Four of us travelled on the train whose windows wouldn't open and toilet wouldn't flush from Mostar to the capital, Sarajevo.
On arriving, some of us were a bit hazy due to the effects of "dehydration" and this combined with chatting to gypsy kids on the tram caused us to miss our stop and finding our hostel in the dark became a solid mission. Eventually, we prevailed!
The next day a long lie was required after a busy few days in Mostar but eventually we got our tourist on and tapped up the free walking tour of the city. The tour guide was born during the siege of Sarajevo and had a scar on his head that bore testament to the fact that even children weren't safe. He, quite understandably, was very vocal about his hatred of the fascists Serbs and pointed out to us several 'Sarajevo Roses' which are parts of the streets where bombs or shells killed innocent residents and the spot has been repaired by filling it in with red Tarmac.
After the tour, we went to watch a Europa League qualifier match between FK Sarajevo vs Sparta Praha. Unfortunately, Prague had won the first leg 5-0 and were on similar form again winning the reverse fixture two nil in a low quality match that at times made me long for terrible brand of football played by my local team - Hibs. Nonetheless, the Ultra's entertained with a solid 90 minutes of singing, dancing and flare-firing.
After the match, we headed to the British pub beneath our hostel where, despite wearing a Sarajevo flag and speaking in my manly Scottish accent, I was accused of being a fascist Prague fan by the bar-man and given a hard time for being a supporter of Serbian war crimes. However, I eventually cleared my good name and previously unavailable cheap beer came on the menu and an almighty hangover followed!
The next day was a slow starter, but eventually some of us got our act together and went on a tunnel tour. The tunnel was built under the airport and out of the city during the siege without the Serbs knowledge and saves countless life's by getting much needed supplies into the city.
Then spent the remainder of the day watching movies in the hostel while trying to chase the rest of the hangover away!
The next day, Jack and I headed to Belgrade on another hot and long train but this time our windows opened and I could see right down the top of the girl in front of me which made it a considerably better journey.
David