what a funtastically fascinating country! although something i didn’t know: it is not even really a unified country. it is composed of two completely autonomous entities: the muslim dominated federation of bosnia and herzegovina, of which sarajevo is the capital, and the serb dominated republika srpska. the army of the latter had the city of sarajevo under siege for four years in the early 1990s, in what was the worst conflict during the breakup of the former yugoslavia. i went to a little museum that had a remnant of a tunnel under the airport that supplied sarajevo with provisions during the siege. that war was between the orthodox serbs and an alliance of the catholic croats and the muslim bosniaks.
i learned that although the wars of the 90s were between religious groups, the animosities had much more to do with ethnicity than religion. also, the bosnians, croats, serbs etc. all have their “own” languages, but they are all mutually intelligible. so are they really that different after all? anyway, there are two types of buildings in sarajevo: those that existed before the early 90s, which are are invariably riddled with bullet holes, and those that have been built since then, including, much to my appreciation, many modern shopping malls! outside one of these one night was a huge free concert by a bosnian rock star! despite all the hostilities, sarajevo has a tremendous history of religious tolerance. in one block, for example, there are catholic and orthodox churches, mosques, and a synagogue. there is also a bridge, called the latin bridge, on which the archduke of austria-hungary franz ferdinand was assassinated, precipitating world war I, as well as the more recent formation of a rock band named after him.
sarajevo also hosted the winter olympics in 1984. i explored some of the many cemeteries filled with countless white arabic-inscribed gravestones from the early 90s 🙁 , went to a sweet indoor/outdoor swimming pool complex with the most powerful hot tub jets imaginable, ate lots of very inexpensive balkan ice cream (which really does taste better than anywhere else, apparently because it is made with fresh, local unpasteurized cream), and got a view from the top of the futuristic, brand new and epically tall (especially for the balkans) avaz twist tower!
on my third day in sarajevo i experienced my first speed bump, as there wasn’t supposed to be a day three in sarajevo. i purchased a train ticket to belgrade, and they told me to go to a track at the train station. some unmarked train showed up at the correct time, so i got on, but soon realized it wasn’t the right one. everybody yelling at me in who knows what language. by the time i got off, the correct train had come and gone on another track. and because bosnia and serbia hate each other, there is only one train and one bus a day, so i gave up on the train and bought a bus ticket for the next morning. luckily the guy named jan at the awesome hostel (very much nice guy; place), let me stay another night even though they were really busy. he said “dude, your crazy try taking train, man. all trains balkans suck so bad, bro.” he also ranted a bit about how it is common for people in the republika srpska to believe that the horrific atrocities against muslims during the war in places like srebenica didn’t actually happen and are merely anti-serb conspiracy theories. in the morning i unfortunately set the alarm for 5:45am instead of 4:45, so i missed the bus as well. so in the end i took the train after all. it was sort of like i expected a balkan train to be: extremely hot inside (if there’s ever a next time remind me to bring a lot more water) and very pleasant views outside! after the fact i learned that the train route actually only started up again in 2009 (much to international media acclaim) as more of a political statement of “moving on” from the war than out of traveler demand. it went through the republika srpska into… serbia!