Istanbul

Imagine the contrast: going from a country of 3.5 million to a city of 13 million; that has been the shift from Bosnia to Istanbul. My imagination could never have come up with this place. We have 8 days here and that is still not enough. Some of our group have set out on excursions to other parts of Turkey (we have a group currently in Ephesus) but I opted to immerse in Istanbul and hope to get to the other parts another time.

In the book 1000 Places to See Before You Die, Istanbuhl racks up with 7 entries and I have been knocking them off the list each day. Here are a few:

- The Haggia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. Within 1000 yards from each other, these two structures are individually stunning and as a pair are fantastical. Together they are two of the most distinctive structures of the expansive Istanbul skyline.

- The Bosphorus - is the river that runs through Istanbul and gives the city its distinction of being the only city sitting on two continents. One side of the Bosphorus is Europe, the other Asia. On a river trip yesterday, we sailed up the Bosphorus to the Black Sea. The mosques, palaces, palatial homes and all array of ships and boats - combined with blue water and a very warm and sun-filled day (as have been all our days in Istanbul) made for a most delightful trip.

- Turkish bath - We tried the bath in Budaphest which was a delicious spa-like experience. A Turkish bath is a whole other level. This one truly fits the 'bath' experience. I was 'bathed' and massaged (from head to toe) by a generous portion of woman named Felice. Bathing included being scrubbed down with a sandpapery mitt and being splashed repeatedly at the ritual's end with copious amounts of cold water (which felt good in that steamy space) ladeled from a marble basin (every thing is well worn marble in this place) with one of the traditional hand-hammered tin basins distinctive to the baths. After the hour plus experience one sits wrapped in a towel and drinks tea and munches on Turkish delight before slipping off to your individual changing room, complete with single bed in case you need a little nap after all that . . i did.

Soccer update: The Turkey vs. Germany game (semifinal game in the tournament) was our fourth game in the host country of a Eurocup team and this one, alas, was the first loss. Ahh, we were hopeful for a win as the final game would have been with Turkey on Sunday, our final night on this trip. It was a terrific match and a close one. Seeing the exuberance over each goal the Turks won was surely only a taste of what a victory would have looked like. But perhaps, with the spirit of this team of students and a photographer who could not have resisted rushing into the post-game frenzy, I can be thankful for no soccer fatalities. (Footnote to the comment on my last post, that we had been told Turks like to shoot guns in the air after a victory, there was the icon of a handgun with a red X across it in the corner of the television during the game broadcast. . . ).

Sarajevo

I am writing this post from Istanbul, Turkey.  We arrived here by Bosnia and Herzegovnia airlines on Sunday.  We will live out the final chapter of this trip in this, our most eastern stop of the journey.  More about Istanbul to come . . but first a look back at the three days we spent in Sarajevo.

Sarajevo was the bookend to our two weeks in Livno.  A windy five hour bus ride, in and out of Sarajevo,  through Bosnian countryside took us to the mountainous region containing Livno. Returning to this city provided significant perspective on our Bosnian adventure.   

Of all the cities on this journey:  Vienna, Budaphest, Split, Dubrovnik, Samobor and Istanbul - Sarajevo has nearly unanimously been everyone's favorite.  I have clear memories of the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo, which the students of this trip (except 1) were not even alive to experience. I remember  when the war began in Bosnia in in 1992 and Sarajevo fell under siege and my bafflement on how this could happen to what had just been the site of that Olympic ideal of  international spirit and cooperation.  

What makes Sarajevo my favorite city of this trip is a combination of factors.  One is its matter of scale.  In European fashion, it is highly walkable and the city is united by pedestrian avenues paved  of  well-worn stones.  One can scale hills on any side of the city to view its multitude of diverse architecture, its series of bridges, countless mosques and cathedrals, and its far too many tombstones.  Slowly taking in one of the graveyards one evening at dusk and the endless graves of the war dead from  1992, 93 and 94, my other contemporary on this trip, Art, and I were sobered at how many of the war dead were from our generation.  It must be, he commented, like our parents walking through a graveyard of WW2  victims.  It is this bittersweet factor of the city which makes one feel quite alive here; it is a city that is still coming back and has a long way yet to go (the stunning City Hall and Library which was bombed at the beginning of the war, destroying 2 million books, periodicals and documents still stands as a mere shell.)

Sarajevo is highly affordable.  One can eat fabulous meals at amazing prices.  Two memorable restaurants stood out for me.  One was a tiny cafe (actually, tiny describes most of the restaurants here) with an even tinier kitchen where the chef turned out amazing fusion dishes, always with a healthy portion of fresh grilled vegetables presented like a work of art.  Originally named 'To Be or Not To Be,"  the 'Not to Be' portion of the name was struck through on the door with a slash of red.  This was done by its owners during the war when 'not to be' was not an option.  Dveri,  my other memorable restaurant, I learned from the waiter had been the place where Bill Clinton ate when he visited Sarajevo as president; ' he had sardines.'  

Most stunning about Sarajevo is its spirit.  This is a relaxed city which wears the air of someone who has just finished a long bout of hard times and is just happy to be alive.  It sparkles with life and hospitality.  Like every place on this trip, coffee shops are the deal and folks take time to spend sharing coffee.  Here we discovered  coffee Turkish style, which,  in retrospect was uniquely   Sarajevo as we have yet to see anything in Turkey like the charming copper covered with tin, coffee pots and cup sets which one drank from at little tables and were for sale in copious amounts as true art forms.

We sat in an ancient brewery one evening and watched our third soccer game featuring Croatia, which as you may recall was the favored team in Livno.  In Sarajevo they were matched against Turkey and were defeated.  When we were the only table that gave a whoop for Croatia at one point of the game, we realized firsthand what we had been told:  When you are in Sarajevo, you better root for Turkey  (yes, the politics are complicated here).    Now, we are in Turkey and tonight they have a match in the still on-going EuroCup.  We will watch the match of course,  but in this place we will stay clear of the post game happenings, as Turks are known to be highly spirited about their soccer and celebrations routinely include shooting guns

 into the air. . .  

Livno Highlights

Suddenly it is our last day in Livno. This small town in Bosnia has been our home for two weeks and leaving in the morning will be bittersweet. Time is too short to begin to do justice to the characters we have met and the escapades we have had. Here are some snapshots:

Coffee bars, cigarettes and beer: It isnt just Livno. . . but everywhere we have been on this trip these three elements are consistently present in amazing proportion to everything else. Having a coffee is just what you do numerous times a day. Socializing to doing business . . . it all revolves around coffee. The coffee is exceptional. One can have turkish coffee which I have tried (its quite thick and one needn't consider sleeping in the near future if this is your coffee of choice) but I stick with the most excellent espresso with milk. Sorry Cup a Joe friends, but returning to the menu options at our place is going to be an adjustment after these weeks. . ..
As for cigarettes, smoking is so prolific I have probably taken a few years off of my life with all the second hand smoke I have ingested. These is simply no such thing as spaces where one doenst smoke and once you are 12 or so it seems to be quite acceptable. I may go into nicotine withdrawal when we leave. . . Finally the beer. For every coffee bar in this small town there is an equal number of establishments serving beer. I personally choose not to practice morning beer drinking, though it is not too uncommon to see folks having one at any time of day. .. again not a practice particular to Livno. Traveling through Hungary and Croatia there were times I could not find fruit juice or botttled water but never a place I couldnt have purchased a beer. I have had my favorite morning coffee shop (our spot each morning at 9)and our favorite bar, a classy little joint called Acoustic run by a great guy named Joe. The Tomislav dark on tap is quite exceptional.

Hospitality - It has been exceptional. The initial stares our group received when we rolled into town have changed into warm greetings. One family in particular has adopted our group. Their precocious son, Faris, is a student at the school where we have been working and it was only one day before he was talking members of the group home with him. Soon we were all invited to dinner. Amra, the mom, cooked a feast for all 16 of us plus their family of six. Amra is probably ten years my junior and speaks English well enough that we had many good talks and become friends. Her husband, Ahmet, is a piece of work. .. he is a large animal veterinarian, long-haired tattooeed motorcycle rider with a gregarious personality. I was at their home on Monday when he got an emergency call only a vet could get. The next thing I knew I was in the car with him racing to a farm in a neighboring village to birth a calf. Imagine that. Yes, I got my first calving expereince in Bosnia. On last Saturday Ahmet and Amra and 3 of their 4 kids and our group traveled an hour or more out of Livno to a small community, indescribably beautiful, where their friends hosted us for a meal. We watched as their scooped netfulls of trout from the where they were raised, then cleaned, seasoned (lots of garlic and olive oil and herbs) and grilled them. Livno cheese, huge rounds of hot bread and potato salad (Bosnian style) and lots of beverage accompanied this perfection of a fish feast. We also had an evening with Ahmet and Amra as their guests for the community dance recital in which their two ('adorable' doesnt do them justice) daughters were dancing. This was quite the Livno event. 400 plus people packed into an auditorium meant to seat about 320 and an amazing number of dances from dancers from 7 years to 17. It could have been small town anywere USA. The delight of parents and community members in watching their children perform is universal.

Livno

EuroCup report: Croatia won on Monday night, 1 to zip over Austria. The ensuing partying lasted for hours afterwards. Thursday is the next round as Croatia is up against Germany. Everyone says Germany is the stronger team so if underdog Croatia wins on Thursday, the party may last all weekend. . .

Now what can I tell you about Livno? As we made our way to this town over the past two weeks, whenever we would announce our eventual desitination, we consistently got the same incredulous response from folks: Livno?! Why are you going to Livno?? I think it would be like an international visitor traveling to the US in order to spend two weeks in Yadkinville (no offense against your home turf, Mom.) Our hosts joke that everyone is trying to leave Livno and we have deliberately come. These hosts are a most fascinating NGO called Youth Centre Livno, which we discovered as researched where we might live for a few weeks, be part of a community, learn in depth about this part of the world and hopefully contribute in some way. The philosophy we attempt to follow in the Caldwell program on these international service ventures is to seek out whenever possible organizations that are grassroots, born in the local community rather than from the efforts of an external group. It is about trying to engender an understanding of the difference between serving and helping and fixing. From a service point of view, we come into communities in a spirit of reciprocity. .. aware that we are the ones most likely to be served and most greatly changed by the communities that graciously welcome us and allow us to work alongside them. We do not come assuming to have answers to others' issues or needs, but with a spirit of working "alongside."

So. . . Youth Centre Livno is one of the finest examples of this grassroots value system I have encountered. It all began with three local guys who grew up together in Livno, who as they say (in what I have come to see as their laidback and self-deferential style) "were bored." Secondarily, they will admit that "they wanted to do something for Livno." Clearly a bright trio (Andija, Zoran, and Marko) two of them law students. .. they began a non profit ten years ago after finishing their studies, to address environmental issues (they have a partnership with the World Wildlife Fund for some of their projects) and to create positive options for local youth. T-shirted and somewhat scruffy with a dump of an office (with a prominent dartboard and a big dog named Floppi) they are nonetheless greatly efficient and productive (without neglecting the required amount of Bosnian time each day having coffee. ..) and are clearly known and respected in this town.

Our students are working on two different projects: one at a local school where they are creating and installing a new entrance mural (a formidable task in a week and a half of work time) and the other with a local organization that provides enrichment activities and family support for developmentally disabled kids. Yesterday was our first introduction to the sites and the projects and they have since been formulating plans, gathering materials and working to get their efforts off the ground. My role in all of this? I sign for the credit card that buys the supplies (my only real indispensible role). Otherwise, each site has a student team leader and I float between them as a volunteer and do my best to be out of the way of them taking ownership of their projects. The best by product for me of doing this kind of work for so long is my comfort level with the chaos and stress they encounter and not trying to fix it for them (believe me, I wasnt always at this place. .. but now I rather savor watching them struggle, because I know thats where the learning will come). We have a regular and somewhat rigorous reflection structure (both written and oral) which allows the opportunity to pose to them the questions and challenge and support to move through the feelings and understandings that this all offers to them. We also have an added bonus on this trip which raises the bar on all this learning: we have brought along a videographer and Art's good questions and camera will also keep them on their toes. We anticipate a documentary at the end of all this. .. but that level of a promised by-product makes me nervous. .. what will happen in the next two weeks is an unknown.
Stay tuned.

Croatia to Bosnia

Picture this: a rocky coastline with a nice 20 foot high jumping off place straight into the blue, blue waters of the Adriatic Sea. This was our scene a few nights ago when at sunset we all took our respective plunges, sometimes singlely, sometimes in twos and threes, holding hands for the big jump. We were in Dubrovnik on our last night in Croatia. Stretched along the Adriatic, the Croatian coastline is a wonder. We spent time in both Split and Dubrovnik and spent hours wandering the narrow multi-stepped alleys which wind through these ancient cities. Each has an old city center with a mix of cafes, shops and apartments built into the infrastructure of the centuries old Diocletianś palace in Split and an ancient walled fortress in Dubrovnik. One can sit in any of the countless cafes and have a coffee while enjoying indescribable views. Italian influences are prevalent and one finds menus typically presented in Italian, Croatian, and English. As fanciful as we found these cities, our favorite stop in Croatia was, hands down, the village of Samobor. It was as if we fell into a fairy tale. After a train ride from Hungary into Zagreb, we took a bus ride of an hour and a half to Samobor which our planners had chosen as a stop because of its description as 'almost too little-village-cute.' Not only does Samobor exceed that description, it was our one stop that rather than being in yet another hostel with bunkbeds and sparse bathrooms, our accommodation was the amazingly affordable town hotel, each room with its own unique set of antique furnishings. But just to push the Samobor experience way over the top was the serendipitous alignment of our visit with the Kremschnite festival, Kremschnite being the dessert for which this small town is famous. Yes, a festival in celebration of dessert. What could be better. We got a lesson in its preparation when peering through the door into the pastry kitchen of our hotel where ladies were preparing massive amounts of this treat. They proceeded to show us the step by step assembly and finished with passing around a sample plate for us to taste. Kremschnite stands about 6 inches high when done, flaky thin layers of pastry top and bottom and a thick layer between of an egg custard made amazingly light and fluffy with a mass of folded in egg whites. ummmmmm. . . . . we ate it multiple times in two days. A stage area on the charming town square featured a range of music, dance and other local talents doing their thing as part of the festival. There are baton-twirling majorettes even in Croatia. I was especially smitten by a singing troup of young children. And there was a foot race for the school age kids, racing around the town square . . .swallows flying overhead and the evening bells ringing from the church tower. A memorial wall running beside that church, with names of the war dead from this village was the only reminder that indeed we were not in just a fairy tale.

We are now in Livno, and I will have much more to tell you about this place as our time here unfolds over the next two weeks but first I must mention that being here on this particular date (day two of the EuroCup competition) is emblemmatic of the complicated political /ethnic landscape of this part of the world. Livno is in Bosnia but is only a short distance from the Croatian border, most folks here identify themselves as Croats. Tonight Croatia plays Austria in the EuroCup competition (they are playing futbol. .. soccer to us Americans). EuroCup is already a huge deal and here I sit in a town going crazy for Croatia. It is only a few minutes til game time and this internet cafe is nearly empty as folks head to the bars to watch and the same song has been playing endlessly the past 20 minutes which I take to be a national anthem of some sort. The most amusing of this scene is the array of people walking the streets, all decked out - from apparel to body paint - in the distinctive red and white checked pattern of the Croatian flag. Outside the street noise is building as parades of folks march about town in pre game frenzy and the internet cafe guy is tidying up as if wishing I and the other random guy to which his crowd has dwindled to, would pay up and leave so he too could join the hoards. So. . by for now.. .and good luck Croatia.

Lets Talk about Blogging

My blog posts have been noticeably sparse. The infrequent at best availability of computers has been almost surprising as on my trip to southeast Asia internet cafes were on nearly every corner and cost only small change to use. Combine the limited access with the challenge of typing on a computer configured for eastern european language systems and it gets right hilarious. Letters are simply not where you are used to finding them and some keyboards will not allow you to type double letters. The bonus is - all the cool extras: č ć ž š đ . . . for instance. (we have been slowly learning the variations in pronunciation these symbols imply when trying to read Bosnian.) You will also the obvious lack of photos. .. come on, folks, lets be patient (I know theres supposed to be an apostrophe in lets, but cant locate apostrophes on this keyboard,) . .. i may get some on before the trip is over. . .if not, it will come in due time.

Meanwhile: a quick sketch of the past week . . . we have traveled by train, bus and ferry to move across Croatia and as of last night entered Bosnia. With each step of this trip, beginning in Vienna and gradually moving east, the cultures have become less western. It has been an ideal way to slide into the farther reaches of Eastern Europe. I will come back and fill you in on Croatia (indescribable beauty. ..). For now I am off to have a few short hours in Sarajevo. We set out at 5:30 am tomorrow for a bus ride to Livno, and what will be our home for the next two weeks. We are all quite ready to settle in to one place and to rest our bags for a glorious stretch of time.