Spring Break Day 9 and 10: Sarajevo, and the trip home

I woke up feeling like absolute crap. We wanted to see the city, so even though we were tired and hung-over, we forced ourselves out of bed and to breakfast. After this we ended up moving hostel rooms, and then wandering around old town as I tried my best not to puke everywhere. The first stop was at the corner where Franz Ferdinand was shot, and the second stop was in the Bazaar, which we quickly walked through to look at various items.

Then we stopped for lunch, but I was still unable to eat. I did sip on some sparkling water, which seemed to calm my stomach pretty well. I ended up purchasing a sandwich pretty close after this, as we stopped at the market to look at the delicious fresh fruit and veggies that were for sale. This stop made me excited to head back home and start eating healthy again.

We walked on, to the twisty tower to head to the top floor and have a coffee. I was lucky enough to get mocha (they never have it in Albania) and to get some pretty great pictures of the view. On the way back home we stopped to look at the memorial for all the children that died in the war. As I spun the memorial (it revolved) there were several chimes inside that made it sound as though children were playing. I almost began to cry at this sound, as Robert pointed out one of the dates said that the child was only alive for a year. 

We also stopped to look at the eternal flame. At this point we were already hungry and ready for some serious food. I had found a Moroccan restaurant online and was intrigued enough to try it out. There was beautiful scenery inside, but the food was very disappointing and average. I still stuffed myself full, mostly because I was still hungry from not being able to eat all morning. Walking home, we stopped briefly in a few stores in old town to do a little bit more shopping, and stopped to get some desert to top off the unhealthy eating. We called it an early night because we knew the last day would involve a very long and obnoxious drive.

We woke up early enough and after dealing with some annoyances from our hostel we got on the road only an hour past when we were supposed to be. We were fully ready, but the hostel was not prepared to help us that early in the morning.

The drive home was very long with few stops. We ended up stopping to get "to-go" breakfast at McDonalds, once to get gas and beer, once to pee after crossing the first boarder, once for lunch, and once to pee after crossing the Albanian boarder. I feel like we did pretty well considering there were 6 of us in the van. Of course once getting home, I had the difficulty of finding my key, and I had to basically take apart my whole bag to find it. It was a pretty stressful 20 minutes while it was lost. And now it is back to the reality of Grad school, getting stuff ready for my job next year, and preparing for my vacation home.