Bosnia and Herzegovina - Do It For the Baklava
You know what makes a place stand out, at least for me, is when you're least expecting it. You have a vague idea of what might be there or (dumbly, not sure if that's a word) you really have absolutely no idea what you're walking into. You didn't even realize that the war you vaguely knew about only happened like 20 years ago and that pretty much a genocide occurred. You also didn't realize that it was full of the most loving people who are eager to show the world their awesome country.
In Split, Grace, Hayden, and I all made plans to head to the town of Mostar for two nights. Grace heard that hostel Miran was the place to stay and it so was. We were greeted by some intense handshakes and a basket full of cherries. We spent that first day just walking around admiring the old town and the famous bridge. The bridge of Mostar is like the focal point of this place. For one it's where crazy tourists and Bosnians go to jump off and "declare their manhood" or something like that. Mainly though, the bridge is a symbol of unity. It what brings east and west Mostar together when during the war the city was divided. For now though it just looked like a nice looking bridge. We all went out for probably one of the best meals I've had on this whole trip. The specialty of Bosnia is cevapi, a lamb beef sausage thing. Legit this silver platter of about 5 kilos of grilled meat and cheese and veggie came out and all that proceeded was silence for the next 10 minutes. Bosnia was off to a good start.
The next day was the real deal. Miran is the character of characters. If you search up crazy Bosnian guy he's the first one to show up (just to give you an idea). He leads a tour around Herzegovina for the day and explains his story of the war and his life (Fun fact: Herzegovina means king of wine hence the vino reference). We started the day off in an old bunker that held planes for the Bosnian army. It was just a massive tunnel and the crazy part is that these old war sites don't have any infastructure. No one has come around to building it up for tourists or even just cleaning it. Next stop was out in the countryside for a sample of some amazing Mostar strawberries and pomegranate juice. Bosnians seem to be big into the all natural food stuff. My kinda people. We spent the afternoon swimming in the waterfalls before heading up to the top of a mountain. Miran explained that this was where the Bosnian army was retreated to and across the city you could see where the Serbs were retreated to later on. We finished the day off in another bunker like place that still looked fresh out of the war. Probably the most powerful moment of the day was when we watched a BBC documentary (a nice light watch for the evening) about the war in Mostar. Miran pointed out friends and neighbors of people in the documentary who got shot or happen to appear. It just made me feel so out of touch with the world. I've been so lucky to have never experienced anything that comes close to the trauma that people who live in and fight in a war go through. I certainly sympathize but I just have such a hard time understanding. I told Miran out right at the begging long of the tour that I wa a completely ignorant to the war in Bosnia. I didn't know when it started or why but I think he kind of appreciated that statement in a way because most people's ideas are shaped by the media.
I took one of the most beuatiful train rides early morning to Sarajevo. Sarajevo is the actual coolest place. After my first day wondering around the city I could officially say that Bosnia is probably the most ineteresting country I've ever visited. Ok call me dumb but I also did not realize that Bosnia has a Muslim majority. I just so conveniently happen to finish my Reeza Aslan book in one of the Turkish coffee shops that afternoon so at least my Islam knowledge was somewhat with it. Bosnia was controlled by the Ottomans at some point but they also have been heavily influenced by the Croats who are Catholic and the Serbs who are Orthodox. It truly is a mixing pot and thus leads to the briefest and most general understanding of modern Bosnian history (I was living and breathing Bosnian history for 5 days and am still confused but here we go) Like I said Bosnia is a mixing pot. It's kind of like when we studied Nigeria the whole question boils down to why are we a country? We're all so different and we've got some beef but you know we'll make this thing work because we're all humans so really we're NOT that different. When Franz Ferdinand was shot it was because the Bosnians were tired of being occupied and war broke out. It wasn't till the Second World War that Tito came out a star. He united croats, slovenes, Bosniaks, and Serbs under one country, Yugoslavia. It depends who you ask, but generally speaking most Bosnians I talked to felt that life was better in Yugoslavia than afterwards (example: unemployment is at 60% for young people). After Tito died there wasn't real clear direction as to what should happen and thus ensues a massive mess for the next 15 years. This is definitely going to come off as one sided because this is coming from a Bosnian point of view, although I had a really nice conversation with a Croatian couple as well who were explaining their experience during the war. The capital of Yugoslavia was in belgrade so the Serbs had the money and power to orchestrate a take over of Yugoslavia (especially with some help from the Russians). The other thing was that the massive population of Muslim Bosnians in Serbia. For ages they were seen as lesser than the other majorities that made up Bosnia. I learned this from the Srebenica exhibit which told the story of the mass killings of roughly 1,100 Bosniak men. Sarajevo was under the second biggest siege in European history and eventually an agreement was made in 1995. If you look at the stats the Bosnians were heavily outnumbered in every aspect compared to the Serbs. Nowadays Bosnia is composed of three main groups that each have their own president, the Croats, the Bosniaks, and the Serbs. It's an issue of tension because not everyone identifies with this group and it just incites more division which is one of the main reasons Bosnia is having Tory le entering the EU. Out of all this sadness though comes something so beautiful and that's Sarajevo, a mixing pot of all religions and ethnicities. I was doing a little wander around the town in the evening when I heard a massive boom. When all your doing is hearing about the war your brain kind of goes into a dark place. The boom was actually a cannon shot from the white fortress to mark the setting of the sun and the ending of fasting for Ramadan.
I spent one of my days doing a tour of the Olympic sights in Sarajevo including an abandoned bobsled track and a hotel built for the Olympics but was then used as a sniper hideout by the Serbs. It's weird to think that thins built to bring together nations were used only 10 years later to separate them.
I apologize for all this history and deepness but it's kind of important to understand a history of place to get their mentality. The best ending to my time in Bosnia was my last evening when I met Josephine, Brita, and Joe. After feasting on cevapi and my new love, burek, we headed up to the top of the yellow fortress to watch the sunset and the cannon. We made our way down to the old quarters and enjoyed watching the nightlife aka all the Shisha cafes come to life. It really was a magical time in Bosnia and I couldn't be more thankful for everyone who had to put up with my constant questioning and burek eating.
In Split, Grace, Hayden, and I all made plans to head to the town of Mostar for two nights. Grace heard that hostel Miran was the place to stay and it so was. We were greeted by some intense handshakes and a basket full of cherries. We spent that first day just walking around admiring the old town and the famous bridge. The bridge of Mostar is like the focal point of this place. For one it's where crazy tourists and Bosnians go to jump off and "declare their manhood" or something like that. Mainly though, the bridge is a symbol of unity. It what brings east and west Mostar together when during the war the city was divided. For now though it just looked like a nice looking bridge. We all went out for probably one of the best meals I've had on this whole trip. The specialty of Bosnia is cevapi, a lamb beef sausage thing. Legit this silver platter of about 5 kilos of grilled meat and cheese and veggie came out and all that proceeded was silence for the next 10 minutes. Bosnia was off to a good start.
The next day was the real deal. Miran is the character of characters. If you search up crazy Bosnian guy he's the first one to show up (just to give you an idea). He leads a tour around Herzegovina for the day and explains his story of the war and his life (Fun fact: Herzegovina means king of wine hence the vino reference). We started the day off in an old bunker that held planes for the Bosnian army. It was just a massive tunnel and the crazy part is that these old war sites don't have any infastructure. No one has come around to building it up for tourists or even just cleaning it. Next stop was out in the countryside for a sample of some amazing Mostar strawberries and pomegranate juice. Bosnians seem to be big into the all natural food stuff. My kinda people. We spent the afternoon swimming in the waterfalls before heading up to the top of a mountain. Miran explained that this was where the Bosnian army was retreated to and across the city you could see where the Serbs were retreated to later on. We finished the day off in another bunker like place that still looked fresh out of the war. Probably the most powerful moment of the day was when we watched a BBC documentary (a nice light watch for the evening) about the war in Mostar. Miran pointed out friends and neighbors of people in the documentary who got shot or happen to appear. It just made me feel so out of touch with the world. I've been so lucky to have never experienced anything that comes close to the trauma that people who live in and fight in a war go through. I certainly sympathize but I just have such a hard time understanding. I told Miran out right at the begging long of the tour that I wa a completely ignorant to the war in Bosnia. I didn't know when it started or why but I think he kind of appreciated that statement in a way because most people's ideas are shaped by the media.
I took one of the most beuatiful train rides early morning to Sarajevo. Sarajevo is the actual coolest place. After my first day wondering around the city I could officially say that Bosnia is probably the most ineteresting country I've ever visited. Ok call me dumb but I also did not realize that Bosnia has a Muslim majority. I just so conveniently happen to finish my Reeza Aslan book in one of the Turkish coffee shops that afternoon so at least my Islam knowledge was somewhat with it. Bosnia was controlled by the Ottomans at some point but they also have been heavily influenced by the Croats who are Catholic and the Serbs who are Orthodox. It truly is a mixing pot and thus leads to the briefest and most general understanding of modern Bosnian history (I was living and breathing Bosnian history for 5 days and am still confused but here we go) Like I said Bosnia is a mixing pot. It's kind of like when we studied Nigeria the whole question boils down to why are we a country? We're all so different and we've got some beef but you know we'll make this thing work because we're all humans so really we're NOT that different. When Franz Ferdinand was shot it was because the Bosnians were tired of being occupied and war broke out. It wasn't till the Second World War that Tito came out a star. He united croats, slovenes, Bosniaks, and Serbs under one country, Yugoslavia. It depends who you ask, but generally speaking most Bosnians I talked to felt that life was better in Yugoslavia than afterwards (example: unemployment is at 60% for young people). After Tito died there wasn't real clear direction as to what should happen and thus ensues a massive mess for the next 15 years. This is definitely going to come off as one sided because this is coming from a Bosnian point of view, although I had a really nice conversation with a Croatian couple as well who were explaining their experience during the war. The capital of Yugoslavia was in belgrade so the Serbs had the money and power to orchestrate a take over of Yugoslavia (especially with some help from the Russians). The other thing was that the massive population of Muslim Bosnians in Serbia. For ages they were seen as lesser than the other majorities that made up Bosnia. I learned this from the Srebenica exhibit which told the story of the mass killings of roughly 1,100 Bosniak men. Sarajevo was under the second biggest siege in European history and eventually an agreement was made in 1995. If you look at the stats the Bosnians were heavily outnumbered in every aspect compared to the Serbs. Nowadays Bosnia is composed of three main groups that each have their own president, the Croats, the Bosniaks, and the Serbs. It's an issue of tension because not everyone identifies with this group and it just incites more division which is one of the main reasons Bosnia is having Tory le entering the EU. Out of all this sadness though comes something so beautiful and that's Sarajevo, a mixing pot of all religions and ethnicities. I was doing a little wander around the town in the evening when I heard a massive boom. When all your doing is hearing about the war your brain kind of goes into a dark place. The boom was actually a cannon shot from the white fortress to mark the setting of the sun and the ending of fasting for Ramadan.
I spent one of my days doing a tour of the Olympic sights in Sarajevo including an abandoned bobsled track and a hotel built for the Olympics but was then used as a sniper hideout by the Serbs. It's weird to think that thins built to bring together nations were used only 10 years later to separate them.
I apologize for all this history and deepness but it's kind of important to understand a history of place to get their mentality. The best ending to my time in Bosnia was my last evening when I met Josephine, Brita, and Joe. After feasting on cevapi and my new love, burek, we headed up to the top of the yellow fortress to watch the sunset and the cannon. We made our way down to the old quarters and enjoyed watching the nightlife aka all the Shisha cafes come to life. It really was a magical time in Bosnia and I couldn't be more thankful for everyone who had to put up with my constant questioning and burek eating.
Alex you are so wonderful
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