Winter in Bosnia

For those of you that have heard me complain about the weather in Bosnia, I need to share this with you. Generally speaking, Sarajevo is a very grey place to live. However, for the past several days, we have experienced....yes...it's true.....some BLUE SKIES!! Mark has even called me up from work to tell me he has spotted blue skies in Sarajevo and I should make sure I look! It remains cold, but there hasn't been any precipitation. Remember, Sarajevo is in a valley. We are surrounded by mountains. So, on Sunday Mark and I decided to go to a ski slope called Bjelasnica (this was the sight of men's downhill skiing during the winter olympics in 1984). On Monday, MLK Day, we went to Jahorina (the sight of women's downhill skiing) with the people from Mark's office. We just wanted to see what was going on and since there were some blue skies in Sarajevo, we figured the skies would be even bluer in the mountains.....and we were right. I couldn't go without my new camera that my darling husband got me for Christmas and these are some of the shots we got. I knew there would be snow on the mountains, I just didn't realize how much and how beautiful it would be.





This is what they were trying to describe in the song, "Winter Wonderland". It was truly magical.

Sure glad that's not MY car!!







Mark and Pero decided to take me on a little "hike". Walking uphill (mountain) in freezing weather, with a load of clothing on, in the snow is their idea of fun. For me....well lets say I think drinking hot cocoa and watching others hike is a lot of fun!







This is Mark in Bjelasnica. I thought he looked so handsome I had to get his picture.









It was Sunday when we went to Bjelasnica. We thought we would see people at a ski resort. What we never expected to see was a winter carnival.....well, sort of. There were what appeared to be, thousands of people- especially families here enjoying the blue skies and snow. This area the people were sitting, eating and of course, smoking.


This guy was selling cotton candy.












This guy was giving pony rides! Who would have thought!!!









This guy is cooking local food and hamburgers.













And what could be more fun that a moon bounce right between two ski slopes!!





The weathermen are calling for snow again. I'm not suprised. According to everyone that was here last year, the snow that we are seeing in these pictures is nothing compared to what they had last year. Mark said the snow was well over his head. They are not calling for that kind of winter this year. I think I'm happy about that. I hope that I will be able to go skiing here at some point in time. It looks like so much fun!