Sarajevo was one of our favourite places that we visited. The people was really nice, the food was spot on and the whole atmosphere is incredible - so much positive energy coming out of a place with some much pain and anguish in common consciousness. Plus, it is a hugely intercultural city, with Muslims, Catholics and orthodox Christians all contributing to the culture.
The journey to Sarajevo was no mean feat! We took a minivan/bus from Belgrade over the course of 7ish hours through stunning winding mountain roads and past desolae bombed-out villages. The destruction caused by the bosnian wars is apparent absolutely everywhere and is a tragic mar on some gorgeous landscape.
Once we finally made it into Sarajevo, we checked in at our hostel, before going out into the city to explore the downtown area. The centre of the city is the old town, with stunning christian and Muslim architecture. Winding passageways filled with merchants and food vendors snake off from the main thoroughfares in a very Disney style. The food is very tasty and quite inexpensive (although more expensive than Serbia!) and we ate local burek, which is famous throughout the Balkans and middle east for being particularly tasty.
The next day we went to Mostar and in the evening returned to the hostel to see what was going on. We took a quick detour to go and see the abandoned bobsleigh track from the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics. Spooky.
The hostel owner announced that she was going with a few friends to a local party and if anyone wanted to join they were welcome. We leapt at the opportunity and got a most unique look into Bosnian nightlife! We went to a large town hall, inside of which were 20+ big tables of people drinking and smoking. We ordered drinks (from somewhere) and a Bosnian folk band struck up some songs. They sang for hours, with most of the crowd singing along, and they went from table to table singing, drinking and dancing. The attendees spanned teenagers to old timers, and the whole thing was surreal. We eventually stumbled back to the hostel quite tipple-tay with other hostel folk in tow, and rolled into bed.
The next morning we had to get to Montenegro, so went to find the East Sarajevo. Since Bosnia & Herzegovina has a tempestuous relationship with Serbia (and Montenegro by extension), there is no bus between Montenegro and Bosnia. Even though they share a border. Instead, you have to go into the Republica Srpska and take a bus from East Sarajevo.
For a quick background, Bosnia & Herzegovina is a country essentially split in two - one side is known as 'the Federation' and is formally the Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina. The other is the Republica Srpska (Serbian Republic). The two rival demi-countries govern quasi-independent of each other. It is more complicated than this, but I won't get into it here! Anyway, we had to go to East Sarajevo, the Republica Srpska capital, to take a bus to Montenegro (with whom it has diplomatic relations). The public transport from Sarajevo to East Sarajevo refues to cross into the Republica Srpska territory, and consequently we had to get off at the end of the line and walk 1km+ to the East Sarajevo bus station.
East Sarajevo was like stepping into a whole different world. Much more similar to Moldova or Transnistria than Sarajevo, the slavic influence was undeniable. All signs are in cyrillic (with latin letters often scribbled out), and the place looks like a dilapidated, ex-soviet town - a far cry from the multicultural, modern Sarajevo. No-one spoke much English here, but we eventually managed to navigate onto a bus for Montenegro.