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. . .