Bosnia and Herzegovina
Chris gets a break from blog writing!
Our current travel trajectory is largely dictated by a need to be in Chamonix, France for the start of the Tour de Mont Blanc in mid-August. With that in mind and a strong incentive to break up bus trips into increments of less than 10 hours, we decided to make a couple of additional stops in the Balkans. After our stay in Kotor, Montenegro, we took a bus north to Sarajevo. It’s the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina and has been at the center of the world stage several times in the last century. Sarajevo is the location of Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination; the catalyst of WWI and thus of the the eventual demise of Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, Russian, and German empires. Sarajevo was the host of the 1984 Winter Olympics as part of Yugoslavia. This was a well-attended Olympics after the preceding Cold War-related boycotts (by Soviet athletes in the 1984 Summer Olympics held in LA and by US athletes in the 1980 Summer Olympics held in Moscow). Most recently and devastatingly, in 1992–1995 Sarajevo was besieged by Bosnian Serb paramilitary and Yugoslav army.
With such a wealth of recent history, not to mention events, cultural exchange, and architecture well preceding WWI, we were anxious to make this city a stop on our trip. After arriving and having our first Bosnian coffee. And after realizing the Sarajevo film festival occurs right after our departure we were sad to not have carved out more time to stay in Sarajevo and round out our tour of the Balkans and states of former Yugoslavia.
Bosnian Coffee and Ćevapi
The budget (strictly enforced by Chris, constantly liberalized by Marlene) allowed for several trials of Bosnian coffee! Its origin dates back to times of Ottoman rule and is still popular despite subsequent Austrian-Hungarian and Yugoslav rule. It is served in a copper džezva on a small circular tray with a small ceramic cup to pour the coffee into, a glass of water to cleanse your palate, and a little dish of sugar cubes and/or lokum (akin to Turkish delight) to be consumed with the coffee! We also tried Salep tea. It is made from flour from the tubers of orchids and is incredibly pleasant!
We tried several other local dishes (never enough!) Some, like burek, can be found in other areas of the Balkans (again related to Ottoman influence) but each region’s version differs. We had Ćevapi: handmade sausages served with pita bread, somun, chopped white onion, and a cream cheese, kaymac . It is ubiquitous in old town Sarajevo and incredible to see an entire restaurant of people happily eating exactly the same thing. We also tried klepe, small steamed dumplings filled with minced meat and covered in a garlic yogurt sauce. Lastly, we couldn’t go without dessert so we tried tufahija a baked apple filled with chopped walnuts and topped with cream!
History Tour
Though we would have been happy to just keep eating, we also wanted to honor the city and people by taking time to learn more about the recent history. (Though as we move through the Balkans and the former Yugoslavia, I have quickly learned that once I think I have a grasp on the history this notion is upturned with the addition of more complexity of centuries-old international and inter-ethnic relationships and conflict). We took a guided tour throughout Sarajevo that covered the fall of Yugoslavia and the subsequent siege of Sarajevo. Our guide was a young woman whose grandmother had been a school teacher during the siege and had had to improvise locations to continue to educate the youth despite the dangers and shelling.
Obviously, the complexities of the Bosnian genocide far exceed what can be captured in a blog entry… but below are a few areas covered by our tour/guide…
- Throughout the 4 years of the war (that ultimately cost 100,000 lives), no one could enter or exit the city. One exception was the clandestine construction and use of a tunnel under the city’s airport. Access to food, water, and electricity was compromised. Cigarettes were used as currency.
- The feeling regarding UN assistance is mixed…frustrations span from inadequacies in food donations to military intervention. Our guide mentioned exasperation at the UN donation of expired pork-based food products that Muslims ( the majority population and targeted group of the genocide) could not eat. She also expressed frustration with the meaninglessness of UN neutrality in a situation where one member of a conflict is backed by the powerful Yugoslav military with extensive resources and the other has incredibly limited access to resources and weaponry for defense… Literature on the failures of the UN and NATO is extensive on this topic. Samantha Power’s “A Problem From Hell” America and the Age of Genocide has been a great resource with objective information and devastating first-hand accounts of the ethnic cleansing and genocide that went unchecked in Bosnia.
- On our tour, we saw Sniper Alley, a main boulevard in Sarajevo that was lined by Serb snipers and largely lethal for Bosniaks to traverse. The hotel Holiday Inn on Sniper Alley housed journalists and was not itself immune to shelling.
- We also toured a portion of what’s called the Tunnel of Hope. This was an underground tunnel (800m long, 1m wide, 1.6m high) that spanned from a house in the besieged Sarajevo (location unknown to the Serbs) under the airport (UN-controlled neutral zone) into a free area of Bosnia. The tunnel was used to transport food, medical supplies, and weaponry, and for Bosnian civilians to flee the city
- At the tunnel of hope were three flags. First is the flag of this original Medieval Kingdom of Bosnia (to fend off propaganda that Bosnia was never a Sovereign state before). Second is the current flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina. If you fly this flag in the Republica Srpska (Serb-controlled regions of BiH) you will be fined. The final flag is that of the Bosnian Military
Sarajevo; like everywhere- full of complexity and history. Though no previous city we’ve been has so many buildings with obvious scars of shelling and gunfire. And after visiting Georgia, former soviet republic, Albania, former communist state, and now several former members of Yugoslavia - all of whom gained independence in the 1990s — it is amazing to consider how much these countries have undergone and changed in only the course of our lifetime (not to mention prior). It’s heartening to see how much culture, history, and language has been preserved in countries where at times there were culturally costly collectivization, forced atheism, control of information/history, war, and genocide. It is simultaneously devastating to consider how much has been lost… And, as always, important to consider the impacts of globalization, increasing interconnectedness, and the cost of our own tourism. The heterogeneity of food and language, expression and communication, humor and perspective is magical… ethereal…and deserving of all intents at preservation…
Of note, we also had fun in the city!
I found this bank representative and I’m ready to hand him all my money.
And props if you can tell me what TV scene this is mirroring! (Get used to the green shorts in these pics- they’re all I have!)
And now, off to the bus for only 8 hours to Zagreb, Croatia!
Three Important Words in Bosnian
Zdravo — Hello
Hvala — Thanks
Živjeli — Cheers
