On 1st May, BISLA student went on a study trip to Bosnia in order to learn about the genocide what happened there in the ‘90s.
We arrived in the late afternoon.
Sarajevo has a beautiful landscape, there are hills and valleys, and the buildings are mostly close to each other. Our accommodation was close to the city center, where the buildings were mostly houses, flats were rather at the outer parts of the city.
The roads were very narrow, sometimes even the main roads were single lanes. There were only a few parking spaces, thus cars often parked on the side of the road, causing even less space to go through somewhere, but the locals drove confidently, due to experience.
There were lots of older cars there, like the VV Golf mk1 and mk2 series, which are quite antique, but there were 3rd and 4th gens, and overall, many types of VW, older and newer as well, it seemed to me they prefer that brand.
Our accommodation was on the hill, and nearby was a well-known viewpoint “Zuta Tabija”, from where we could see the whole city
Streets full of cats and minarets. Pretty much a common sight.
~facts,
If its only a Tower, its called minaret.
If there is a building around, Where people can go pray, its called džámi (djámi).
The city, for me personally, is the most interesting for religious reasons. It was beautiful to see four religions (Islam, Ortodox, Roman Catholic and Juadism) coexist and be present via their places for prayer.
In the old town, we could see the beauty and the harmony how the “east” meets “west”
I was thrilled to see the mosque built by Husrev bey back in the 16th century (even if most of it got destroyed in the war and is now rebuilt).
The “east” part of the city reminds me of Istanbul, with the mosques and bazaars, the unique type of architecture, dzamis and minarets all over. The goods that we could buy were similar, from the crafts to the clothes and Turkish type sweets, and also the shisha.
Yet, their baklava is different from the Turkish one, this one I know from experience.
Their traditional bosnian coffee as well, they told us the story how it may look similar to the turkish one but they differ in the making process. In the serving tho, there are similarities, and it is for sure, a strong one.
Walking further, into the “West”, as our tour guide mentioned, a little Vienna with the cathedral and the buildings around, also, a little bit further, the City Hall.
There was an urban legend, that the Austrians wanted to build it on the riverbank, and to do so, they bought the land, but there was a person with his house, who would not sell. His condition was that if they want the land the house is on, they need to move his house, brick by brick, to the other side of the Miljacka. The Austrians did so, and the building is still there, now, as a very good restaurant, perhaps the oldest one, for sure with a beautiful view. Before that, it was a post office.
We went by cable car up the hills to see the landscape, and also the abandoned bobsleigh tracks from the 1984 winter olympics.
Not so happy part:
We as a group had an excursion in the museum, where we learned about Sarajevo during Tito and the Yugoslav era, and also after 1992, how the war started and was going on for years. There were many personal stories about how the people tried to survive the brutalities, how hard it was for the civilians to exist, to survive.
Here is Tito in his fav pose, standing outside of the museum.
Next day, we went to Srebrenica, to the Genocide Memorial Center, to see a deep and sorrowful exhibison about the genocide what happened there, against innocent Muslim people. Next to it the cemetery, with many many victims, and yet, there is still no exact number of the deceased, as for the many mass graves which are not all yet found.
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