Sarajevo (Part 2)

  If there's lots to see in Sarajevo for the ordinary traveler, so will there be for the one who's interested in urban exploration as well. The city and surroundings are full of cool abandoned places. I had the possibility to visit a couple, and I can tell that there's so much more to see, but the clock is always ticking and when traveling with others who are not so much into urban decay and abandoned buildings, you know time is just limited for fulfilling your dreams.
  When I search for places of interest I rely heavily on internet. Google the city name combined with "urbex" or "urban exploration" and most likely you'll find at least some place where to go. In my case mt. Trebević came up, and most probably if you ever visit Sarajevo or did it already, and you are into forgotten and ruined stuff, you'll end or ended up there at some point. Mt. Trebević is the place where the winter Olympics were held in 1984. So a must see thing would be the abandoned bobsleigh track. While there you could also walk to the Bistrik kula or as it's called too, Čolina kapa observatory. It's just a couple of minutes walk from the bobsleigh track. Two interesting towers, one from the Austro-Hungarian period and one a bit newer, both which have been used as observatories. Cool abandoned buildings and the view down to Sarajevo is amazing. On the way up, by the road there was this abandoned hotel, so I stopped my car there, entered the building and made a few images in there as well.
  An other tool I frequently use is Google Earth. Scrolling over a city with a help of a satellite map can reveal some interesting spots. Of course it's not always guaranteed that you'll have the access inside the building when you finally arrive to the location. In my case there were two spots I was interested of. In the satellite map they seemed just perfect, but in the real world they both where some kind of military related places and guarded by soldiers. Both places where a mess, I definitely would have loved to get inside, but as I'm happy with the holes I'm born with, I thought better not get any extra  from a gun, so I decided to vanish from these places quite fast. So no images from these places.
  A third method for me to find places of interest is to keep my eyes and ears open. When driving here and there you see possible places where you could go. Sometimes when speaking with locals they may know some good spots. While driving one day a former resident of Sarajevo who was travelling with us showed an abandoned complex on the other side of the road. He told that it had been build just before the war, but now it's completely desolated. For me it meant a place of interest, and after two disappointments with the "military bases", this was a perfect spot. No guards, easy to enter and so I went there.
  Then just one more thing! There's lots of abandoned warehouses and larger buildings in Sarajevo, but just don't overlook the smaller houses. They used to be someones homes, places for families wanting to live in peace with their neighbors. Today they are a sad reminder how fast everything can change.

Sarajevo (Part 1)

  Last week I had the opportunity to visit Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The schedule was pretty tight and then I caught flu, so the photography part was quite minimal, but I tried to do my best to make at least a few images and to visit a couple places of interest. I'll divide this post in two. This first with some cityscapes and details from the city, and the second post with some urbex and images of urban decay.
  First I'd like to tell my impression of the city. I loved the variety of old and new. Lots of modern glass covered buildings and then many old houses with that beautiful 19th century architecture. Mosques here and there, and specially those minarets made me feel a bit like being in some Middle-east country even if I were in Europe. Visited the old town only once. Lots of tourists around and then the place was crowded with shops selling the same souvenir  stuff shop after an other, so even if it was in someways interesting I didn't find it very authentic, but maybe someone else finds this Bazaar kind of a place very attractive. As a starting point for the WW 1, a must see place is the spot where Gavrilo Princip killed the archduke Franz Ferdinand. The Latin Bridge isn't large, it's built in Roman style, so the architecture is pretty, as an added bonus because of what happened there, you definitely can feel the history alive. There's also lots of small alleys which can be nice for immagination and inspiration. And then there is always the sad reminders of the Bosnian war. Everywhere in the city you can see bullet holes in the building walls, and some bombarded houses here and there. Sad reminders of what people can do to each other. There's much more to see in Sarajevo, I feel I just touched the surface but as sad it is this time I didn't have time for more, maybe next time. Here's a few images...   

Then a couple of landscapaes from the beautiful countryside not very far from Sarajevo...