sarajevo, bih

the hills of outer sarajevo, the capital of bosnia and herzegovina.

there was a war in bih fron 92-95 and there are remnants all over the city. it's actually quite surprising how devastated the city still looks.

foreground: ottoman cemetary. background: the ˝lucky˝ casualties of the war, the ones who were burried in the cemetary, instead of neighborhood parks and football fields.

the latin bridge, where franz ferdinand was shot


random apartment buildings in the city center.

'bosnian' coffee, served in the turkish district with turkish delight on the side.

cevapcici (pronounced sevapchi-chi) is more meat than one could imagine eating, traditional bosnian food.

this pizza is amazing and has essentially become a sarajevo tradition for anyone who visits, just after we ordered our pizzas the crowds appeared and didn't leave all night

amazing salad, perhaps not traditional bosnian food, but worthy of note anyway

the rest of istanbul

1: andy and attaturk 2: the strays are remarkably healthy 3/4: galata district 5: istiklal cadesi, a major semi-pedestrian street 6: sultahnamet from the ferry 7: spices and tea at the egyptian market 8: street cleaning in eminonu district 9/10: view of sultahnamet and attaturk bridge from the hostel terrace

sultahnamet

most of the tourist attractions are located in sultahnamet. unfortunately, it seems someone came around and standardized all of the prices, because everything cost 10 ytl (new turkish lira), regardless of how important historically it was or how much time you could spend there. the only thing we paid to see was the ayasofya.

the ayasofya was a 5th century byzantine cathedral, converted into a mosque during the ottoman empire. because of this, you see the arabic script acceptable in mosques with old frescos and icons.

just across the way was the blue mosque, one of the largest (of many) in istanbul.

the mosque got its name from the blue patterned tiles.


both men and women had to have their legs covered to the ankle and enter bear foot, and women were required to have their heads covered. nevertheless, there were tons of disrespectful tourists who mocked the dress or simply took their headscars off the minute they entered. this didn't happen at the mosques outside of sultahnamet, touristy locations ruin everything.
before prayer, muslims must wash their feet.

blue mosque from a distance

what about bob?

as i recall, you were going to go to turkey with the peace corps. that didn't happen, but i just wanted to let you know what you were missing; and i think it would be bad ass if you and momma moved to istanbul.

this could be you, bob, bathing in the bospherous.

andy thinks small-boat culture isn't that big here, but you could still make do.

you could be napping in this boat, bob. you could be rocked to sleep and not even care that you have this amazing view of the levent business district, because you get to see it every day.

you could smoke copious amounts of cheap cigarettes while drinking concentrated caffeine in the form of turkish coffee in small cafes along the water.

and, if you're lucky, you could have your very own muslim daughter!

Varna (BAPHA), Bulgaria

varna is somewhat of a resort town along the black sea.

border crossing between serbia and bulgaria

beach in varna

we drink lots of cheap bulgarian beer

cathedral of the assumption of the virgin

ugly communist housing, but it does have an amazing view of the sea

andy speaking russian to buy a chicken

park above the water

benches

boat for bob

cafe in nesebar

5th and 6th century ruins in nessebar

5th century church

budapest subways

i lied, that wasn't the last of budapest. these were taken along the blue line, M3.