June 2008, Sarajevo

In June 2008, I went to the Eurographics Symposium on Rendering in Sarajevo. This incidentally probably marks the last time I will attend a rendering conference, since my focus has shifted somewhat in the intervening years.

Sarajevo is a very nice little city (660.000 in the metro area), nestled in between some small mountains/large hills named the Dinaric Alps, at a fairly high altitude of 518m. It still has some scars from the attack and siege by Serbia, and you will see some abandoned houses with signs warning that there may be booby traps inside. It is now growing very fast, and such houses are getting cleaned up, but there is still some work to do.

I went for a walk, to acquaint myself a little with Sarajevo, and ended up walking up a hill, as most directions will have you do. There is a river running through Sarajevo, and many little old bridges crossing it.

A couple of days later, I walked through parts of downtown, including a market which is very nice, and a little touristy.

On yet another day, I walked up a different direction, and ended up coming to a large cemetery. Continuing up, I eventually got a very nice view of the city.

The conference itself was well organized and interesting. It, like the Symposium often does, has a local feel to it, small and intimate, but with some very interesting people attending. The host was not only involved in the conference and the university, but is also a hero from the war, and had an interesting speech at the end of the conference, followed by drinks and finger food. All told, a very nice event.