Hi, bye Sarajevo

Time is tight.We try to squeeze as much as we could cos' nak datang semula susah.So after Mostar, we took another 3 hours bus journey to Sarajevo to meet my students and former colleagues.Seronok giler dpt jumpa semula, alhamdulillah.

Sini credit card tak berapa laku..org berniaga pakai cash.Kita baru tau.But kat Sarajevo kawan2 belanja so jimat ler.Haha.Mesut said ada gerombolan bizmen frm Msia duduk hotel 5 star..nak byr pakai credit card, tak boleh.Akhirnya terpaksa minjam kat kedutaan Msia.Horrornya.We all taklah sampai tahap tu, in sha Allah sbb my friends bwk rice cooker periuk belanga.Kah2... I pulak bawak satu bag Brahim.Beras pun my friends bwk.Very far-sighted! :)) Sambil mkn nasi sambil dengar lagu2 Sheila Majid, Seha Freedom...sikit lagi pasang lagu raya.

I love Bosnia-Herzegovina.Ada peluang nak dtg lagi - to stay longer.

Mlm tadi Samedina and Abdul Salam took us up a hill to have a night view of the whole of Sarajevo.On the way down, singgah kubur to visit kubur one of the men I most admired, former President Alija Izetbegovic, pemimpin akhlaq Rasulullah..bila perang, dia di barisan hadapan.SubhanaAllah..siapa sangka...

Kat Mostar semlm pun we all sempat solat kat masjid zaman Uthmaniah..tepi Most Star/The Old Bridge tu.I sebak.Di sini ramai para syuhadah.Di Sarajevo pun.Pokok2 kat kubur diaorg segar hijau.Adakah kita fikir mereka itu mati?

More later.

Greetings from Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina

We decided to spend a night at Mostar to see the famous old bridge.While waiting for our bus, we went to the walled city.Tak larat nak panjat the walls so we walked around the shops, had this fancy lunch -recommended by Yusof and Fuad, the first two Muslims we met in Dubrovnik.

Farizah's "new friend" was a musician at one of the cafes..dia main saxophone playing strangers in the night.Orang tua umur 70 tahun.Kelakar gila.

Kat this part of the world kena bwk byk cash cos' credit cards are not widely used.Kita pulak tak bwk byk cash on us so when we booked to stay in Mostar, we tried booking for 2 instead of 3 and tanya sapa nak jadi anak in this same-sex marriage.ROTFL! None qualified sbb semua muka tua so I booked a cheap hostel which no one knew where it was.The first taxi driver dropped us at a wrong place.Then we walked for almost an hour and no one knew of it.Even a policeman tengah minum beer.Apa ke ngok sgt depa ni...walhal Mostar ni bkn besar sgt.Luckily the second taxi driver was a good man but spoke no English.Dia cari putar2 till dapat.He took the trouble to call up his English speaking daughter to tell me not to worry, her dad dah jumpa tempat tu after almost 1 hour.

And our landlady Maida is a wonderful lady.Dia cerita suaminya was an Engineer ditembak mati oleh Croat masa perang 1990-95 tu.He was shot at the age of 47 in 1993. Maida sgt tabah..dia sewakan rumah dia jadi guesthouse..and that's how we met her. Dia tunjuk baju baru dia nak nyambut Ramadan (baju baru for Ramadan bkn for raya, ok?).She told us how lepas berbuka she would go to the mosque for terawih. Mcm kita juga.

More later.

Dubrovnik at last!

We got in at 4 pm Dubrovnik time.Our apt is in the expensive area but nak mengangkut luggage...AllahuAkhbar! Emanuela ni makbapaknya Muslim tapi dia tak tau apa.Cantik orgnya mcm gadis Sepanyol.