Sarajevo. For some the city is associated with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on June 28, 1914, triggering the First World War. For others, with the 1984 Winter Olympic Games. But for many it evokes the longest siege in modern history, one imposed on this ancient Ottoman/Austro-Hungarian city by Serb nationalists from April 1992 to February 1996. But as a holiday destination? Not really.
“I'm going to Denmark on holiday." Apart from the "what on earth for?" from my 91-year old mother-in-law, everyone else's reaction was "Oh, I love Copenhagen." My response that I wasn't going to Copenhagen, at least not for the first of the two weeks, was generally met by a blank stare of incomprehension…
When you buy gold earrings whilst on holiday, one of them breaks and the shop sends you a new pair…
I was drawn to Girona, 99km northeast of Barcelona, by the 63rdTemps de Flors (Fiesta de Flores) or Flower Festival. If it hadn't been for that, I would probably not have bothered to go to this city, which I'd only vaguely heard about …
I have to be up-front here and admit straight out that I don't much care for the Surrealist work of Salvador Dalí. But, whilst in northern Catalonia it seemed an obvious thing to do to visit at least one of the three Salvador Dalí museums and try to understand what it was she liked about this bizarre man's work…
My only experience of Catalonia thus far was Barcelona, where public signage is in both Catalan and Spanish and you hear more Spanish than Catalan spoken. But we're staying 60 kms north of Barcelona in the village of Sant Pol de Mar for the next 10 days and the Catalan language here is not only omnipresent but frequently unaccompanied by any Spanish translation…
