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Advantages: An important piece of recent history, interesting, enlightening Disadvantages: Not a great deal to see so for the really interested only
one too as you?d have to venture outside of your house and make your way ? usually under fire ? to offices in the city centre to make your request. Everyone needed money to buy food at inflated prices from the market - even those who issued the paperwork; it was not unsual for people to pay quite large sums of money to buy a ticket through the tunnel.
A steady (but still woefully insufficient) stream of aid made its way into Sarajevo through the tunnel on the backs of soldiers and other volunteers. At times the tunnel was knee deep in water and the volunteers would bump their heads on the beams of the low roof. As I walked, bent over, through the 20 metres or so that still exist, I couldn?t help but feel deep admiration for those people who trudged the whole way time and again, knowing that without these goods, the suffering ...
Advantages: Plenty to see; good value for money; Disadvantages: No budget flights yet (but also a good thing!)
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 ...
Advantages: Historic, beautiful, cheap Disadvantages: Not easily accessible, war damage
My announcement that I would be spending my summer in Bosnia met with bemused silences. "But why?", they asked - "Be careful" or "Good for you". My neighbour told me "be sure to take a headscarf with you, it's a Muslim country y'know."
So many concerned family members asked me if it was safe, that I began to have doubts. After watching the film "Welcome to Sarajevo" and reading graphic books about the conflict in an attempt at researching this forgotten corner of Europe, I felt even more unsure.
My worries were to prove unfounded. The hijab I didn't pack proved to be unnecessary, and ironically, I felt safer in Bosnia than I do at home in Birmingham.
I discover a country that is simultaneously familiar and foreign. Glamorous young people frequent the city bars, but one Bosnian girl tells me "we can only afford one coffee ...
