Wowzers

Information overload in my head. I'm back with popular demand.

First, for my mom, Dublin. Didn't mention it in the last post but it was a nice half-day in the city. Went to Bewley's for breakfast like you suggested, even though it was about three in the morning in our minds and neither of us was very hungry. Then some walking down Grafton Street to the St. Stephen's park where we read and nodded off intermittently. It was in Dublin that I also discovered that I brought the wrong type of cell phone (because of my laziness I didn't research it properly), so I am uncontactable except by email. Hear that, everyone? No getting in car crashes or succumbıng to H1N1 while I'm gone.

Sarajevo was thoroughly an enjoyable few days. Eating too much greasy cheese and potato pie and drinking too much local liquor with friends on a balcony overlooking a dozen similarly depressing apartment high-rises was all I expected it to be, and I expected it to be great. The new city is fairly depressing because of its architechure (mostly grey -- now with some colours, to be fair --, minimalist, dirty) but of course also because of the remnants of the war that ended a short number of years ago (everywhere pock-marked buildings and sidewalks from mortar shells and bullets, memorials to dead children, a noticeable absence of people in their early twenties who tend to leave the city, the influx of people who were refugees from rural areas of Bosnia-Herzegovina who decided that life is better in Sarajevo).

Alex showed us the neighbourhood where his family lived until the 90s. I like to see where friends come from. We traipsed all through the old town together. When Alex and Nikki left, Myles and I climbed up one of the many hills surrounding downtown Sarajevo, looked around at the houses where middle- to upper-middle-class people live, looked at some cemetaries, and climbed back down again.

Alex's great-aunt and great-uncle hosted us on our last night even though Alex and Nikki were no longer there ("Where were you going to sleep? Out on the street?"). We were fed second-dinners and snacks and breakfasts and coffees and so on (other generous displays of hospitality).

We thought we didn't have a place to stay in Istanbul because of a miscommunication with our couchsurfing host, so we reserved a room in a hostel at the last minute. What happened to us then, you can't help but wonder? If you are reading this blog chronologically, read on to find out! If you aren't, then, er, you already know.