My First Evening in Sarajevo

 

Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.  It is nestled in a valley and with the house on the hills, it reminds me a bit of the area outside of San Francisco.  The city itself moves from the Ottoman Empire to Austro-Hungarian to the Tito/Communist architecture.  Many buildings still bare the scars of the war in the 1990s: bullet holes or bomb holes.

 There are many pedestrianized areas, full of shops and lots and lots of cafes.  Coffee is a big deal here.  It is strong, black, and flows freely.  I am here for work and two of my colleagues, Sasha and Dajana took me walking through the old city-- first stop: a cafe at the top of a hotel so I can see the layout of city.

Sasha and Dajana, native Sarajevoians

 The city is called Little Jerusalem because of proximity of the various places to worship.  Orthodox Catholic, Roman Catholic, Islam Mosques, and Jewish Synagogues.  Many of the structures are centuries old and are centered into the old city, called Baščaršija.

Orthodox Cathdral (1872)

Catholic Cathedral

 In the middle of old area, is the Catholic cathedral where Pope John Paul II said mass in 1997 and in front of there will soon be a statue to him.  Also, in the pavement, are "Sarajevo Roses"-- areas where red waxy paint has been added to the divets left behind from bombs and where people died during the 1990s war.

 We wondered down cobble-stones streets were the store fronts date from the Ottoman times and were the locations for the tradesmen.  Today, there are lots of jewellery shops and cafes. In the middle is a fountain and the legend is that if you drink from it on your first night in Sarajevo, you will return to the city.

We walked up to Pigeon Square, the nickname given to the central open space where lots of pigeons roost.  In the middle is the Sebilj, an ornate drinking fountain from 1891.  Sarajevo is one of the few European cities that has a had a water supply for over 400 years.  There are numerous drinking fountains throughout the city and you can always hear water running.

The Sebilj

Being with locals, I was taken to local candy shops, where a version of Turkish Delight is on offer as well as great variety of spices. 

We passed by a bar with the Sarajevo beer-- tomorrow we will have a reception at the brewery!

And to cap off a nice stroll, we went to the corner where Gavrilo Princip shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sofia.  There is a museum there (yes, I will be going to it!) He was standing across the street, by the bridge.  He shot them, and then jumped into the river to escape.  The river is very swallow there, and apparently he injured himself and therefore was easy to capture.  But with the assassination, the various alliances amongst the European powers declared war on each other and thus started World War I.

the Miljacka River

The street where the Archduke was turning onto when he was shot