An overview of Sarajevo
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bbecares
Cafe Babel Sarajevo Sarajevo or ‘SARAEVO’, as its locals call it, is the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the cultural and economical center of the country.
It is not sure how many inhabitants there are but an estimation from 2006 said that there is a little bit more than 300.000 people and more than 400.000 if we count the metropolitan area.
This can sound like we are talking about a small city but, when you are walking in, it feels much bigger. The reason: its shape.
One of the most characteristically and special things about this city is that is located in a very long and narrow valley, following the river Miljacka, and surrounded by lots of hills that are part of the Dinaric Alps and where you can find all kind of neighborhoods.
That is why the city can be full of Pekaras (Bakeries) but people are slim: they do daily sport in their daily life going up and down all those hills!
Other important characteristic of the city is that in its downtown one can find mosques, catholic churches (including the cathedral), an orthodox church and a synagogue. In another hand, its narrow streets in the city center and all the old mosques show the importance of this city for the Ottoman Empire (it was the second most important city of the empire after Istanbul). Anyway, beside the Turks, a lot of different people in the history passed by this territory place in an important position between occident and orient: the Slavs, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Axis forces during the Second World War and Yugoslavia, before it became the capital of BiH.
Sarajevo is very lively, even during the week and a lot of international embassies offer a huge cultural agenda. From now on, this blog will inform to its readers about all the events and all the important curiosities of this city. Welcome, again, to Café Babel SARAJEVO!