Sarajevo

Arriving in Sarajevo is somewhat surreal.  All I know of this city and country is war.  Expected to find refugee camps or rampant crime or something equally horrible.  How foolish could I be, the people have been so warm and friendly and helpful, and while the general level of English is lower than other countries we have visited, that is the least important thing and so well compensated for by the general feelings of warmth here.

That said, was still a bit anxious when we arrived at night and had to venture off a bit from the train station to locate our apartment.  Made our way out front and were struck immediately by the contrasts, a fairly old train station bookended by an ultra-modern skyscraper that is considered one of the 10 best architectural designs by a German firm on one side, and a rusted out 'Welcome to the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympic Games' sign on the other.  Waiting for our tram we meet a Swiss gal who will be traveling to Iran, and then the driver of a different tram asks us what we are waiting for and that our tram won't arrive for another 40 minutes or so.  He offered to take us for free on the first short leg so we can transfer onto tram 3 and reach our building.  So far, so good.

Once we transfer things got weird.  There was a group of guys in the back of the packed tram chanting and screaming and banging on the tram walls and windows to the point you'd have to worry about them breaking out a window.  This continued and then they began stomping, shouting, screaming and we were wondering just what the hell we had walked into.  Cars were passing us honking and there just seemed to be general mayhem.  Young girls chanting and screaming in the streets, everyone was losing their minds.  I was really beginning to wonder what we were doing here when we started to see cars speeding by honking waving the Bosnian flag.  Turns out they had just beaten Liechtenstein 4-1 in a World Cup qualifying match and were now tied with Greece heading into the final round of matches.  Whew...now all I have to worry about is who to cheer for next Tuesday night at the bars.