Surreal in Sarajevo

Greetings! I am not sure where to begin because the past 2 days have been fairly surreal. Let's start with the 16 hour bus ride from Skopje to Sarajevo. 16 hours! The ride was so long because we got stopped at the Macedonian/Serbian border to have our bus completely inspected by customs, which 2 hours. Apparently, the owner of the bus company was caught smuggling coats so now, his buses are on the black list. This makes it really wonderful for all of us who have no choice but to take this bus company to Sarajevo. At any rate, the bus was almost completely full so I had to sit next to someone and boy was she a character! Her name was Fatima and she's a 58 year old Albanian woman from Tetevo. She looks much older than that. She speaks almost no English so we manage to communicate in Macedonian with a lot of pointing and hand gestures. As it turns out, Fatima is diabetic. So, at some point on our ride, I had the privilege of witnessing her giving herself an insulin shot in the arm closest to me, while just riding along. I am glad needles don't freak me out or make me sick. Fatima loved to talk and informed me that she had no intention of sleeping on the bus ride. I should have asked if we could switch seats since she was sitting by the window, but I didn't. At any rate, at some point, I put on my sunglasses to block the light since I forgot my eye mask and attempt some sleep. Fatima then tapped my arm so I looked over at her. She then motioned that when I put on my sunglasses, she took out her teeth. The teeth never went back in her mouth so now, I had to understand her Macedonian pronounced without teeth, adding to the challenge. When we finally arrived in Serbia, we stopped at a restaurant and Fatima bought me a machiatto. It was the most delicious macchiatto ever. She continued to ask me if I wanted a sandwich, juice, etc and I kept politely declining. She bought a sandwich and proceeded to eat it on the bus. All night, she ate and smoked. I was dozing in and out, never actually falling asleep. We crossed the Croatian border around 5:30 in the morning (I think) and that was totally uneventful. Then we crossed the Bosnia-Herzegovina border an hour or so later, again uneventful. Fatima got off the bus at a town prior to Sarajevo and, at that point, I finally was able to really sleep. When we rolled into the Sarajevo bus station at around noon, I was exhausted. I sat and waited for the hostel folks to pick me up and, as it turns out, Dao and I's private room is in a private residence, next door to a police station. Dao arrived later in the evening and the next morning, we woke up and decided to take the tour of Sarajevo offered by our hostel.

The tour coupled with our evening made for the surreal day. We rode in a car over to Republica Serbska and toured a tunnel that was the lifeline of Sarajevo during the almost four year siege of the city from 1992 to 1995. Over 11,000 people died in Sarajevo during that time and there were constant shelling and sniper attacks. Where the grenades hit the sidewalk is called a Bosnian Rose. You can see the Bosnian roses at the tunnel and at various points throughout the city. I cannot fathom the terror the people who could not flee experienced those 43 months. After the tunnel, we walked down the old bobsled track from the 1984 Olympic Games. It was huge and cement. Then, we went to see an old garrison post from the Austro-Hungarian days which was used as a prison by the Bosnian Serbs and an area to shell the city. There was a WWII memorial in the same area that was completely desecrated. I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of it. There is graffiti everywhere, and the compound is crumbling, the ground covered in broken bottles and glass fragments. After our tour, Dao and I went in search of a Thai restaurant and the bridge, the Latin Bridge, where Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, sparking the first world war. We found the restaurant and we are pretty sure we saw the bridge. It was unmarked, which I found strange. So my dream of having my picture taken on the Latin Bridge remains unrealized as I am not sure which bridge it is. After dinner, we walked by the river that runs through the city and saw buildings that were shelled, Bosnian Roses in the sidewalk and people enjoying their evening. Sarajevo is a vibrant, lively city, yet has shelled, bullet riddled buildings. I don't know how to explain what it is like to see and hear about such destruction and fear, yet go and have a pleasant evening strolling throughout the historical part of the city, enjoy Thai food and eat ice cream. We are off to Mostar today, but I sincerely believe this is not the last I have seen of Sarajevo. I feel connected to this city.