Thats the cool way to refer to Bosnia & Herzogovina. As I'd hoped, Sarajevo is far cooler than the Croatian coast. Downright cold at night with short sleeves. SaVo is an interesting place. Not a whole lot of charm there but it's had a tough recent past with the Balkan war, etc. Its new for a European city; about 500 years old (I think).
The city is stretching the romanticism of their local urban landmarks. The main square is called Pigeon Square. Not to criticize, but with a few handfuls of bread crumbs, any town can have a pigeon square. There's also an "archeological site" complete with glass floors and architectural lighting that is the ruins of an old market that was built in the early 1600s and abandoned in the 1800s. Even as an American new worlder I'm not impressed.
The most interesting thing about SaVo is the somewhat segregated integration of cultures. There's a big inlay going across the main pedestrian street that says "Sarajevo Meeting Of Cultures" with compass points indicating east and west. All of the delicious smelling middle eastern restaurants filled with lemonade and coke-drinking women in hijabs are to the east and the Irish pubs and pizza places are to the west. It is integrated though because there are plenty of coke drinking hijab wearers at Irish pubs and vice versa.
One full day in SaJo was enough. I'm now headed back toward the heart of Europe. On a bus to Zagreb.
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