26 Jun 2014 to Sarajevo

26 Jun 2014 to Sarajevo
Our bus to Sarajevo leaves at 8 am.  For the first time when leaving a country on this trip, it is not necessary to spend down all of our money. Both of us will be coming back to Dubrovnik later in our respective trips.
We visit the pastry shop, and eat our breakfast on picnic benches in a small park in the road divider.  The birds, it seems, have been awaiting our arrival. The farmers market at the square is just opening. We take a last look, then off the short distance to the bus terminal.
Eventually the bus to Sarajevo pulls in, and it fills.  It costs 10 kuna each ($1.90) to put our bags in the compartment under the bus.  Luckily, we still have some Croatian money.
We are finally off, on time.  The bus hugs the Croatian coast northward for about 1 1/2 hours.  Finally, we are at the Bosnian border.  The Croatian police come aboard and stamp all of our passports.  We are in Bosnia in the city of Naum, Bosnia's Adriatic toehold.  About 8 km later, what is this?  Another border, and we are crossing back into Croatia.  More police.  More collection of passports.  We wait about 20 minutes.  The passports are finally distributed and we are off, still traveling along the Adriatic.
About 45 minutes later we are somewhat inland, at the Bosnian border.  Again police: this time, both Croatian and Bosnian.  What a nuisance it must be to have to do this regularly.
Finally, we are truly in Bosnia, where Mike will end his trip and Carol will start her hiking adventure.  We pick up the Neretva River and follow it for miles and miles.  This is a beautiful drive.  It is 11:45 am when we come into Mostar.  We cross the Neretva and stop at the bus station for 10 minutes. 
For the first time we see a poster for Ramazan, the month of fasting in Islam.  There are very few Muslims in Romania, Serbia, or Croatia. The new moon is today, which means that Ramazan will begin tomorrow, Saturday (28 Jun) or Sunday (29 Jun), whenever there is an official sighting of the crescent moon.  This is our first indicator that we are among Muslims. Bosnia is split (that verb is deliberate) among Muslims (Bosniaks), Roman Catholics (Croats), and Orthodox Catholics (Serbians).
Our break over, we get back on the bus for the last bit of bus travel into Sarajevo.  An hour along, the bus stops at a restaurant on the cliffs of the Neretva.  This restaurant, Zdrava Voda, seems to be the stop for all buses (and hungry drivers) along this road, and for many cars as well.  Zdrava Voda means "healthy water." We are encouraged by other passengers to dump out the old water in our bottles, and fill them with this "healthy" water.  And so we do.  Cool, wet, refreshing. A nice view - and restrooms to boot.
Outside the restaurant, the running water from the spring is also turning a number of spits over a fire.  On the spits are lambs, 8 - 10 of them.  The lamb is calling out to us, particularly Mike.  At Zdrava Voda, a 300 g (11 oz) portion of roast lamb costs 11.5 KM (Bosnian money). Mike has no KM, but he pulls out a 10 euro note, and says "one portion - packet."  The waiter writes that 11.5 KM = 6 euro, so after about 5 minutes, we have 300 g of roast lamb, to go, plus some bread, plus 8 KM.
The bus took only a 20 minute break here, so we are back on the bus.  Roast lamb is too fatty and messy to eat on a bus, so we pack it away, but boy does it smell good!
We pull into the central Sarajevo bus terminal (the other one is in the western suburbs) about 3 pm.  We retrieve our luggage (no fees to get it off the bus, thank god).  On our second credit card attempt, we successfully withdraw 400 KM (1 KM [convertible mark] is apx 70 cents US) and resolve to get on the internet to make the first card work again (maybe because we hadn't told the issuer that we were going to be in Eastern Europe = our bad).
We have reserved an apartment for 30 euros.  We have a pretty good idea about where it is, but no good idea of how to get there.  So a taxi it is.  We give the driver the address, and he asks the other drivers where it is.  It turns out that this apartment building is not on a drivable street, but fronts on a wide set of stairs on a hill.  Thankfully, the driver takes us to the top of the stairs. We walk about 10  meters downhill to the apartment. 
A gentleman is awaiting us at the apartment (what a relief!).  Yaaay, Booking.com. He lets us in, takes our money, shows us how things work, gives us a phone number to call if there are any problems.  We ask if the apartment is available for the next night, and he says: no.  Our recently-learned trick of only booking for one night (so the proceeds of the following days go directly to the lessor, who might also consider lowering our fee) has failed.
It turns out that in two days, Sarajevo is commemorating the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, which took place on 28 Jun 1914.  As we know from the history books, 6 weeks later the entirety of Europe was at war.  Because of this event, hotel rooms in Sarajevo are at a premium = mostly unavailable.
We settle in, scarf down the lamb (which is still pretty good, although it has cooled off). We then go out. 
We have settled into a primo location, albeit San Francisco hilly. At the bottom of our little street is the Ashkenazi Synagogue and the Jewish community center, both closed.  And, to the east a couple of blocks, is Austrijski Trg. AND, 20 m away sits Pension Kandil, where Carol will be starting her tour tomorrow. 
We walk to Kandil (nice place!), introduce ourselves, and inquire if they have any rooms for Mike.  No, they are fully booked. But they can hook Mike up with a not-yet completely booked pension: across the river, but nearby.  For 35 euros a night, there will be a room.  Mike agrees and we agree to show up tomorrow for Mike to get a ride to the pension and a key. Kandil will throw in breakfast for Mike while he is at the other pension.
Finally, we head out into town, looking first for internet and some food.  There are supposed to be both in the town center.  It is 4:45 pm. 
The guidebook shows us to be very near the old synagogue museum.  We find it and go in.  This is the renovated 16th century synagogue, which is of roughly equivalent date with the Dubrovnik synagogue. Inside is a guide.  He is a native.  He was here during the Sarajevo siege, but got our early in 1992.  By running across the runway?  No.  Jews had some organized flights, and they got out early.
We talk about the Sarajevo Jewish cemetery.  He described it as the largest Jewish cemetery (which we doubted because of our experience at the huge Iasi cemetery).  But perhaps it was the oldest...  Anyway, during the siege, the cemetery, which is on a close in hill on the south side of the river, was (mostly?) controlled by the Serbs.  Thus, the cemetery was full of snipers, who dug in and were shooting across what became Sniper's Alley.  He said that after the siege, when the local community regained control of the cemetery, it was badly eroded, and they had to do a lot of landscaping work to restore it.  At various times, the records of who was buried there had been destroyed, so much is not known about who is buried there and where.  As to synagogues, there is only one still in operation: the Ashkenazi Synagogue on the south side, right near our apartment.  They have Friday night services at 7 pm. Mike resolves to attend.
We must have spent more time than we realized; 6 pm approached, and the museum was closing.  We were hungry and wanted an internet place.  Of course, it was now starting to rain. 
We walked few 100 meters, and we were on the main tourist street.  And there we spotted a cevabdzinica mentioned in one of Carol's print-outs, where cebapcici (sausages) and pleskavici (patties) are served.  Throw in a beer and some fries and you have real basic local food, complete with a family and workingman atmosphere. Can't visit Bosnia or Serbia without a visit or two to a place like this.  Anyway, we order a large order of cebapcici and one pleskavici, with yogurt and onions - no fries.  Lots of pita bread.  Tasty and filling, with lots of grease to go around.
We walk back via the hotel where Carol will be tomorrow, and meet a few early arrivals for her tour.  Then back to the apartment, where we watch TV for a bit, and then to bed.