Day 68: Jerusalem of Europe - Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina

(Him: Charlie)(Him: Charlie)
Sarajevo is truly a place where “east meets west”. It is called Jerusalem of Europe because of the three dominant religions in the City (as well as the whole country) – Catholic, Orthodox, and Islam. And what do you think of when you hear Jerusalem? Trouble! And trouble indeed.  Religion was one of the biggest contributing factors to the Bosnian War in the early 90s.

Visiting Sarajevo means seeing the melting pot of religions – you can see mosques, orthodox and catholic churches, all located a stone-throw away of each other. Just imagine the orchestra of bells from orthodox and catholic churches and call-for-prayers from mosques all at the exact same moment.

Catholic Church

Mosque and Minaret

Orthodox Church

Visiting the city also means traveling through the history of Sarajevo in a matter of minutes. From the old town centre walking eastward, mosques and Ottoman style buildings first crowd the surrounding, but seconds later, you are into the Austrian-Hungarian world with western style buildings. And then before you know it, you are among concrete block buildings from the Communist era. I guess the commonality of all these areas are the scars left behind from the 1992-1995 war. i.e., ubiquitous bullet holes that remind us of the war.

Sarajevo caught the world’s attention from 3 events in the history. The first one was the 1914 assassination of the Austrian-Hungarian heir of throne, which triggered the WWI. The second one was the 1984 Winter Olympics. And the most recent one was the infamous Siege of Sarajevo between 1992 and 1995 – the longest siege in modern warfare, at 3 years and 10 months. That was a dark period in Sarajevo history. The entire city was locked out by Bosnian-Serbs. Sarajevans had virtually no food, no water, or any other basic needs. In addition, there were constant shelling and sniper shootings. Over 10,000 civilians, including 1,500 children, were killed in this siege.

Like the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria today, the Bosnian War was on the news all the time when I was little, but I simply couldn’t relate to it because it seemed so elusive. Just from the brief daily news shows, I could hardly figure out the conflict was taking place, let alone understanding the complex issues. So the more I heard about them on news, the more insensitive I became.

Coming to Bosnia, all the vivid proofs in Sarajevo, especially coloured video footages (not black and white!!) and bullet holes on buildings, remind me again that wars are still happening in this world (and very recently too!!) and they are more than just the news clips that we see on TV. People suffering in the conflicting zones, especially civilians, deserve more attention from international communities and better (more decisive and efficient) conflict resolution and humanitarian aids.


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Bizarre things happen in Bosnia:

• Bosnia has 3 presidents, one representing each ethnic group, but they rotate every 8 months to be "president" of the presidents. Among other things, this avoids sending more than one president to a diplomatic trip.
• The number of stars on the Bosnian flag does not represent anything, so according to locals, a bigger flag may have more stars.
• The official language of Bosnia is Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian in a single word. These three languages are essentially the same, but it has to be named this way to please all three ethnicity.

Day 67: Stubbornness May Be A Good Trait Sometimes

(Her :  Joanna)

Can you imagine yourself living in a war zone for three and a half years without water, food, electricity, an army to start with and military weapons?  People in Sarajevo did.  Per information the guide of the infamous “Tunnel” tour and in museum, we gathered a few things have make it possible for Sarajevo to withstand the war for this long without giving in to Bosnian-Serbs:

• There happened (luckily) to be a natural water spring within a brewery in town that supply the whole city drinkable water during the whole war
• UN occupied the airport of Sarajevo for supplies to fly into the area
• Army of Sarajevo dig the “Tunnel of Hope” that allows supplies (food and weapons) to get into the city   

The will for people in Sarajevo to defend their land was incredible.  Since Bosnia had only declared independence the day before the war started, Bosniak had no proper army nor weapons when the war started.  It was amateur civilians who volunteered.  In the History Museum of Sarajevo, you can see home-made military uniforms that the soldiers worn during the war.      

Despite seeing the brutality of their own city being destroyed and death of their love ones, people in Sarajevo stubbornly refused to be despaired.  Throughout the war, cultural events such as beauty pageant, music concert, night life and soccer games still went on.   Isnt’ it impressive?

I knew war was bad but seeing Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp from WWII and hearing from locals what had happened in Sarajevo with my own eyes and ears, it put bad into perspective.  We are the lucky ones living in a peaceful part of the world but are we bystanders witnessing war around us happening everyday in parts of the world distant from us?  Are there anything each of us can do?  If wishing “world peace” is your New Year wish, what have you done to contribute on that?  Seeing what’s happening in Syria breaks my heart that we, human being, didn’t learn our lesson from our history……

With this thought, it reminds me of a song of John Lennon – Imagine. 

Day 66: Differences?

(Her : Joanna)

Bosniak Serbs and Bosniak Croats seem to still be quite divided.  In both Mostar and Sarajevo, the 2 groups reside in different part of the city.  In Mostar, there are even 2 postal services and separate football stadium for each group as some samples. However, all of the Bosnian & Herzegovinian who we’ve talked to around our age all told us that they don’t care and won’t judge people by their skin color, religion and ethnicity.   They believe everyone is equal and should be treated the same way.  I really would like to speak to some older generation to understand whether they also think the same way.  Why then are these 2 groups still so divided in this country puzzle me as the younger generation seems to be going against the division.  

Day 65: Community and Hospitality of Bosnian & Herzegovinian

(Her : Joanna)

I am so utterly impressed by the hospitality of Bosnian & Herzegovinian.  I have met quite a few very friendly hosts at places we stayed but not quite like Bosnian & Herzegovinian.  The host, Almir, and his wife, Salena, of the guest house we stayed with at Mostar made sure we are really feeling like home and well taken care of. 

Even though we arrived at 2 am, he insisted to pick us up from the bus station, and greeted us with a true-hearted warm welcome even though he has to go to work the next day at 6 AM.  Almir invited us to his house for coffee/tea, and chat with us like a family friend (I even watched his 6 months old son bath).  He bought us snacks, fresh figs and vegetables through our stay, and even gave us some to bring with us on the road.   

I don’t know whether we treat our friends like he does in Canada, let alone a stranger.

Later we found out from our tour guide that Bosnian & Herzegovinian has a very strong sense of community.  Everyone knows all of their neighbors, everyone help each other’s out and look out of each other.  It is a strange concept to Bosnian & Herzegovinian not to even know the name of their neighbors like I would say most of us do in North America and HK.  I don’t know whether because Mostar is a small city that our host and guide seem to know everyone around his neighborhood or it is just the way Bosnian & Herzegovinian are.  We will find out when we visit Sarajevo.

Day 64: To Ask Or Not To Ask

(Her : Joanna)

Just reading the raping camp from the war time in Bosnia and Herzegovina gave me nightmares.  I can’t imagine what these people have to go through or still living with after the war.  The war is still so fresh.  A pure 15 years is not enough to “move on” or forget.   

Before this trip, I have always thought that the war time is the toughest time for people but it is extremely difficult for those who survive and have to live with the memory or rather nightmare.

The mood or tone changed whenever the topic of war was bought up when we talked to a local family here.   Implicitly, I can feel that they try to move on.  When they told us sparsely things they went through at the war, I felt that they lightened up a lot as if they are just talking about a normal event in the past.  And at times, they joked about some things they themselves or their family went through but through the jokes, I can superficially imagine the hardship they have went through.

Almost every local we have met, though we didn’t meet too many, have been affected by the war.  There are ruins of building mix with new buildings and a lot of buildings with something like bullet holes on the exterior of the wall.

The tour guide of the tour we took lost 20 family members from the war; and the tour bus driver, who was only 2 when the war happened, showed us the scar he got from an explosion on his arm.

Though we really want to know more what it is like going through the war and what happened from people who went through it but it is too cruel to ask about a wound that everyone tries to recover from.  Perhaps, we should look forward and see what Bosnia and Herzegovina has to offer as a country.

Day 64: Passion of Life in Bosnia & Herzegovina

(Him: Charlie)(Him: Charlie)

I have not had much desire to write in the last little while, even after a fantastic trip in Croatia’s beautiful cities and islands. However, here in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), after just 3 day of visit, the urge has burst out. So I am actually going to blog about BiH first.

The urge to write about Bosnia mostly came from the host of our guesthouse, the Taso family. Jo and I have been deeply touched by this couple’s passion for life.

A quick history of BiH – BiH has been a country that comprises three main ethnicities – Bosnian Croats (mainly Catholics), Bosnian Serbs (mainly Orthodox), and Bosniak (mainly Muslim). As history has repeatedly demonstrated, when you have strong presence of multiple religions at one place, you are asking for trouble, to say the least. And trouble indeed. From 1992 to 1995, the Bosnian War broke out, where the three ethnicities expelled and persecuted each other. Here in Mostar, a city built in the valley, was reduced to rubble after all the battles, siege, and heavy shelling. Even to this date, relics of destroyed buildings or buildings full of bullet holes can still be seen everywhere.

Fast forward 17 years, the Taso family, having lived through the horrifying war, has long been back to normal life. They both have a well respected job – regional manager of bank and psychology teacher, and they recently had a new addition to the family, baby boy Omar. You would think this couple have their hands full with their jobs, the baby and the guesthouse? Think again! On top of all that, they have plans to expand the guesthouse and they even help out their family farm – literally work like there is no tomorrow.

Sometimes our conversation touched the subject of the war. It is obvious to us that they would downplay the hardship they endured and even joked about it. Everyone knows it must be hell going through those 4 sorrow years and they have definitely not forgotten about it, but they chose to joke about it and even dismiss it, because they have chosen to focus on the future instead. They have to chosen to seize every possible opportunity for a better tomorrow. To me, that’s the passion of life that everyone should pursue!