Sretna Nova Godina!! (Happy New Year)

And here's to a successful and happy 2011!


I visited the U.K over the Christmas period, to see my family and friends. I can't really say it was a holiday as I was running back and forth around the place, but such is the festive time of the year. I had decided to go back to the U.K as it is not a holiday here, being predominantly Muslim. Sure, the occasional tree was decorated throughout Sarajevo, but the idea of sitting on my own on Xmas day, whilst Mr B goes to work, knowing that my family were pulling off the usual over excited Christmas, was totally unappealing.

Decorations in the B.B.I Centre, Sarajevo.

It was great to be back in the U.K for a while, to be able to speak to everyone without trouble, to be able to understand everything that was going on, and to be with people I really care about.

The snow in the U.K

The snow was thick in the U.K and it made for a truly lovely white Christmas.

As promised though I was back in time for New Year. We had intended to go into the city and watch the concert and fireworks outside of the B.B.I Centre, but as New Year approached we decided to scrap the idea of standing with thousands of others, freezing our asses off, unable to get a beer, and instead head up to the top of the hill, where our house is located, with a bottle of something fizzy and watch the city explode at midnight. All of these plans fell by the wayside when Mr B came down with some sort of stomach bug and so New Year comprised of me and Mr B, some booze and our lounge. Mr B falling asleep at 1am due to illness and me staying up and finishing the bubbly. 1...2...3.... awwwww! We went up to the top floor of the house at midnight to see if we could see the fireworks over the city, but the fog had descended and so covered most of the activity. The noise was unbelievable though. A lot of comments were passed about the war having restarted. Without seeing the fireworks, you could believe it had. The whole city whizzed, banged, and exploded for an hour or more.

The following day I came down with what Mr B had had. He, however, handled it like a man, I handled it like a GIRL. Some slight stomach upset with cramps for him. Vomiting and the other for me, which went on for 24 hours. What a way to see in the new year!

The lovely Yank and I have had some major problems with our language school in the last few weeks. We have been forced to ask for a refund of sorts and we have had to write several formal complaints to the head of school, who has been anything but helpful and understanding. Naming and shaming will follow. All I need to say right now is that if you ever wish to study Bosnian, or any other language for that matter, in Sarajevo do not use Interlingua (associated with International House).

So all in all the new year, so far, has not been the best, but I am not letting that be a sign of what is to come in 2011. From here on in it is to be fan-bloody-tastic!