A Day in Sarajevo

Even though Dennis and I travel frequently, we rarely take time to explore a city or a country as tourists. There's a purpose to our travels; a destination that links us with our colleagues.

Last week we decided to add an extra day to our field visits. Since we were in Bosnia, and since we had some freedom with a rental car rather than timed flights, we drove on windy mountain roads and through several tunnels, making our way to Bosnia's capital, Sarajevo.

I didn't know what to expect in this city still undergoing post-war reconstruction. It has been 15 years since the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War (1992-96), the longest lasting siege in the history of modern warfare. The break up of Yugoslavia brought on all kinds of territorial tension. I remember a poster our son-in-law brought back from a mission trip to Sarajevo several years ago. A lone cellist sat in the national library, a burned out shell showered with shattered concrete.

It was an overcast, dismal, gray day as it was, but as we neared the city, the sights of a country trying to rebuild added a bleak landscape to the skies above. On the outskirts of the city we saw factory buildings with broken windows and crumbled walls, bare of any life, only rusty equipment to show its once productive days. Homes along the roadway looked worn and weary.

Drawing closer to the city, tall high-rise apartment buildings, so typical of the Communist era, were packed into the landscape. The tired, gray concrete masses looked aged by 40 or 50 years, though they might have been less than 20.

Eventually we came to the main boulevard that connects the industrial side of the city with the Old Town, the historical and cultural side of the city. The boulevard's official name is Ulica Zmaja od Bosne, but better known since the war as "Sniper Alley." During the siege, civilians trying to go about their daily lives literally ran for their lives as they raced across the street or along the street dodging possible bullets from above. Over a thousand people were injured and 225 killed (60 children), targeted by snipers in the hills surrounding the city or from high-rise buildings.

There was a part of me that wondered why the travel guide, Lonely Planet, listed Sarajevo as one of the top ten cities to visit in 2011. Our hotel receptionist even said the city "is  boring... really, once you walk beyond the Old Town."

The city has a sadness about it. And, maybe that's one of the reasons why it's listed in the top ten. The sadness of war and barriers and conflict, lest we forget. It's been a place of historical turbulence. It was in 1914 when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated along with his wife, Sophia, while visiting Sarajevo. Our hotel manager matter-of-factly said as he pointed out the bridge (above photo) where the incident happened directly across the street, "some stupid boy pulled the trigger." And it was that assassin's shots that set off World War I.

As we walked through the Old Town we came upon a mosque, synagogue, Catholic church, and an Orthodox church, no less than a block from each other. I read later that Sarajevo is referred to as the "Little Jerusalem of the Balkans." This in itself makes Sarajevo a unique city where religions live next door to each other.

But in spite of its sad history, they continue to rebuild, and life continues on. It was impossible to get a glimpse of the national library bubble-wrapped in construction sheath protecting it's fragile structure during reconstruction.

Inat Kuća - an old Ottoman style
house turned restaurant

Look for this scene in the
upcoming movie Venuto al moda

And, in spite of the overcast, damp-weather day that it was, Dennis and I enjoyed walking the streets of Old Town passing by markets and coffee shops and eateries. We checked out the new McDonald's down the street from Old Town, the first in Sarajevo... the first to Bosnia. We had an amazing Bosnian dinner at a highly recommended restaurant at the bottom of the hill where our hotel was located. In fact, our hotel has some fun trivia. I asked about an enlarged photo by the receptionist desk. It was explained that the hotel owner was posed next to Penelope Cruz. The steep, narrow, cobble-stone street just outside the hotel front door was used to shoot a scene for a 2012 movie. Cruz and the film crew stayed at the hotel.

The effects of war were evident on our drive home. As we traveled through the Republic of Serbia, a region of Bosnia, we saw house after house abandoned by families driven out during the war, only shells remaining. I wondered about the families... were they still living... what happened to them?

Bullet scarred house near Croatian border

I thought of Paul's words in Ephesians 2 - For he himself (Jesus) is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility...

He is the answer. He is our peace.