This modern day, in 21st century, I saw bullet holes, crevices, cavities, posters, flags, graffitis and paintings splattered on the walls of a modern metropolitan city that defined, we human beings have out grown ourselves; we have reached a point in our being that does not define our humanity. This was in 2018 and I was just a traveller who was seeking a new city experience.
The drive from Montenegro to Sarajevo via Herzegovina portion was nothing extraordinary, although beautifully landscaped with fertile valleys, gushing rivers creating flood plains from green mountains of Dinaric Alps and serenity jotted with beautiful Ottoman-Austro-Hungarian villages. Almost like any other European country side. The drive was 5hrs, but we took about 8 hours, stopping for fresh fruits, Turkish coffee shops, lamb-wool rugs, Austro-Hungarian antiques and furniture shops in almost every little town. We were looking forward to see this great city full of history, that once hosted winter olympics and 2 world wars.
Sarajevo is famous melting spot of different cultures – with huge influence of Arab world as well as Turkey and other Balkan countries. Very few semi-nomads still live in the mountains in the fringes of Sarajevo city in Pogled valley, in medieval stone-homes, worth a visit to Lukomir village. The food is astonishingly good in Sarajevo, with succulent Cevapi and kababs are at its best. Turkish coffee houses are splattered all round the town, although it lacks some good Hammam houses.
The city is modern yet full of history, European and world, and I was astonished to see the impact of those wars started in this region, in museums and city walls. Especially the one that was fought as recent as in 1990s. This impact that I saw on a city and the change in its’ identify is not customary, rather melancholic. The walls of Sarajevo show the dereliction of our duty as human race.
Maven Voyager 