Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina)

In 1984 Sarajevo hosted the Winter Olympics; just over a decade later, the world watched as Sarajevo burned and the sites of the games became cemeteries for those killed in the siege, at four years the longest in modern warfare. Before the war Sarajevo was often described as the “European Jerusalem” in reference to the mix of cultures who happily lived alongside each other; today an invisible line divides the city separating Bosniaks from Bosnian ...
...Games and the Siege of Sarajevo very well, it was an earlier event that ignited my interest in Sarajevo: a postcard from a family friend, who was in Yugoslavia on business, captured my imagination and I suppose this was the start of my “Yugophilia”. The postcard showed a famous wooden fountain that stands in BašÄaršija square; it was damaged during the Bosnian War but has since been restored and stands in its original location once more. I dreamed ... more

In 1984 Sarajevo hosted the Winter Olympics; just over a decade later, the world watched as Sarajevo burned and the sites of the games became cemeteries for those killed in the siege, at four years the longest in modern warfare. Before the war Sarajevo was often described as the “European Jerusalem” in reference to the mix of cultures who happily lived alongside each other; today an invisible line divides the city separating Bosniaks from Bosnian Serbs.

Although I remember both the Olympic Games and the Siege of Sarajevo very well, it was an earlier event that ignited my interest in Sarajevo: a postcard from a family friend, who was in Yugoslavia on business, captured my imagination and I suppose this was the start of my “Yugophilia”. The postcard showed a famous wooden fountain that stands in BašÄaršija square; it was damaged during the Bosnian War but has since been restored and stands in its original location once more. I dreamed of seeing it one day.

Today Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Under the terms of the Dayton Peace Accord, Bosnia and Herzegovina was split into two entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska. It was also stipulated that Sarajevo should be the capital of the whole country, but should also be split with east Sarajevo being in the Srpska Republic. The main business district and the historic old town of Sarajevo are in the Federation; the section in Republika Srpska has some business and some industry but is mainly residential from what I witnessed. Unless they make efforts to do otherwise, it’s unlikely that most tourists will see the Serbian part of the city, though we saw a small section when we took a tour out to a museum on the outskirts of the city.

Sarajevo is well connected with other European cities though no budget airlines serve it at present. We arrived by bus from the southern city of Mostar; the bus station is a tram ride (or a twenty minute walk) from the heart of the city but we weren’t certain how far we were from town when we arrived as the bus and adjacent train station were out of the area covered by the small street map in our guidebook. Fortunately the unmistakable sight of the yellow box that is Sarajevo’s Holiday Inn helped us get our bearings; it’s funny how you can know a place without ever having been there before. The Holiday Inn was built for the Winter Olympics and but it was during the siege that it became well-known across the world as it was the base for international journalists covering the conflict. Although the hotel is on “Snipers Alley” it was pretty much left alone and was just about the safest place to be during the War.

Reconstruction commenced almost before the ink had dried on the Dayton Peace Accord although it still continues today. A new Parliament building has replaced the old one which I vividly remember ablaze during the war; with its glass exterior it is just one of a number of buildings that make Sarajevo look every bit the prosperous European capital. In the centre of town, overlooking the Miljacka River, the National Library, a magnificent Ottoman building is slowly being restored thanks to a joint European Commission.

We hadn’t booked accommodation in advance so we headed to the bazaar district where we’d heard there were several hostels and bed and breakfasts but before we got there we were approached by a middle-aged man (and a friend of his who approached us in German) who was offering us a room. As we were in the middle of town we were cautious, we didn’t want to be somewhere out of the city, in Sarajevo we wanted to be right in the heart of things. He assured us it wasn’t far and true to his word, just a few footsteps later, he ushered us into a wonderful nineteenth century apartment building on what is effectively Sarajevo’s main square. For €12 a night we couldn’t have asked for more.

Sarajevo displays its diverse history for all to see. The Bascarsija district is the oldest part of the city; here you’ll find mosques, the bazaar, silversmiths, teahouses, museums, cool bars and the best eating places in town. At the opposite end of the main shopping street Ferhadija you’ll find the legacy of the Austro-Hungarians with some grand public buildings such as the National Theatre and the central post office. Depending on which part of the city you’re in at the time, Sarajevo feels like either Vienna (or some grand Austro-Hungarian city) or Istanbul. The Austro-Hungarian part is coffee and cakes, while the Ottoman part is tea and kebabs. In the old Ottoman part of town the shops sell souvenirs and handmade goods for which you must haggle, in the Austro-Hungarian section of town the shops are much more up-market, with many international chains, with prices to match. If you like to shop then you’ll love Sarajevo; the silver and copperware is highly regarded and I’m planning to choose my wedding ring on my next visit. Turkish style carpets are also good value as is traditional knitwear – I bought some gorgeous thick patterned slipper-socks to keep my feet warm on winter evenings in Slovenia.

The Tourist Information Office had limited information on what to do in the city but rather more on attractions in the region around Sarajevo. This didn’t matter so much because museums and other places of interest are well signposted and easy to spot. We spent a half day on a guided trip to see the Sarajevo Tunnel Museum; during the siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian War, a tunnel was built under the airport to allow food and other items to be brought into the besieged city, bypassing enemy lines. The tour took us into that section of Sarajevo that is in the Republika Srpska and we were easily able to see the massive differences; here there are no mosques and most signs are in Cyrillic, housing was not in such good condition as in the other part of Sarajevo, although we saw a number of big budget prestige projects under construction.

Having read Stephen Galloway’s “The Cellist of Sarajevo” in which two of the characters describe the dangerous task of fetching water during the siege, I was pleased to be able to travel down “Sniper’s Alley” and see the location of the bridges that civilians had to use to get to the city brewery, the only place where water could be obtained. I wasn’t prepared for just how far this was and when I looked around me as I stood on the bridge, I was horribly aware of just how many places there were for a sniper to hide. Although the major rebuilding of Sarajevo was largely done by 2003 (you see very few empty and wrecked buildings in the centre now) there are still signs of the war; you will see bullet marks on the facades of all but the very newest buildings and some schools and public and commercial buildings have plaques on the exterior wall listing the names of their students or staff who died in the siege. Dotted around town you may spot “Sarajevo Roses”; they are little holes in the pavement, filled with a red substance that looks a bit like candle wax. These are all at spots where civilians died, usually when queuing for bread or going to collect water. We walked over the river to the brewery, it’s a handsome and colourful building but not, we were disappointed to learn, open to the public. Instead we made do with a beer in the adjoining restaurant and beer-hall.

Going back to town we crossed the river on the Latin Bridge, infamous for being the spot from which Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sofia in 1914, an event which triggered the First World War. A plaque marks the spot where they fell and the house next to it now houses a small exhibition on the history of Sarajevo, but concentrates mainly on the assassination. Two mannequins dressed as Franz and Sofia lurch precariously on a small platform as the centre-piece of the display.

The city of Sarajevo sits in the Sarajevo field – a flat expanse surrounded by a number of mountains (well large hills); several of the mountains were used for the Winter Olympics but now have war cemeteries on their lower slopes. The white headstones can be seen from some distance away and were what drew us to climb one of the hills just beyond City Hall. It was very moving to see how many young people in particular had died during the war. We continued up the hill to the Bastion and higher still to some narrow cobbled streets of traditional houses, very reminiscent of Turkey. When the muezzin called the faithful to prayer I had to sit on a stone step and listen – it was quite magical.
One thing I really wanted to see was the “Eternal Flame”; most Russian, and former Soviet-aligned, cities have a memorial to the war-dead, at the heart of which is a flame that burns non-stop. I knew the street it was on but managed to walk straight past it because it was much less obvious than I’d been expecting.

The museums, galleries, mosques and other places of interest are too numerous to list. It’s enough to say that you can easily fill a weekend break and, in truth, a longer visit is needed to really do justice to this historic city. I’d certainly recommend it to travellers with an interest in history although it also has much in the way of fine and decorative arts and it’s nice to see many of the very old Ottoman buildings like the hans restored and used as gallery spaces.

Wherever I go I like to visit the food markets and Sarajevo’s main market was just behind our building. In most respects it’s no different to other markets in eastern and southern Europe but this one was the scene of one of the worst attacks of the Bosnian War when it was shelled in 1994 resulting in the loss of 68 lives. This covered outdoor market sold fruit and vegetables and some dry goods with official regular traders occupying tables and causal unofficial traders selling whatever they could find - a few sprigs of herbs, a bottle of goats milk, a small bag of plums. Across the road in the market hall are the ladies selling dairy produce and cured meats, and the butchers stalls offering tripe, tongue and any other part of the animal one might (or might not) want to eat. As soon as we pointed at some delicious looking cured meat, half a dozen ladies wanted us to taste theirs. We sampled some from the first lady and bought from her – it seemed unfair to try everyone’s produce and buy from only one; the meat went into some crusty rolls the next day for a picnic lunch on the road north.

Each day around the same time I had noticed a group of people standing in a circle on the square in front of our room. On the first day I thought it was a guided tour and that the tourists were clustered around their guide, listening to what was being said about the buildings around them. By the third day I realised that it couldn’t be a tour group so we went to investigate; it was a giant chess game. Men of all ages (but mostly older) were watching a game between two men, offering advice (whether it was wanted or not), with much head-shaking, sighing and exasperation when the advice was ignored. My partner, who understands the rules (I do not) was disappointed not to be able to speak Bosnian and thus join in with the appraisal of the moves though he was able to show approval or disapproval quite easily with nodding or shaking of his head. We were made very welcome to watch and even though I had no idea what was going on, I’d have gone every day if I’d have stayed longer.

You can spend as little or as much as you want on dining in Sarajevo, but meat is the dish of the day and the quality of the food varies little between top end restaurants and everyday places. The menu too doesn’t differ much and you’ll find the same selection of veal dishes everywhere – little spicy minced meat sausages called cevapcici, patties of minced meat called pljeskavica, balls of minced meat in a tomato and split pea sauce, veal steaks, veal chops and so it goes on. One thing you must try is the ice cream and the best place – loved by locals and tourists alike is Egipat on Ferhadija. You can find a huge choice of flavours and the ice cream is rich and creamy.

Although Sarajevo has a number of good little bars – some of the newer ones are very funky – you’d be forgiven for thinking that people here don’t drink. On the evening that Bosnia played Turkey in their world cup qualifying match against Turkey we hoped to watch it at an outdoor café while enjoying some beers There were plenty of places to choose from but nobody was drinking beer. We asked a waiter at one whether they sold beer and he told us that they did. As we watched the game we became aware that people were making their Cokes and coffees last a long time. We asked the English-speaking son of our host about it later and he explained just how poor people in Bosnia are. You certainly get the impression that people in Sarajevo have money; nobody is shabbily dressed and young people in particular look very smart and fashion-conscious. The truth is very different; wages and pensions are low, while things like heating costs are high and continually increasing. I asked Pedja whether, in spite of the terrible things that happened during the war, things are better now; I thought I knew the answer but I was interested to know what he thought. He told me that things are worse now because “now everyone hates each other” and because Bosnia has no industry, with nothing to sell, Bosnia will never prosper.

The 1980s were a time of great growth for Sarajevo; the Olympics brought a lot of tourism which carried on for some years afterwards. Sarajevo was a great centre of industry and many new apartment buildings were built to house the workers who flocked to the city. It appears it will be some time before Sarajevo reaches the heights of the eighties again.

With excellent public transport, a good range of accommodation, a wealth of cultural attractions as well as wonderful countryside on the doorstep, Sarajevo is a destination that should appeal to all kind of visitors. It’s excellent value for money though you can splash out if you really want to. On a practical level it's rarely challenging and most people in jobs with tourist-contact speak good English. It’s a compelling mix of east and west, but it has all the comforts of western Europe (you’ll very rarely encounter an eastern squat toilet in Sarajevo, and the traders in the bazaar aren’t anywhere near as pushy as those in Turkey) which may reassure some potential visitors. Happily it’s not a party city though there is a decent and quite hip nightlife scene. So long as budget airlines stay away Sarajevo will be safe from the stag parties and remain a pleasant and appealing destination.

 

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