevo

What a city. Riding in, I knew I'd see some holes in buildings but it was so much worse than I'd imagined. The owner of the hostel insists on being called 01, his father's war code name. He's very interesting and has some fabulous stories. We did three of his tours. A private collection tour, a city scars tour, and a front lines tour. I was one of two people. 01 uses his personal car and can drive a maximum of four people. The tour today was me and one other guy. We saw buildings absolutely destroyed, one filled with bullet, artillery and anti-aircraft holes. We also went to a destroyed nursing home that's since become  a drug house and walked around that a little. After that, we drove up the hills surrounding Sarajevo to tour the front lines. 01 knows his shit pretty well, having grown up around this. We walked through trenches, looked at bunkers, went to a destroyed hotel turned to sniper bunker, and went to the edge of the minefield. All of the places we went were far off tourist maps and through many woods. I went into one of the bunkers. We saw an unexploded shell. When 01 called the authorities to let them know, they effectively said why are you around there, it's dangerous and you shouldn't be there. We don't know what's there. I don't know when he called, but they told him to cover it with a rock and that was that. Still there. 01 said he has friends that have found bodies from the war and who make a living going through the area looking for scrap metal. I also got to see 01's private collection. While small, it is impressive. Totally sobering day.



Did I mention dude made a replica bunker? You can sleep there for a bit more.  



01 code shoes

All those grey spots are holes from various projectiles. 


A Sarajevo rose. In this spot, a mortar hit and the explosion killed someone. Everywhere in the city where a mortar killed someone, the hole was filled in with red resin. 


Yes, all holes from projectiles. Bullets, artillery.



The rainbow house. Destroyed in the war. Now a drug house. 





View from sniper hotel of Sarajevo


Warning: mines. Sign number 47,912 out of unknown. 

Bunker destroyed by weather

Inside of a bunker






More views of the city from where snipers and tanks were shelling it. 


Trenches of the Serbians. 



1984 bobsled track. One small part far down was used as a defensive position. 


A Bosnian front line

World War I

RIP Franz Ferdinand



That's the gun that killed FF


Ceiling in the national library, which has no books after they were burned in the war. 



National library at day and night. It's fairly close to my hostel. 



15 days worth of food from the UN during the siege. 


The front line of the war. 

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