This is part 2 of 2 of my trip to Sarajevo...
On the Saturday we drove out to the city of Mostar, about 2 hours away from Sarajevo. This picture is of the countryside on our way.
We took Jasmina's mom and her mom's friend as well, since they obviously wanted to hang out with me (or maybe it was because they were going out there anyway). The ladies were very chatty...but they didn't speak English, so we couldn't really talk much. Her mom's first words to me were a perfect "Good morning" in English, but no other English after that. This made me think that I shouldn't assume everyone speaks English, even if they can say a few words. I should actually feel happy that she would even attempt to say anything in English to me. Just like me learning Polish, I can say a few words, but I also don't want someone to assume I am fluent just because I can say "Dzien Dobry". Jasmina said that because of TV and movies being in English there, her mom could actually understand a lot of what I said, but just couldn't respond. Even though we didn't understand each other, I could tell she was a very nice and friendly person, and she even insisted I come back to visit again. She cracked me up when she told a gypsy kid that we had driven all the way from Australia and that he should stop asking us for money. The kid believed her, of course, then told Jasmina what a good driver she was for driving so far.
There were a lot of gypsies in the area - mostly begging (very aggressively) for money. They run up to you and don't take no for an answer. Of course, I didn't understand what they were saying, but I know that they didn't go away when I said "no, sorry", shook my head, and kept walking. In case you are wondering, telling them to "talk to the hand" also doesn't work. Earlier we saw an 8 year old girl asking for a cigarette, which was a bit disheartening.
Rewinding a bit...what I ate for breakfast. The Bosnian coffee was really good, but is known for having "mud" at the bottom. You have to wait for the mud to settle before drinking. I don't really know what the mud is, but it doesn't taste too nice. It looks like thick creamy tasty chocolate, but tastes more like dirt. Strange. I also had some "ajvar", which was a red pepper-based spread that was super tasty and I'm pretty sure it had some crack in it. I couldn't stop eating it; putting it on toast...then eating it on a spoon, and then with my finger. I really wish I had a tortilla with me. I also had yogurt and baklava. Jasmina was apalled at my mixing all of these things for breakfast, but it seems like a perfectly normal breakfast to me.
Mostar still has a lot of destroyed buildings that they need to fix/replace, as the damage from the war is prevalent. In this case, they fixed the bottom, but not the top, which was slightly puzzling.
Otherwise, it was a very beautiful town with a very nice bridge, or "most".
I even jumped off the bridge into the river!!! Look how high it is!!! And when I said that I jumped, what I really mean is that I took a video of another guy jumping into the river. If you look closely, you can see me (him) at the bridge's apex.
For lunch I had another local dish...Burek. It's a long pastry stuffed with either cheese, spinach or meat. I had the meat of course, with yogurt. It was a very simple meal and cost about $3 USD.
This is a Polish cat that liked to watch me eat. Since you were wondering, yes, Polish cats say "meow-ski."
Back in Sarajevo we met up with some other friends, went to a Sarajevo Jazz Fest concert (Gerardo Nunez), and went to a couple bars. We apparently saw a famous Bosnian singer, but for some reason I was the only person who wanted to take a picture with him. The girls insisted I not do it though...I guess they don't get as star struck there as I do (even though I have no clue who he was). Jasmina's friend Lejla also convinced me to try Jagermeister and Tonic, which was surprisingly nice. Well, it tasted nice; not that it was nice to me. Jasmina and her friends...
The next morning we went up to the Jahorina, the mountains where the 1984 Winter Olympics were held. For breakfast we had these...not sure what they are called, but it's basically like fried bread/dough with cheese and jam. We ate like 50 each, which made my stomach feel nice and not at all greasy. But they were really good. I got yelled at for not eating them according to the strict guidelines. I went for the jam (for obvious reasons), while apparently you are supposed to eat the cheese first.
On the way back down, we stopped to take some pictures of the city in the valley. This is where my history lesson started. During the war, the Serbs camped out in these hills, constantly firing into the city (for no particular reason). Jasmina's friend Vanja told me that when she was a kid, she lived in the hills and could see bullets and rockets flying down into the city at night. I can't imagine having a fireworks show every night for nearly 4 years, each night ending with destruction and often loss of life. With all this gun fire, people went "to school" in basements for safety, and had to be wary of snipers as they walked around the city. We saw people "hiking" along the side of the highway, which I thought was strange until Jasmina mentioned that people don't walk through the woods because there are still filled with land mines (yikes).
During the war they had very little food and water, and mostly no electricity. They got humanitarian aid flown in: flour, oil, beans, canned fish, etc - Vanja and Lejla laughed as they reminisced about the foods that they liked, and the foods that were so disgusting even their cats wouldn't eat. They often had meals of bread topped with oil and onions. As in any time of deprivation, there was also a black market. The sellers would steal from supply trucks and jacked up the prices. With all this happening, the goal was to try to live as normal a life as possible - by singing, reading, and playing to keep up their spirits. They just got used to all the gun fire, explosions, and burning buildings. I don't know how they did it. And I don't know how it was so easy for them to talk about it. I heard that people don't like talking about it, but the girls were very open with me. Or maybe it was because I am the star of a very famous TV show chronicling my travels.
Before heading to the airport, we made one final stop; the Tunnel of Life. Seeing this tunnel brought all the stories together and made it even more real. During the war the only area around the city NOT occupied by the Serbs was the airport. However, the airport was occupied by NATO and the locals were not allowed to pass through to the free territory. Besides, if anyone tried to run across in the open, the Serbs in the hills were likely to shoot at them. And since there was an arms embargo, no weapons to defend the city could be flown in. The aid coming in was helpful, but they needed to get weapons into the city for defense, as well as a way to get in and out without getting shot at.
So, they built this tunnel. It spanned nearly 1,000 meters and was built by volunteers, starting in someone's house (now a museum). It's not built in a straight line, so even after the Serbs inevitably found the entrances, they wouldn't be able to collapse the tunnel via bombs (they didn't know where to bomb). The tunnel was also used to allow the President to pass through in his wheelchair and to let people leave for personal reasons, like school. Vanja remembers leaving the city through the tunnel to go to University (and asked us all not to calculate her age knowing that she was in college during the war). It's crazy to think that after so many years have passed, she was back visiting (and under such different conditions).
The tunnel is pretty narrow, and was filled with water in most parts. I don't know where my left arm went.
Here's the map of the city, with the Serb positions highlighted in red. You can see the only safe way out was to go UNDER the airport, which is where the tunnel was.
This picture shows the tunnel from what was the free side. This faces the airport (the tunnel goes under the airport), then into the city on the other side.
Here are some other interesting things I learned...
- Stats say that over 10,000 civilians died in the city during the war, and it is estimated that 50% of people saw someone get killed, and that half the people got shot at at some point
- It's very surprising that the city didn't get overtaken by the Serbs, as they had very few weapons and defenses
- There are 2 main entities in B&H - the Federation of B&H and the Republika Srpska. These entities were basically the sides fighting during the war, but not exactly.
- The names Bosnia and Herzegovina have nothing to do with the 2 main entities. They are more geographical regions than political or ethnic boundaries.
- The "Presidency" is run by 3 presidents - one for the Croats, one for the Serbs, and one for the Bosniaks. Generally, the Serbs are part of Republika Srpska.
- Because of the politics, there isn't much support for national athletics - so even though neighboring countries have a similar population and decent success, the national soccer and basketball teams in B&H, for example, are not very successful.
- They don't really do a national census so they don't raise awareness of the population by ethnic group...I think the idea is that they don't want people to see who has a bigger presence or how things have changed since before the war.
- Whereas it didn't matter before, people now judge each other by their names (since it reveals their ethnicity). They even consciously choose to give their business to certain places that are of similar ethnicity to themselves, and will avoid the others. Does this sound familiar? Seems like the US, went through this not too long ago (and maybe still do in parts). We should probably take time to reflect on the judgements we pass based on a name or a face or what we've heard about someone or a group of someones, without really getting to know the person.
I hope you found this experience as insightful as I did. It's still hard for me to believe that this war happened basically my entire high school career. Every single day I was complaining about math homework, driver's ed, soccer practice, etc. the people of Sarajevo were dodging bullets and wondering when their next meal or hot shower would be (ok actually, I never complained about math homework). I hope we all feel lucky for what we have and can learn to appreciate not only what happens in our lives, but also what happens in other peoples' lives that molds and inspires them to be who they are. We, especially as sometimes ignorant Americans, should try to understand more what the rest of the world goes through.
If you want to learn more about Sarajevo and the history there, check our Wikipedia (the all-knowing) or you could even watch some of the movies that are about it:
http://30for30.espn.com/film/once-brothers.html - the ESPN documentary about the NBA players from former Yugoslavia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behind_Enemy_Lines_(film) - it's a fictional story, and stars Owen Wilson as an action hero (what?), but it takes place during the Bosnian war
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