57. Sarajevo

A well-earned rest day today…in the lovely old town of Sarajevo….now – it seems – fully recovered from the war.

Blogging, washing etc etc

Andrew headed off to a bike shop to try and get his noisy rear wheel fixed….whilst I headed for breakfast….

…and wandered around town.

Many more muslims here than we’ve seen anywhere else on our travels. Lots of ‘penguins’!! Haha! A description coined by Iain when he was about three years old, when we went for our first visit to Malaysia…..as he saw his first fully burkah’d women……queuing up at passport control. It is a description which is difficult to shake….however politically incorrect!

All very lovely….

And not all mosques….

……a reminder of the Bosnia war….fought on ethno-religious grounds between the Orthodox Christian Serbs, Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats.

And then…..I spotted the barber’s pole….apologetically hiding inside!

For it was time for a haircut!! I always get a bit nervous getting a haircut overseas. Even in France! I had my last one in Vietnam….and he spoke no English at all!! And it turned out ok!!

Funnily enough…the first time we visited Bosnia i Herzegovina, Liz persuaded me to get a haircut…this time in Mostar! And that worked out ok too.

So…I bit the bullet.

No English! And I think I might have overdone my description of the number two comb buzz cut…!! I really started sweating when he got into the job! The barber had to go and get me some paper towels!

I don’t think my hair has been this short since I was about ten!! 

Might get a sunburnt head!! Hahaha

Andrew had the grace not to laugh too much…..after he returned from the bike shop bike-less!! Alas!!

The ‘expert’ mechanic was not available until 5pm….so instead of finding one off the many other bike repair shops…Andrew left the bike locked up in this one until the ‘expert’ had promised to turn up at 5pm!

….except – guess what? – he didn’t! And wouldn’t even unlock the shop!! Until 10am tomorrow!!

….so we are now one bike short for our planned traffic-free escape from the city at 6am….alas!!

All a bit frustrating…but thankfully – & quite unusually – I had not yet made any forward bookings!!

Alas…..

So we had a few commiserating beers…..& much better food!!