Adventures in Sarajevo

I meant to write this final blog entry shortly after I returned from Sarajevo, but for some reason I kept putting it off. I think in a way I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to the experience and, to be honest, I’m still not, but I think it is time. I was trying to fall asleep one night last week and all of the sudden my head was filled with memories from the summer: Krista and I getting drenched as we were caught in a rainstorm on our walk to work; the whole group getting home from work and practically melting in the heat, waiting for the sun to go down for some relief; Vegehana; Bonnie and I taking the Sultan (aka Davis) to Sultan’s; random dance parties in our room; the bustle of the cafes after sunset during Ramadan; my last bosanska kafa at the place with the red tents before taking a taxi to the airport; and, speaking of the place with the red tents, the waitress there who always smiled so kindly when I attempted to speak Bosnian and would do me the favor of responding in Bosnian with a smile on her face; my conversation with the taxi driver who took me to the airport, both of us telling the other what we knew of their language, for example, him counting in English and me in Bosnian.

The summer was filled with memories and ones that I don’t imagine forgetting any time soon. It has been more difficult to adjust to “normal” life than I imagined, I think in large part because I don’t want to admit that the summer is over (and, at this point, it has been for awhile!). I cannot imagine having such an incredible experience again. As cliché as it sounds, this was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity and, while I may travel or live abroad in the future, I highly doubt the experience will be similar to this one.

Just briefly I’ll write about my final two weeks of traveling. Simply put, they were amazing! The moment I left my group in Sarajevo, I felt very alone and unsure of trying to be part of a new group (as part of a tour). The moment I arrived in Split, Croatia I felt overwhelmed, as I got extremely lost on my way to the hostel and almost had a panic attack when nobody was there to let me in. Luckily, it all worked out (as it always does). I spent the evening there with an Australian women in her 50s who had decided to leave her job and travel for a year or two. Then, the next morning I met with my tour group and off we went. Our tour guide Special Kay is Scottish and was absolutely incredible. Also, as it turns out, the first tour only had about 15 of us on it and we all got along greatly. Slovenia was probably the highlight of the trip and I did something there that I’ve always wanted to do . . . I skydived!!! I guess that was really the highlight of that tour of Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, and the Czech Republic, although I did keep a journal of every day of the tours so that I could try to remember everything since it was pretty hectic. The second tour included the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary. That tour was booked, so it didn’t have the small group feel that I liked, but it was still really great – besides that I was sick for most of it and, let me tell you, trying to buy cold medicine in another language is quite interesting. Anyways, the highlight of that tour was probably Budapest, which is where the tour ended.

When I returned to Sarajevo, Naida (the owner of the hostel we stayed at all summer) and I talked about my trip and she stated: “None of those places is as good as Sarajevo.” I agreed with her, and not just to be kind. As much as I loved the trip, I kept thinking about Sarajevo and comparing every city to it and, to me, none of them came close to the beauty of Sarajevo. On the train from Budapest to Sarajevo (the longest, most miserable train ride of my life . . . but that’s another story) I waited anxiously to return to Bosnia. I was exhausted, but as soon as we entered into Bosnia I was overjoyed and was peeled to the window as the sun set and then smiled as I noticed the numerous mosques that lit up in the darkness. Sarajevo will always hold a special place in my heart. I have a feeling that I’ll end up there again at some point in my life . . . after all, I did drink the water from the Sebilj and the mosque!

In less than a week Project BiH (Bosnia and Herzegovina) will be over. I only have four more days of work; Wednesday is our final group meeting and dinner; Thursday is my last night; and, Friday morning around 6am, I’ll be leaving the hostel to begin two weeks of travelling. Many of us are experiencing mixed emotions about leaving Sarajevo. Over the last week it has become clear that many of us are ready to move on, as our bodies started to fail us (most of us are fighting off colds or other illnesses) and internships started to wind down. Every day people are now counting down the days left until they are reunited with their loved ones. I think many of us are struggling with the idea of leaving as well though. I know that I am! As I’ve written about before, I’ve become deeply attached to Sarajevo. Every time we leave the city for an excursion, no matter how wonderful the trip is, when we drive back into the city, I breathe a sigh of relief, as I feel like I am home again. I am so glad that after my two weeks of travelling, I will have one final night in Sarajevo before I fly back to my real home in Denver. I plan to make the most of my limited time remaining here, but I know it will fly by and there will still be so much of the city that remains undiscovered by me. I guess all that I can do is enjoy the time I have left here and recognize how lucky I am to have been in Sarajevo for two months.

So, only four full days left in Sarajevo and then on Friday morning I will be on my way to Split, Croatia. On Saturday morning I start the first of two bus tours I am going on and over two weeks I will be spending time in Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary. I have never been to any of those places before and am so excited for the opportunity. I hope I’ll have the chance to blog a bit along the way, but I’m not sure how much time I’ll have, as the tour sounds pretty booked.

Finally, I want to wish a very happy birthday to my Mom. I love and miss you and hope you have a great day!

Today’s walk home proved to be more meaningful to me than I had anticipated. I’ve been wanting to take a nice, slow walk home during my time here to take pictures of the walk. Each workday consists of about two hours of walking, one hour to work and one hour back (except for the week and a half when it was too hot and we decided to take the tram to lessen our misery). So, today was the day I decided to create my photographic depiction of the walk, starting at my internship location at the Center for Healthy Aging and ending at our hostel. Little did I know how precious this one walk would be to me . . .

I guess I should start by being completely honest. While I have loved Sarajevo since the moment I arrived, over the last week or two I have become a little disillusioned with the city. It is not that anything truly changed; it is mostly that it stopped feeling like a vacation and more like real life and my rose-colored glasses finally came off. Instead of only recognizing the things I like about the city, I started thinking more and more about the things I do not like here. All of the sudden, I was no longer brushing those things off and I really started to question my love of the city.

But, after a good day at work (not to mention the two Bosanska kafas my coworker Armina made for me), I was feeling more optimistic about life in general and began my walk home. Taking pictures and not rushing home, but, instead, really taking in my surroundings, like I did when I first arrived, was surprisingly refreshing. I could not help but feel relaxed and at ease as I meandered home on the river trail, which was particularly quiet this afternoon since it had just rained. While the one-hour walk can at times seem long – especially in the morning – I am actually quite grateful to have the opportunity to spend so much time in a completely different side of Sarajevo. Our hostel is right on the brink of the Turkish portion of town and the Austro-Hungarian one and, as you get further away, it turns into the Communist section. How lucky am I to get to experience all of those sides of Sarajevo every day that I work?!

Obviously, Sarajevo is not perfect (no city is!), but today it became absolutely clear to me that I am still in love with this city, I just see it in a more realistic light now and its imperfections make it what it is. With only two and half weeks left in Sarajevo, I hope to get to know the city better. Even if I do not like everything that I discover, after my walk today I am now confident that my love for Sarajevo will remain.

“Never forget” is a recurring theme here in BiH (Bosnia and Herzegovina), along with the obvious reasoning behind not forgetting – never letting genocide happen here again. Our tour guide on the Times of Misfortune tour was the first person in Sarajevo that I heard talk about this. He was very open with us about why he keeps doing these tours and the importance of not forgetting what happened here. Last night we actually walked by “never forget Srebrenica” graffiti and below is a sign from Mostar’s old town.

I actually meant to post a short blog last Monday because it was July 11th, the 16th anniversary of the massacre at Srebrenica. For those of you who have not heard of Srebrenica, it was the largest massacre in Europe since WWII, with approximately 8,000 people killed. They are still identifying bodies and, thus, every year on the anniversary, more families bury people they have lost there. July 11th is a day of silence here. In Sarajevo, the bars were silent on that day and many people stayed at home to watch the coverage from Srebrenica. For anybody interested in knowing more, below is a link to a related article and, then, to a video clip about the anniversary.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/27/my-daughter-srebrenica-ratko-mladic

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14114215

I think this is all I will write about the subject at this time, but there will probably be more to come shortly. This last weekend I attended a conference here entitled Picturing Moral Courage and am still processing all that I experienced there. It was an amazing and powerful experience and really brought home the reason we are in BiH in the first place, but, at the same time, it was emotionally trying, as we got to hear war experiences first-hand from survivors and rescuers, as well as how the youth in the area feel about the tensions remaining here. I will definitely try to blog about the conference before too long. Also, our Friday excursion this week is to Srebrenica and that may lead to some additional thoughts. Please wish us luck because I have a feeling that this Friday with be pretty emotional for the Project BiH group.

Even though it has been over a week since this excursion, I still want to write about it because I think it will turn out to be one of the highlights from the summer. Those of you who are my facebook friends may have had the chance to see the huge amount of pictures I posted from Mostar and the surrounding areas. I don’t know if I’ve ever taken so many pictures over the course of one day! On Friday, July 1st, our entire group headed to Mostar, in the Herzegovina portion of Bosnia and Herzegovina, for the day. Even though I was tired and started to sleep during the drive out of Sarajevo, it was hard to stay asleep when I realized how breathtaking the drive was. I could not take my eyes off of the scenery for the entirety of the drive. I cannot remember taking a more beautiful drive in my lifetime. Also, we got to see as the scenery changed from the lush Bosnian landscape to the more Mediterranean landscape of the Herzegovina region. The water of the rivers is like nothing I have ever seen before; I don’t think I actually realized that water could be that color!

Upon arrival into Mostar, we did a quick tour of the Stari Grad (“Old Town”) and got to see the bridge the city is named after. The Stari Most (“Old Bridge”) in my pictures is actually relatively new, but it was recreated to be identical to the one that was there before it was destroyed during the war. As part of our tour, we stopped to watch video footage of the fighting in Mostar as well as the destruction of the bridge. It is still hard for me to grasp that these things happened in this country so recently, although, especially in Mostar, the destruction is still very evident. Outside of Old Town, it seemed like there was at least one building on every block that had not been rebuilt since the war. Even with all of its beauty, I did not feel much of a connection with Mostar; at least not the way I do with Sarajevo. It was much more touristy and things were more expensive and prices were typically in euros, which took some getting used to because we are all used to using the KM (the Bosnian currency, the convertible mark). I think one of my favorite parts of Mostar was getting to enter the mosque in Old Town and climb the minaret. The views from there were incredible and getting to be in a mosque for the first time was a very special experience for me.

After Mostar, we drove to the Catholic pilgrimage site of Međugorje. Although we had all been interested in going there, it was quite underwhelming. But, the next stop was Počitelj, which resulted in many more pictures. It is a beautiful old fortified city that is now an artist’s colony.

Four of us – myself, Danielle, Davis, and Krista – decided to stay the night in Mostar and went to what we have deemed “the bear cave”. In reality, it is a cave that has been turned into a club right in the center of Old Town and we just had to check it out. I am glad we did because that was definitely an interesting first Bosnian club experience. When we arrived around 10:30 or so only a few others were there and after a half hour we finally asked the bartenders where everybody was. They told us it would be packed by midnight and they were not lying. By midnight the club was filled (and apparently we missed the memo that it was a white party) and everybody was very into the loud techno music, much of which was remixed with 90s American pop songs.

The next morning we continued on our main mission for staying in Mostar . . . to make our way to the Kravica waterfalls. Apparently no buses go there and there were no tours that day, so we ended up doing something that none of us had considered. We rented a car! Well, to be more accurate, Davis rented a car and did a great job getting us to the waterfalls. Luckily, it was all clearly marked and the highway driving was not as crazy as the city driving is. Plus, the waterfalls made it worth it and we made sure to enjoy a few hours there, swimming, climbing up to the waterfalls, and just taking in our surroundings. Overall, it was a great trip and I am very glad that I chose to stay the extra day.