Walking in Sarajevo

Just to note: click on the link for each post; some go to another page, so you might want to pull them up in their entirety. (I do tend to go on…)

Here are some selected pix from our walk around the city today; it’s a young city, with a lot of young people out and about.

Which only makes sense, since many of the fathers and mothers (aka my generation) left or died during the war. We’re going to five cities on this trip; in every one, except for Sarajevo, people I knew had either lived there, or just been there, or travelled there frequently. I didn’t understand why not in Sarajevo, until I was here, and saw that when my friends were travelling, when business and friendship ties were being established, this beautiful country, this incredibly comfortable, warm, calm multicultural Balkan European city, was torn apart by war. The tourist culture, although present, isn’t strong here yet (like it is at Universal’s CityWalk, for instance); but people can still spot you as a foreigner from away, and will say “hello” instead of “dobro jutro” or “cao” — without you saying it first, and with a smile and sometimes a laugh (appropriate, given that I tend to dress like a dork when travelling, but that’s neither here nor there). (Check out the bulletholes in the side of the building beside the carpet shop.)

You can use the Euro instead of the convertible mark, or KM; although the ATM’s respond well to VISA, giving you exactly what you need in the blink of an eye. (thank you Fidelity, for not charging for international ATM fees– you City National folks reading this – my sincerest condolences, but Fidelity’s got you beat on that).

And you hear the sound of the call to prayer reverberating across the city, along with the sound of construction, and the diesel-powered cars and trucks rumbling across the cobblestones. And an occasional voice, or laugh, in a rich, deep, cigarette-throated language.

And there’s more…

Pages: 1 2

~ by mimi on June 18, 2008.