My plan to take a day's trip to the famous Mostar was scuppered by the fact that I didn't get up until past 10 O'clock. By this stage the weather had improved significantly in Sarajevo and I thought I would have a day finishing off my visits around the city and doing some admin. It was the first day I had had to really get down and do the things that I had been meaning to do for ages but had put off. I finally finished my report on my Mercy Corps visit to Bosnia and also finalised my plans for my visit to Serbia and Montenegro. I even had a moment to sit outside in one of the cafe's and re-learn my Russian in preparation of my visit to Central Asia - I had rather hoped the atmosphere might make it easier to learn but sadly I struggled away with it, hoping that the few things I have learned will have a big impact when I do arrive in Turkmenistan in May!

In the afternoon I visited the National Museum which was mostly closed due to its walls still falling down. So all I got to see were rooms full of all the insects and animals that Bosnia is host to and some ethnology - but the lights were not working so I barely saw much of it. Still a stroll around the botanical garden in the warm sun made it more bearable. Next door to the National Museum is the History Museum, whose meagre entry fee of 1KM (equivalent to 30p) should have warned me that it would be nothing more than one room full of photos and a few exhibits strewn around. But for a one-room summary of Bosnia's history it did a pretty good job. The focus was, understandably on recent history, and there wasn't much mention of the medieval times. But it did explain a little about the development of the Bosnian state in the 10th century and the 400 years in which this flourished until the death of King Tomesevic and the invasion of the Ottoman Empire. This explained a lot of the influences that Bosnia has had from both east and west, mediterranean and central european, and orthodox, catholic and muslim. Despite the tensions that this has caused recently the cultural influences ahve made Sarajevo a particularly pleasant place to spend a few days and one which I am reluctant to leave.