Whether you’re local or just in on a one day visit, meeting people in Sarajevo is obligatory. Regardless of whether it’s about drinking espresso or thick black Turkish coffee, or choosing a good local bourek over a well-made Italian pasta, it’s all about being out, amongst people, and satisfying the moment. The range on offer leaps from traditionally-furnished restaurants in the old quarter, replete with all manner of authentic ornament and decoration to small fast-food places with colourful carpeting draped over the floors, walls and the waiters; then there are the lounge bars, whose concept is (loosely) based on a (con)fusion of Milan furniture fair trends and liberally interpreted oriental influences. Maybe it’s laid-back smoking of shisha, sitting among a sea of cushions and pillows or simply enjoying the scent of old Austro-Hungarian varnished oak. At the end of the night you find yourself in a bar accidentally spilling your finest Slovenian wine on a hard, epoxy floor, looking for an apology from your own image reflected in the curved stainless steel wall plate.

Author: Emir Jelkič
Photos: Simon Plestenjak