Hospitality

The Sarajevo ‘War Hostel’ takes tourists back in time to a dark period in Europe’s resent history during one of its bloodiest sieges. Tourists passing through Bosnia-Herzegovina are given the opportunity to experience the siege of the Bosnian capital during the Balkan conflict in the 1990s. Guests will spend their time in war-time conditions, sleeping on sponge mattresses under military blankets and reading newspaper clippings by candlelight. RT.com reports: The hostel is run by a family who survived the three-year-long siege.

Apologies for my absence for a while, but I spent the past four days in Iceland, one of my wife’s favorite places on earth, celebrating our twentieth wedding anniversary. We had a delightful time, traveling by super-jeep into the interior to visit the sanctuary of Landmannalaugar, hiking across a glacier, soaking in the ubiquitous geothermally-heated pools, and generally relaxing. The only thing we didn’t do that we hoped to was see the northern lights — they’re temperamental performers, and they didn’t feel like showing off for us I guess.