31 August 2007
Quote:
"Ich war geschockt, als ich hörte, dass
einige von euch nicht mal wissen, was Vogueing ist!"
(Popstars OnStage on musical history)
Sarajevo
Another early start from Dubrovnik in a crowded bus brought me to Sarajevo. The ride was OK, and I got to talk to my seat neighbour, Mira, who kindly invited me for coffee (as I had no Bosnian currency on me).
We also talked about the war, which is a topic you can hardly escape. If find that people are very open about it, and self-analytic. It's definitely not a taboo topic. I have tried to piece together the "who is who" and "who fought whom", but I'm still finding is very difficult and confusing. Probably because there is no "logic" behind it, or only a logic that is alien to me. Mira , who is Croatian and has lived in Travnik (Bosnia-Herzegovina) all her life, said that the war didn't make sense, that it's just "politics", and that she had Muslim and Serbian friends before the war with whom she has kept in touch all throughout the war and they are still friends. How odd must it be?!
The bus passed through Mostar where loads of tourists got off. Unfortunately I didn't catch a glimpse of the "new old bridge", but I guess apart from the symbolic value it is another of those tourist hypes that you don't really have to see. What I did see and find impressive were the many scars of the war, especially in Mostar where the front line ran right through the town centre. The houses on either side of the road are completely "sieved". It always impresses me to see what damage bullets can do to concrete. When I went to Beirut in the 90s I didn't even know that bullets could enter concrete... and like in Beirut, here the houses, the streets, the walls are full of holes. Some walls have more holes than bricks.
There are many reminders of
the war in Sarajevo, too. One of the important sights is the Holiday Inn
hotel which was the only functioning hotel during the siege and right on
"Sniper Alley", the road that leads to the airport. They have restored the
hotel's front in the meanwhile.
Throughout the city centre places on the streets where a shell exploded
have been filled with red paint. These are called "Sarajevo Roses".
After obtaining some KM (Convertible Mark), I took the tram from the bus station to the city centre to my hotel. The "pansion" I've chosen is really cute and decorated in a homely "traditional" style. They have satellite TV, and 54 German channels! It's bang-on in the Baščcaršija, the old Turkish quarter. It's nice to be in a Muslim town again, it almost feels like home. They have lovely muezzins, too.
I went for a walk and had some Bosnian food which sounded and tasted quite familiar: Arabic and Bulgarian. All of the fast-food is really greasy, really meaty stuff: Bureks, ćevapčići, etc. They have killer cakes, too. Everything I eat is either sugar or grease! On Friday I had ćevapčićifor breakfast, simply because the alternative would have been a creme cake.
I visited the Jewish museum, the Art Gallery, the Orthodox cathedral, the traditional Bosnian house... only the Catholic cathedral was closed. I like Sarajevo a lot, and Bosnia-Herzegovina looked nice as well so far. They have many mountains, and the architecture reminds me of Georgia. The atmosphere in Sarajevo is really relaxed. It's like being in an Arab county but without the harassment of the shop keepers.
Sunset
over the Miljacka river
(here Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a Bosnian Serb which
started WWI)
View
from the hills after sunset
Public
chess
Mira confirmed that Croatian, Bosniak and Serbian are the same language, which makes me wonder why our clients pay double -- especially as they always want "Serbian Latin", which would make it exactly the same as "Croatian". And why "Latin" anyway, if in Serbia they use the Cyrillic script?! I'll have to investigate.
Šejla Kamerić -
BOSNIAN GIRL
Photograph by Tarik Samarah
Graffiti written by an unknown Dutch soldier on a wall of the army
barracks in Potočari,
Srebrenica, 1994/95. Royal Netherlands Army troops, as part of UN
Protection Force (UNPROFOR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1992-95, were
responsible for protecting the Srebrenica safe area.
The
National Library which was targeted by the Serbs as a repository of
Bosnian books and manuscripts, and therefore an entire people's culture.
