It’s Monday morning in Steffen and Anna’s peaceful apartment in Sarajevo. This is our first “down” time after a fantastic weekend.

After Abraham and I explored Sarajevo — a very lively, beautiful, walkable city — with Anna during the day on Friday, Steffan joined us after work and drove us down to Buna, near Mostar, where we stayed at a small hotel in the countryside along a small river. We had dinner and breakfast on the riverbank, and then drove down to Trebinje at the southern tip of the country.

Steffen works with a raspberry producer in Trebinje and knows a lot of people there. We stayed in a small house owned by a very old, sweet lady. We stuffed ourselves as their friends took us out to lunch which lasted so long it became dinner. Trebinje is a smaller city, but with a Mediterranean air to it and lots of sidewalk cafes. Really a beautiful place, with a nice “old city” to explore. On Sunday, a nephew of the family drove Abraham and I across the border to the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, only 30 minutes away. It’s an amazing walled city on the Adriatic coast, but packed with tourists. We spent an hour there, and were glad to get back to untouristed Bosnia. Sunday evening we drove back to Sarajevo.

That’s been a great thing about Bosnia, at least for us — absolutely no tourists. It really feels like we’re exploring a very unique place. The only dark cloud is the still simmering hatred between the different groups here. Although the war that ravaged Bosnia from 92-95 is over, there is still mistrust between the Serbs, Muslims and Croats who live in Bosnia. Everyone is friendly to us, but in conversation their dislike for the other groups in Serbia sometimes creeps in. We’ve seen a lot of bombed-out buildings. Sarajevo is surrounded by hills, and during the war shells were constantly lobbed by Serbs into the mainly Muslim city. 10,000 people died here. Fortunately, things are peaceful now and the country is rebuilding itself. Hopefully this will last.

A final note is the attention Abraham has attracted. People are constantly doing double-takes when they see him. This is especially true outside of Sarajevo. Near Buna, a bunch a kids were really fascinated by him. Steffan told them he was George Weah, the famous soccer player, and they got very excited and yelled out the few English words they knew. In Trebinje, Abraham was constantly getting friendly hellos and winks (I guess a wink is a greeting). An old man walked up and eagerly shook his hand. Young people in particular — Bosnia is filled with young people — seemed excited to see him and often tried to use their limited English on him. It was all quite entertaining.

Well, today is another warm day. We’ll probably just walk around the area. Nothing special, just soaking up the atmosphere. DC seems 50 million miles away.