Adventures of a Nomad Princess: I love Sundays (especially in Sarajevo)

Sundays are so chilled out, and if it weren't so drizzly outside I'd like to sit on a park bench all day.

Sarajevo has far surpassed my expectations, and I can see how a person could get stuck here for a very long time.

Yesterday I spent a good amount of time at Baghdad Cafe, then I wandered around Bascarsija, bought some socks (that now have holes in them... and they weren't cheap!), and returned via the river path, past the bridge where Franz Ferdinand was shot, to the big fountain in the middle of Bascarsija, with pigeons in surround sound, where I met Mike at 6:00.
We headed back to Baghdad Cafe for a little tea and a catch-up, and afterwards went to dinner at The Steak House. I had the GREATEST veal with potatoes, tonnes of vegetables, and a beer. Delicious!!

At 8:00, we met two people who had been in our room the night before, plus their friend from Brisbane, and we all went to the Guinness Pub to watch the England-South African rugby final (South Africa won). That was pretty cool; it was good to meet some different people. But they all study together in Budapest, so they weren't super interested in getting to know us.

We went for a few more drinks at Hacienda (a very cool bar which Mustafa recommended), then headed home at 2am, chatted for a little while, and went to sleep.

I got up at 11:00 this morning and walked around on a huge mission to find a Catholic church amongst all the Mosques. I really wanted to see a mass, hoping it'd be as great as last week in Osijek. When I finally found a church, its mass had already come and gone, so it was coffee-o'clock instead. I found a very chic cafe called Cafe Alfonso, with Fashion TV on big screens, catwalks raised among the tables and Moloko on the loudspeakers. Fantastic place!

I meet Mike in the afternoon and we had our first (of many) cevapcici at a little fast food joint, then took a stroll through the markets, looking at brass coffee/tea sets. We were accosted twice by a crazy old gypsy woman looking for money.

We both drank from the fountain by the Mosque; they say that whoever drinks from that fountain will definitely return to Sarajevo, so I wanted to hedge my bets.

We had planned to leave Sarajevo today, but neither of us were quite ready to go, so we're staying until tomorrow (I'm having flashbacks of Cesky Krumlov).

After spending a long day in town, we went back to the room to relax a bit. We lay on our beds and laughed, talking about how the poor Serbian Tourism bureau must have a really tough time marketing such a crappy country. Mike suggested their motto should be: "Serbia: the launchpad of Europe" (because everything else will look great in comparison!).

I now understand Serbian expansionism: they wanted to keep some beautiful parts of Yugoslavia because they have none of their own! (but even saying that, poor Serbia, being any part of the Balkans, will always put a smile on my face).

As we were about to head out again for dinner, we met a new couple staying across the hall from us: Gee (a nice girl from New Zealand) and her boyfriend, Dave (from England). They invited us to dinner with them and we accepted. We ate at a traditional restaurant full of locals. I had some sort of bean soup, salad, and a really good time.

We decided to head over to the Sarajevska Pivara Brewery across the river; it is a huge place with really delicious dark beer and good music (Richard Marx and Bryan Adams... can't beat that!). We had a lovely time.