Having a Blast!
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Sarajevo,
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Friday, September 30, 2005
I'm going to reel off a list of superlatives here, as this place really does deserve them. In fact, I haven't visited a city in a long time that really is so vibrant, energetic, lively, interesting, um..... intriguing, and many more could be added.
For somewhere that was so recently on the TV news featuring distressing images you could almost imagine that nothing had ever happened - well, if you didn't talk to any of the locals, or if you didn't look at the bombed-out shells of buildings that are all over the city centre. As you would expect, there is a lot of building work taking place, but it will take many years to repair the damage done - at least the damage to the buildings. Personal damage will take a lot longer. Talking to people that had lived through thr 43-month long siege of the city was incredible. Electricity for 5 hours a month towards the end of the war...... School lessons were held underground..... There was a 10pm to 5am curfew, so people tended to go clubbing from 9:30 to 6am.... Many many more things that I can tell you when we get back. Or better still, why not come and see for yourself?
During the siege there was one 800m long tunnel under Sarajevo airport that may have saved the city - it was the only way for the Bosnians to get in and out of the city, and get arms, food, communications and electricity too. And we visited it - a fantastic, albeit difficult, place to get to by public transport.
We were very fortunate to have had a wonderful guide to the city. A Bosnian living in Chelsea, Vildana, met us on the bus to Sarajevo and took it upon herself to make sure we had a good time, which we did. And then some. On the first night we made our first ever trip to a fashion show..... Benetton - we were dressed in our best clothes, which were jeans and polo necks. We were a little underdressed, but there was a free bar, so it kind of didn't matter after too long. After that we went to a club and then us oldies were too tired to kep going. Everyone was drinking and having a good time.... then it dawned on us that everyone we were with were drinking. And the people we were with were.... a man that worked for the President, the Director of Coca-Cola, an actress, the co-ordinator of Bosnia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest and others that I've forgotten. Like a one-armed rower, we were moving in circles.... hopefully the right ones!
Then we got the city tour. Sarajevans are proud of having a Catholic Church, Serbian Orthodox Church, Mosque and Synagogue within about a 50m radius of each other, and we were able to have a very religious day going in and around these, as well as the old Turkish part of the town where we stayed. We walked over the bridge where Franz Ferdinand was shot (no, not the Scottish band...) which effectively started World War I, we drank Bosnian coffee decanted from small copper decanters that you could watch being made by the coppersmiths in the backstreets of the Old Town, but it was cold. Much colder than elsewhere, and wet too.....
I could go on, and on, and on, but I won't as you won't read it. Give up your perceptions and get on a plane to Sarajevo - a fantastic place to go. In fact, I really want to invest in the place...... anyone else in?
