Sarajevo Diaries VI

First Snow!


This week we have had our first snowfall of the season, making things feel a bit more like Canada at Christmas time. Although it has not been as cold as we have been used to in Ottawa, the snow and slush of the last few days have served as ready reminders!

One last week of school in the snow, and then Masa and I will be off to Belgrade and Istanbul to ring in the New Year! Masa's 'happy ending' uncle Emir is joining us for NY's in Istanbul...maybe he will be bringing some honey.

Hopefully when we get back we'll explore some of the skiing on the Olympic mountains. Masa's cousins Namik and Edo, whom you'll remember from the hiking posts below, have promised that there are Bosnian equivalents to the beginner hill, such that someone with a frightening lack of skiing skill (me), can still get out there.

Perhaps my resolutions for the New Year will have to include practicing Bosnian everyday and learning to ski (again).

PRAHA!

Last week I was able to spend four days in Prague, in the Czech Republic, and ended up soaking up some sun and enjoying numerous Bohemian craft brews! The home of the Pilsner certainly did not disappoint, and for myself and Dan and Stew, my friends from Canada, it was an amazing time.

You can check out a slide show of some of our pictures at the link here.

From seeing the Charles Bridge, to the Castle, the Old Town Square, the Astronomical Clock, Wenceslas Square, and all the points between (marked with Budvar!) Prague was rich with sensual overload! And perhaps, unbeknownst to us, we even saw a ghost!

The history of the city was all around us, from the medieval torture museum, to the Communist times, to the Velvet revolution. No question, I would return to Prague in an instant!

Sarajevo Diaries V

So, it has been almost a month since our last post. The weeks have gone by in a hurry, and oddly it feels like we have been here so much longer than just six weeks. We really have settled in marvelously to our apartment, even bringing a new member of the family into the fold! You can meet her here, her name is Gizmo!

She was a stray of only two weeks of age when we found her, and slowly we have nursed her into an adorable (albeit sometimes totally crazy) little kitten. We think she is now about 7 or 8 weeks old.

In many ways Gizmo has become the calender by which we are measuring things - depending on how much we think she has grown, or how much she is eating.

Sarajevo the last few weeks has been a strange mixture of weather. While normally this area might already be enjoying wintery weather, we have so far had nothing of the sort. On the whole we have had a lot of fog and smog, some wind, and some really amazingly beautiful days. Yesterday was 17 degrees celcius, but a bit of horrific wind. You can see here some recent photos in the fog - these were taken at 5:00pm.

Hopefully we wil get some snow soon before the holidays start!

This coming week I will be travelling to Prague, so will soon have some news from the Czech Republic!