In love with Sarajevo

I visited Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia & Herzegovina, in late October ’11. I came by bus from Mostar and left by train for Pécs in Hungary. I fell in love with Sarajevo and hope to go back sometime.

I would highly recommend taking a tour (check with the tourist office or your hotel) that includes the tunnel under the airport runway; it was Sarajevo’s lifeline during the siege (1992-1996). The half-day tour that I took included some of the surrounding hilltops that illustrate how vulnerable the city was.

I ran into the tour by chance, just as it was beginning, and joined up. It cost about €20 (near $27). I saw shorter tours of just the tunnel, itself, offered for €12.

I ate well at Karuzo (Dzenetica Cikma 2, Sarajevo; phone +387 [33] 444 647), which looked closed but wasn’t. Karuzo bills itself as the first (and perhaps only) vegetarian restaurant in the country. I had lentil soup and trout, both very good, for about $10-$14.

I ate twice at Dveri (Prote Bako­vica 12, Sarajevo; phone +387 [33] 537 020), where a meal of shopska salad (vegetables topped with grated sirene cheese) and (I seem to recall) goulash, sausage and beans was also in the $10-$14 range.

KATHY WILHELM
Cary, NC