One thing we noticed as the rain poured this morning is that street umbrella vendors pop up out of nowhere - nobody wears a raincoat.
After the rain had subsided we paid a taxi to take us up Trebevič Mountain to where the bobsled run still stands. It was originally built for the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.
Unlike many Olympic sites, this one remained very popular with locals after the games had wrapped up. From these games, Ron and Judy mostly remember Torvill and Dean's thrilling ice dance to Ravel's Bolero.
Then when the Balkan War started and the siege took over Sarajevo, the hills and mountains which surround the city were used by the Serb forces to blitz the city. They used the bobsled track to store weapons and ammo, and snipers even bored holes into it.
This is what it looks like today - the mountain and graffiti artists are taking it back. Our cab driver agreed to stay for 20 minutes so we could walk it and get some photos. It was nearly impossible to think that 30 years ago this place would have been packed with athletes and dignitaries. Now, they suggest that you only keep to the well marked paths are there are still many unexploded ordinances.
It feels like now it has become a bit of a tourist attraction, as on our way out we saw 2 more cabs pull in.
We headed back down the mountain, which offered beautiful views of the city below. We also saw a lot of shelled out houses and stray dogs.
Back to the where the taxi picked us up at the Latin Bridge, we decided to check out the Sarajevo 1914 Museum, which was small but well set up with many interesting artefacts from the Hapsburg era in Sarajevo, including the gun that was used to kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand:
We then headed into the old town for a traditional Bosnian delicacy for lunch: čevapi. It's meat dumplings served with pita, onions and cream cheese, surpringly tasty, and American-sized portions.
After lunch we strolled around the cobblestoned old town where Ron tripped and took a spill. He then got to take a very exclusive tour of Sarajevo that not many tourists get to experience, including an ambulance ride, x-rays, a cast, a hospital gown, a hospital bed, and later surgery and pins. A note to future travellers - if you want to stay an extra 5 - 6 days in Sarajevo, break 3 bones in your elbow.
After a family meeting, Ron absolutely insisted that Judy and Kelly carry on with the tour and when he is all bandaged up, he will meet up with them, hopefully in Dubrovnik. So for the next few posts, it will only be experiences from Kelly and Judy, because can't imagine that Ron has many different ways of saying "had stewed quinoa for lunch. It was friggin' terrible".
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