Bosnia, Part I

During my recent week off, I went to Bosnia to visit Sladjana. We met last fall (by which I mean 2006) when she did a three-week teacher exchange thing at my school. I was only there 5 days, but I took a lot of pictures. I am also feeling a little frazzled and sick (Balkan death flu, caught on my way home), so this is an abstract random interpretation of my trip. I'll do a linear/themed/choronological version when I'm feeling better, but I thought some of you might want a Monday distraction....The first thing Sladja and I did after I arrived in Sarajevo was go to the Baščaršija district (old town) to get some cevapi for lunch. Cevapi is Bosnia's favorite fast food: delicious pita bread, with tiny, salty, beef sausages and raw onion. Sometimes they also eat it with this weird cheese that tastes like the solid part of cottage cheese. Delicious with Coke and very strong breath mints for dessert.

Just like every other European city, Sarajevo has it's do-x-and-you'll-return superstition. Can you guess what it is? This is me filling up my nalgene at the Sebilj fountain in Baščaršija. Old (1890?) gorgeous carved wood, and still a source of free and clean drinking water. Although the economy isn't good enough to justify employing a man to give out the water (like they had in the old days), the monster pigeon flocks around the fountain have inspired some elderly Sarajevans to earn a living by selling bags of crumbs or bird seed to tourists.

This is a different fountain (off because of winter) in the courtyard of the Gazi Husrev-Beg Mosque. It has the same intricate carved wood ceiling as the other fountain, and is also really old. These ceilings were typical of the region during Ottoman rule (approx. 1429-1878).

This is a sign of the times. I guess they've had some pretty rude tourists there before; as far as I can tell, the sign asks you to please not bring alcohol, cigarettes, cell phones, machine guns, pets, bikes, slutty women, food, or public displays of affection to the area. Some of those are a question of interpretation, though.

This is the Ali Pashina mosque and cemetery. My favorite, but there are supposed to be 186 mosques in the city and I certainly didn't see them all. I don't know much at all about Muslim cemeteries, but I saw old Muslim graves all over the city. Some of the stones looked pretty ancient, and aside from the cemetery, they were in small, non-linear groups in parks, in yards, and even on hills next to the highway. Bosnians seem to see nothing odd about their reluctance to relocate human graves - some Roman graves with ancient tombstones I saw were actually incorporated into a chicken coop (instead of in a museum, where I'd expect to see something like that), because "you don't want to bother the dead."

This is an old Turkish (despite the name Baghdad Cafe) coffee house. Beautiful, but those hanging lamps are dangerous for clumsy people like me and Sladja. The red thing on the table is a buzzer to call the waiter - if you don't press it, he'll never come. The upside is being able to sit and chat as long as you want, but I think it could be dangerous with all those pillows.... This is Sarajevo's eternal flame/thug hotspot. It's dedicated to the people who liberated the city at the end of WWII. I've heard that despite it's name, it sometimes gets turned off because the goverment is trying to save some money. It is situated at the beginning of Marsala Tita, a.k.a. Snipers' Alley.

Marsala Tita was apparently one of the deadliest places for civilians during the war, but it is also an important road connecting the center with the suburbs. The damage has mostly been repaired, but some craters where there were civilian casualties have been filled in with red paint (starting to fade); these spots are apparently known as Sarajevo Roses.

This is the Cathedral of Jesus' Heart. It's the largest in the country, but mostly interesting because of the architecture (neo-Gothic) and the remarkably little damage done to the building despite the fact that it's also on Marsala Tita.
Ok, more tomorrow. Now I need a nap.