Central Europe: Bosnia and Herzegovina - The Historical Museum of BiH

I had an earlier day compared to K as I had to make my way to Sarajevo Airport to pick up my luggage. I found out that even though my luggage had been sent to Sarajevo but because Qatar Air does not have an office or connection to Sarajevo, they are not able to arrange for a delivery without fee. I knocked on Emir's door (the son, owner of the hostel) and asked if he can help me ring a taxi for me to pick up my bag. He was not able to send me to the airport but helped me called for a English speaking taxi driver who would pick me up, wait and send me back after picking up my luggage. Taxi came in 5 to 10 minutes. As nobody was at the lost and found counter, I was out with my luggage in less than 10 minutes.

We initially wanted to see the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina only to found out that the museum has been closed when we asked if it was a good museum to visit. We were told it was good but no chance to visit it any more as it has been closed down since 2012 due to funding issue.

However we thought we would check out a little further than the usual Baščaršija area. It was about 30 minutes walk away from the old town. As we walked away from the old cultural history center, the change in scenery was quite obvious.

On our way we saw the Holiday Inn building. I was not aware of the significance of this building till after we saw the same photos in the historical museum. The only reason it got our attention was because of the orange brown colour.

Currently - in 2014

Photo from the Historical Museum of BiH

Sarajevo hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics, the high point of the city's modern history. This yellow and brown Holiday Inn Hotel was built for the Olympics, to house sportsmen, journalists.

In the early 1990s, during the Sarajevo Siege, Holiday Inn was located on "Sniper Alley" and said to be in the closest proximity to the front line.

We ended up visiting the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina instead. Entrance fee 5km.

As you can see from the exterior, the museum is not maintained very well, likely due to funding issues as well. The museum now house exhibition on the history of BiH through the Communist era as well as on the siege. On exhibits are photographs and artefacts. It isn't a very big museum and we were in time to commute back to the old town center to catch our tunnel tour.

We initially contemplated to take a tram but the lady who worked at the History Museum told us it costs 7.60 km. However another person told us it was 2 km. We being the cheap travelers/tourists decided to just walk our way back. We were in time and even had time to spare to do a takeaway burek too.

This is a very good potato burek, a big piece of it at 3.5km

Side note: How on earth when one thing break, the rest of things decided to join in the fun too and break at similar time? = ="