We had a break during the first week of November. I think that since it takes we Americans 7-9 hours or more to get to Europe, one should travel as much as possible when there. Last year I went to Sweden, among other destinations that were part of my program’s curriculum. I’ve seen a great deal of Western Europe, and I decided it was time to go further afield. 3 colleagues and myself decided to go to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
I don’t think I need to say that the city of Sarajevo has experienced a lot. For hundreds of years it served as an outpost for the Ottoman Empire, before being integrated into the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 19th century. The murder of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 by a Serbian assassin was the catalyst for World War I. And, as I’m sure many of you remember, the city was under siege from 1992 to 1996 as a result of the breakup of Yugoslavia. I myself can remember news reports of the siege from when I was a child, and those “buzzwords” still stick with me: “Sarajevo,” “Bosnian Serbs,” “Slobodan Milosevic,” and so on. Obviously I was too young to fully grasp what was happening in Bosnia at the time, and since then I’ve had a particular interest in the Balkans region. So, going to Sarajevo seemed like a golden opportunity.
We boarded a flight from Stuttgart, Germany to Sarajevo on November 4, 2008. As we got closer to Sarajevo and as our altitude dropped, I looked out the window and was treated with my first real-life view of the Balkans. It’s rather mountainous country, with lots of valleys and villages scattered about.
Two thoughts popped into my mind: “It’s so beautiful” and “I wonder how many land mines are still out there.” (Seriously though, one needs a tour guide when in the mountains just outside of Sarajevo...there are still a lot of landmines out there). We landed in Sarajevo, went through passport control, and took a taxi to our hostel. The airport is 10 kilometers outside of the city center, so we got a pretty good look at the city and surrounding region along the way. We spent most of the ride along a grand, Soviet-style four-lane avenue separate by a median with tram tracks. I would later find out that this road was nicknamed “Sniper Alley” during the siege. Anyways, we sped along the avenue towards the city center. A tram trundled down the tracks, rocking steadily back and forth. The rear door was off a hinge, and the door swung open and closed as the tram car rocked. As we entered the city center, the road curved to the left and narrowed a great deal. At the curve was a massive building with its roof missing. A mortar had hit it during the siege. After the curve, the road went along the river which runs through Sarajevo, the Miljacka (meel-jats-ka) River. We took a left turn down a narrow street, then another left down an equally narrow street, and the taxi parked there. We had to walk the rest of the way to our hostel because the street was too narrow for cars.
The hostel was situated on the top floor of an apartment building. We walked inside the building to find a run-down stairwell. On the fourth floor was a door with the hostel’s insignia on it. The employees greeted us and showed us to our room. Everything look brand new, and indeed it was. The hostel wasn’t even 1 year old. I snagged the top bunk of one of the bunk beds. We were relaxing when I heard a voice singing a familiar song. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but it sounded like a religious song. Then I suddenly realized what it was and sprang to the window so I could hear better: it was a man singing adan, the Muslim call to worship. We decided to explore the city.
Our hostel was a short walk from the historic center of town. We enjoyed a dinner of čevapčiči (chevahp-chee-chee), which the employee at the hostel called “Bosnian fast food.” It was several small sausages with diced onions inside a big piece of flatbread. All I have to say is no wonder there are no McDonald’s restaurants in Sarajevo…Bosnian fast food blows McDonalds away. We walked around the city some more, and ended up alongside the Miljacka River. We were standing before a relatively ornate bridge, and I thought it looked familiar. I turned to the left and on the building there was a plaque, which read, “From this place on June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sofia.” This was the Latin Bridge. After shooting Ferdinand, Princip jumped into the water in an attempt to flee. However, the Miljacka River is only about 4 feet deep, so police soon apprehended him.
We spent the next day exploring the city further, and also marks the time I entered houses of worship of four different faiths in one day: a Catholic cathedral, an Orthodox church, a Jewish synagogue, and a Muslim mosque. This brings me to one of the points about Sarajevo: it is an extremely multi-cultural city, and all these different cultures live with one another with mutual respect. Unfortunately this is a concept many places in the United States lack and I wish they would be more culturally understanding. This is not a new concept, either. Sarajevo and indeed all the Balkans have been cultural crossroads for centuries, and except during times of war these cultures have lived peacefully among one another. Anyways…our visit to the cathedral was cut short when a nun instructed us to leave. Our next visit was Bey’s Mosque, Sarajevo’s most famous Muslim place of worship. I was really excited about going inside the mosque. The mosque grounds had a large courtyard, a fountain, and a separate building for washing one’s feet. We wanted to enter the actual place of worship, but one of the five daily sets of prayers was happening, and we, not wanting to be gawking tourists, thought it more respectful to stay outside. However, we did find another mosque not too far from the center (there are lots of mosques in Sarajevo). The gate to the courtyard was locked, but as we turned around to leave a lady came out of the gate and said something to us in Bosnian. When we didn’t respond she asked “You want to go in?” to which we replied “yes please!” She then asked us where we were from. Upon learning that we were Americans she smiled and said “Ah! Congratulations on your new president!” (this was November 5). I thought to myself, “I can smell America’s reputation abroad beginning to improve.” Anyways, we walked through the gate and around the grounds. There was a little tea house to the right and the main mosque building to the left. We decided to go in, but weren’t exactly sure what the proper etiquette was. We watched a man walk up to the pathway which led to the mosque’s door, take his shoes off, walk down the carpeted pathway, and enter. We did the same. Inside, the floor was also covered with carpets. Over the door frame and over every window there were phrases in Arabic, which I’m guessing were quotes from the Qu’aran. We stood there and took it all in. The room to the left of the main hall appeared to be a school of sorts. There was also a stairway leading upwards, but we thought it too intrusive to investigate. We were the only ones there except for another man who came in a little while afterwards. He walked up to a small altar and said a few prayers, then left. We also left shortly thereafter. We walked for a bit, and then came across a large yellowish building. It was an old Ashkenazi Jewish synagogue (“Ashkenazi Jews” refers to Jews descended from the Jewish communities of medieval western Germany). A man had to unlock the door for us, and we were led into a relatively small worship room, featuring wooden pews and an ornate ark (the cabinet used to store each particular synagogue’s Torah). We thanked the man for letting us in, and then left.
Now, being in the Balkans, Sarajevo is very hilly. After departing the city center and crossing the river, we walked up an extremely steep road (thank goodness for parking brakes!), which took us to Alfakovac cemetery. Graves with religious symbols of all faiths could be found here, and the top of the hill offered a beautiful view of the city.
We continued our tour of the city, which included an Orthodox cathedral and Sarajevo’s Jewish Museum. We ended the day at a traditional Bosnian restaurant. I’ll just say it up front: Bosnian food rocks. I had vegetables stuffed with ground beef and sausage, served with cream in a tomato-based sauce. Add in a gigantic chunk of fresh Bosnian flatbread and you’ve got a killer meal. Here, have a gander:
Our next day consisted of a trip to Mostar, a city southwest of Sarajevo. It is well-known for a bridge which spans the Neretva River. The bus ride took about three hours, during which we went up mountains, down mountains, around mountains, and even through mountains! Upon arrival in Mostar, we had a quick cup of espresso and then did some exploring. It didn’t take us long to find the bridge, which we later found out not only connects the two sides of the town, but also serves as the border between the Croat and Bosniak parts of town. Croats (i.e. ethnically Croatian people) are predominantly Catholic, while Bosniaks (i.e. ethnically Bosnian people) are predominantly Muslim. For whatever reason the town has historically had this separation. We ate lunch on the terrace of a restaurant alongside the river. Unfortunately from here on I was not able to fully enjoy the trip to Mostar, because I got food poisoning or something that made my stomach wacky. Nonetheless, Mostar is a gorgeous city, and I did enjoy my time there.
Our last day in Sarajevo was the most somber. Before I begin with that, it’s important to understand the Bosnian War. I’ll explain it as best as I can. The country called Yugoslavia broke up in 1992, and several new states were formed. Serbia, predominantly Orthodox Christian, received most of the former Yugoslavia’s army, which was the 4th largest in the world at the time. In Bosnia, there is a large population of ethnic Serbians (Serbs), and the leaders of Serbia set out to conquer territory, which led to the siege of Sarajevo, and many other horrors of war including the Srebrenica massacre.
We took the “tunnel tour,” which refers to the “Tunnel of Hope” through which the citizens of Sarajevo smuggled weapons, food and supplies into the city, and through which citizens attempted to escape during the siege. We met our tour guide in front of the tourist information center, and drove in his van to a part of the city just near the airport. Our tour guide was a relatively young fellow who was wounded while fighting for Bosnia during the siege. It was absolutely fantastic to get his perspective. As it turns out, he, like many Bosnians, are resentful to the United Nations. The UN attempted to set up a system to deliver aid to Sarajevans during the siege, but ended up striking a deal with the Serbian generals who led the forces shelling the city: the Serbians got 50% of the supplies that came in on UN flights. Additionally, UN Blue Helmets rode around the city in armored personnel carriers during the siege. Our tour guide described them as “tourists, sitting there taking pictures of us as we dodged explosions and sniper fire and fought to live.” I really can’t begin to imagine what it’s like to spend every day running from building to building, wondering if a rocket will explode outside my window, if a sniper will catch me through a window.
Anyways, we got to the tunnel, which during the siege ran 300 meters underneath the Sarajevo airport. It started in the basement of a private residence that volunteered their home for the supply route, and ended up on the other side of the airport in territory outside of the siege grounds. For safety reasons it’s now been reduced to 25 meters. As you can see, I couldn’t stand up straight inside the tunnel.
Now imagine running through the tunnel with a pack weighing 60 lbs on your back. The tunnel had to be kept operational at all times, so special care had to be taken when moving explosives through the tunnel. The tunnel tour also featured a 15-minute video of the siege: buildings exploding, tank and rocket shells landing in the city day and night, people running after the sound of gunshots, children crying.
After the tunnel tour, we headed back to the city center. Along the way we drove on that same grand avenue as we did on the first day, and it was on this day that we learned that this was “Sniper Alley.” The avenue is lined with tall apartment buildings and hotels, from which snipers shot at people during the siege. It was also on this street that the Bosnian war began. The Bosnian parliament building and its plaza sit on the street, and across the street is the Sarajevo Holiday Inn. On April 5, 1992, a peaceful protest was held on the plaza. From the Holiday Inn a sniper killed 10 protestors. The Serbian army had already begun siege preparations before April 5, and the siege went into full effect from there.
While walking around Sarajevo, I realized that I’ve never been in a place where the scars of the past are as visible as they are here. Buildings are still riddled with bullet holes and in some cases rocket holes, and what at first glance appears to be cracks in the sidewalk are actually “Sarajevo Roses,” spots where mortars hit, sending shrapnel flying.
As we were heading back to our hotel from a museum visit, I noticed a bright yellow piece of paper on the ground. I picked it up, and realized that is was a 100-marka (about $75) bill lying on the ground. I picked it up and thought “alright, free dinner!” Then I thought for another second and decided that this city needed it more than I did. Despite economic growth, lots of construction and opportunity, the city of Sarajevo and its inhabitants are still relatively poor (the siege completely destroyed the economic prosperity brought on after the Olympics were held here in 1984). So after buying some food for myself and colleagues, I walked around the city center and gave the money to all the beggars I could find.
So, that was my trip. I hope you enjoyed reading about Sarajevo. Took me a while to put it up, no?
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