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Ghost stories

October 5, 2018 (Night)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
Sarajevo has more graveyards than any city I've ever visited, partly because of the war I imagine, but perhaps also because the city has grown to encompass what used to be the rural outskirts where it was customary to bury the dead. One person here told me that during the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s war they couldn't leave the city so they started turning parks and empty plots of land within the city limits into burying grounds and these continued to serve that function ever since. In any case, it makes for an eerie setting to be listening to what turned out to be a ghost story on Selected Shorts, my favorite podcast, where famous actors read classic (and new) short stories on stage before a live audience. I'm not normally a fan of scary stories, but luckily this one turned out not be scary, though between the story and the graves I was passing I jump about three feet in the air when a black cat suddenly darted directly toward me out of the darkness. Really thought the only thing to be scared of here in the dogs. No canine showdowns this time though. I managed to get up to the top of the ridge again like last week and made my way back much quicker than usual, only making a couple minor wrong turns down streets with no outlets. I like that I'm getting to know the hill neighborhoods better and hope that soon I'll be able to put my phone away and just navigate them by memory.