Missy's Travels: Sarajevo

Sarajevo is a beautiful city. It was founded in the late 16th century by the Ottoman Empire and successively ruled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and as part of Tito's Yugoslavia. The break up of Yugoslavia in the early 90's led to the creation of Bosnia Herzegovina as an independent, yet ethnically and religiously mixed state. Ethnic and religious tensions led to the first of the Balkan Wars from 1992 - 1995. For four years the entire city was held under siege by Serbian troops, until the Dayton Accords in 1995. Fast-forward fifteen years and what you see is a booming capital city with a strong tourist economy, and a mixed population of Bosnian Muslims, Croats, Serbs, and even Sephardic Jews. If you're not looking closely, it is almost possible to forget the recent war that scarred this city so much. Most buildings have been rebuilt, replastered, or repainted. But signs still linger everywhere, and it's more noticieable in some parts of the city than in others. Personally, I never got used to seeing the bullet holes that riddle the walls of so many buildings. A lot of tourists I talked to couldn't get over the war; it was all they discussed and all they wanted to know about when touring the city.

But not me: I really loved Sarajevo for its culture, its history in total. And I was influenced by the locals. I met many locals and talked to them about a range of subjects, not just the war. For those with whom I did discuss the war the consensus seemed to be that they will never forget, but they want to move on. Most of all, I was struck by how proud everyone is of their city. They love the city's history, architecture, food, the surrounding mountains, and they are especially proud of hosting the 1984 Olympics. To this day the main bottled water brand is Sarajevo Olimpija, and the label has a picture of the Olympic Stadium.

I stayed in a hostel, but met up with couchsurfers both nights I was in Sarajevo. A local couchsurfer, Nikolina, organized the first get-together. She was the only local - the rest of the participants were from the US, Turkey, Poland and Italy (it was mostly Italians). First a few of us hiked up to a viewpoint to watch the sunset over the city. Then we went to a big outdoor restaurant for dinner. It ended up being a five-hour eating and drinking marathon--soo fun! The second night was the regular couchsurfing meeting which takes place in a theater and a local band places traditional Bosnian music. The crowd sits wherever they want, and the band wanders around the room. We sat on the stage, amongst old props and lighting equipment. It was random, but still fun.