Coffee is nothing unusual in Sarajevo -- except when it's to go

No, Starbucks has yet to arrive in Sarajevo.

But the next best thing is the Coffeeshop across the bridge near Dva Ribara restroan but on the left(remember, no useful addresses in Sarajevo!)

A cheery young Australian guy named Sebastian has opened the city's first take-away coffee place. He actually has a couple of tables in his shop too after being told that Sarajevans like to sit for hours sipping espressos, smoking and chatting, but he's hoping to instill that US-like habit of walking around with a paper cup with a plastic top sipping caffeine.

He says the place is doing well, especially with students who pass the locale on the way to University of Sarajevo classes and old people. Surprisingly, it's been locals and not the foreigners he'd been told to expect who are patronizing him.

He's flip about the question how'd he end up opening a business in Bosnia: "I was very sympathetic with these people," he says, seemingly serious. Then he adds, "And I was really sympathetic about their lack of take-away coffee."

I've walked over the bridge from work twice now to check him out. His lattes and cappuchinos are very good, priced about the same as specialty coffees elsewhere and he has regular American-style coffee which is rare here but, oh holding a warm cup with a plastic tops, gives me a twinge of homesickness.

Now all this place needs is an ersatz McDonald's.