Sarajevo City Tour, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina (B)

As I’m sure many of you know one of the best ways to see a new city is to go on a walking tour. The combination of superb local knowledge and getting up close and personal with the hustle and bustle of city life happening around you gives you a great introduction to an unfamiliar place.

The free walking tour starts outside the Bosnian National Theatre at 10.30 am with another tour starting in the afternoon and requires booking beforehand. It can be booked at this website http://www.sarajevowalkingtours.com. We only booked at 11 pm the night before but that was completely fine and we got a reply within minutes. Also the guide, Merima (who is fantastic by the way), knows all the shady spots in the city so for most of the tour you are sheltered from the sweltering midday sun.

The tour starts by going through the Austro-Hungarian part of town to the Markale central market, the scene of not one but two horrific massacres during the siege of Sarajevo that collectively killed over 120 civilians. It was scenes of the second massacre splashed across the front pages of newspapers worldwide that galvanised the international community into action. Sadly this was merely one atrocity of many in a conflict that was notable for its human rights violations and the spectre of genocide once again rearing its ugly head on European soil. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).