East and west
Trip Start
Nov 15, 2005
1
59
248
Trip End
Aug 15, 2008
Sarajevo,
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Friday, July 7, 2006
The tranquility of it was soon shattered upon arrival in Sarajevo, though not by the town itself. The usual barrage of private room offers was concentrated in the form of Jasmina, a formidable woman who had a superhuman ability to ignore the word "no", and almost physically dragged me off to her "hostel", an apartment crowded with beds. Fortunately the location was quite good (5 minutes from the station, ten from the town centre), and one thing I have to admit, the place was clean.
01 Mostar - Sarajevo
Possibly because Jasmina seemed to suffer from obsessive/compulsive disorder, and felt the need to disinfect the place at ten every morning, whether or not people wanted to sleep. It was an experience staying there, though perhaps not one I would recommend. The free breakfast on the first morning was most welcome, until it turned out to be greasy cabbage pie. Strange woman. At least I didn't have the same experience as several of the people staying there, who had apparently been stalked from Croatia by Jasmina's family. I imagine it must have been disconcerting to get off a train in an unfamiliar city only to have someone yelling your name and country. Still, I did meet some good people there, bewildered as we all were by Jasmina, and it was strange to meet people in Sarajevo who lived all of 10 miles away at home.Sarajevo is a fascinating city. The damage from the war is still visible, though far less so than in Mostar. Apparently it's becoming less and less obvious each year, and people I met living there believed that in two or three years, the renovation would be so complete the damage would not be noticable at all unless you were to actually search it out. As it is, there are still several buildings in various stages of decay (including one house two doors down from the British embassy, which has a massive hole right through it), and bullet holes in walls and the roads, especially along "sniper's alley", very near to the hostel, where Serbian troops in the hills surrounding the city would shoot at anyone out in the open
02 Mostar - Sarajevo
. One thing that will still be there as a reminder, even after the renovation, are the "Sarajevo roses", mortar indentations in the roads and pavements that have been refilled with red cement.All this was put into focus at the tunnel museum, dedicated to the hand built tunnel under the front line (Sarajevo airport) that kept the city alive with supplies, weapons and soldiers when the Bosnians had no other means of entry or exit from the city under seige for 3 years. I don't think I'll complain about the weight of my backpack again, knowing that people were carrying bags of supplies weighing upwards of 50kg through a tunnel as small as 1.5m by 1m. The testimony of people who had lived through those years put a very personal aspect onto what little I knew of the war from the news of the time, and to see some of the war footage now that I recognised the places being destroyed was a disturbing experience.
The city is now a very different place. The historic centre, Bascarsija, has been so rebuilt to the point where you would never guess there had been a war there, and is a great place to spend an aimless afternoon wandering around admiring the metalworkers busy at their craft, and the odd red-tiled rooftops of the buildings. The Turkish influence here is far more obvious than anywhere else I have yet been. Stopping for a cup of tea at Morica Han, an old inn used by traders on their way to Istanbul, was almost obligatory
03 Mostar - Sarajevo
.Even more impressive (to me) than the efforts that have gone into rebuilding the place was the feeling of acceptance and integration here. Despite the presence of UN troops, the obviously diverse population of the city (Slavic, Turkish, Muslim and Bosnian people were all easily recognisable) all seemed entirely comfortable and at ease with each other, and the presence of an Orthodox church, a Roman Catholic cathedral and the largest Mosque in town all within about 200 yards of each other seemed amazing given the problems of just a decade ago.
Definately one of the most interesting places I've been in a while.
