Beautiful Bosnia

Sarajevo

It was more than eight hours on the coach down from Zagreb, but the last four made it worthwhile. The road after Banja Luka suddenly turns into a winding track alongside a river at the bottom of a steep, craggy gorge. Sometimes it climbs and you can get an amaying panorama of the lakes and forested hillsides - like the Rhineland on steroids. It's the most dramatic stretch of road I think I've ever seen.

Even though it's nine years since the fighting stopped around here it doesn't take much to see the scars of the war. Coming through villages and small towns on the road here, often half of the roadside buildings would be bombed out, half-destroyed and abandoned. Sometimes you can look in and see what's left of the paint on the inside of the walls. Each little place has its own cemetery with a series of eerily fresh-looking graves. Seeing the bright white Muslim headstones against the dark forest is very sobering.

Sarajevo seems different to the rest of the country, though no less beautiful. It's quite Middle Eastern (the Turks have been here) rather than European, especially the way they've built up the hillsides, and there are dramatic views almost everywhere you look. It's big, or at least much bigger than I thought it would be, and last night in town there were stacks of young people out boozing and partying. Quite a contrast to the old town which is largely Muslim and an alcohol-free zone.

On getting to the hostel the guy at the counter said there was good news and bad news. The bad news was there was only one bed left and it was across the river, up the hill and down a back street in another part of the hostel. The good news - I'm sharing with four girls. And it's only five quid a night. I think I might stay here a little longer.