Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
At the west-end of the Ferhadija a gas fire is burning. It reminds of the liberation of Sarajevo by the troops of Yugoslavia in World War II. It was ignited in 1946 and burned continous until 1992. During the siege natural gas was a scarce good and the termination of the fire was seen as a bad signal.
Continue reading “The eternal flame”
The old Osman quarter is the oldest and maybe the most beautiful place in Sarajevo. Here you’ll find narrow houses with all kind of shops, good restaurants and even the chance to smoke a waterpipe (Nagileh). The location was created in the middle of the 15th century as a trading spot. During the Osman reign it fastly became the central location for crafts and trading of different goods.
The museum landscape in Sarajevo is small. Some institutions like the national museum are shut down because of lack of funding and political reasons. Others like the national history museum have not been repaired and you can still see bullet holes on the deteriorating buildings. In others simple things like lightbulbs are missing. But there are still some places worth to see.
Continue reading “Museums in Sarajevo”
The Tunel spasa is a museum about the tunnel of Sarajevo. It is located in Butmir close to Sarajevo International Airport. During the siege of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995 there was no way into the city. In 1993 a 800 meter long tunnel was built under the airfield from Dobrinja within the besieged city to Butmir in the free bosnian territory.
Continue reading “Tunel spasa”
The historic market hall of Sarajevo is situated in the pedestrian zone, the Ferhadija, close to Trg oslobođenja. As it was built in Austro-Hungarian time its name was officially “Markthalle für Sarajevo” (market hall for Sarajevo) – but the citizens converted the name over time from “Markthalle” to “Markale“. Architect August Butsch created a building in Renaissance Revival architectural style which was opened in 1895.
Continue reading “Markale: The tragedy that ended the war”
When entering the city of Sarajevo, shortly before the main street Ferhadija begins, you’ll find a scenery you might well know. On the left side the massive building of the hotel Holiday Inn, behind that the two UNIS towers; on the other side of the road the skyscraper of the Bosnian parliament.
Continue reading “Buildings well known to the world”
When walking along the pedestrian street, ulica Kneza Mihaila, you’ll arive at a place called Kalemegdan. As the name Beograd indicates, there must be somewhere a white (beo) fortress (grad) – and this is the place. The best walk is along the Sava river on the so called Sava promenade.
The Saint-Sava-Church (Hram Svetog Save) is located south-east on Vračar hill. It is a huge and impressive christian-orthodox church in Beograd, the capital of Serbia. While the massive building looks like it is finished from the outside, the inside is work in progress.
Continue reading “Saint-Sava-Church”
As always in big cities like Rio de Janeiro, the place for building houses and having residential neighborhoods is limited. That is why on the other side of the bay of Rio, directly opposite to the city center at a place called Niterói, people started to settle down and to commute into the city by ferry boat.
Continue reading “Crossing the Baía de Guanabara”
A lot of songs have been sung about these two beaches in the Zona Sul de Rio de Janeiro, both only divided by the Forte do Copacabana. Remember The Girl from Ipanema? The areas are in the rich south of Rio and are touristic zones secured by the police. If you don’t have your hotel here (might be better, cause the prices in the area are a bad joke) – the metro is running all along Copacabana and for Ipanema you can go to the terminus General Orsório.