Sarajevo...

After leaving Dubrovnic, we drove north through some mountains into Bosnia until we reached Sarajevo. Our route was pretty deserted except for the many remnants of old rock walls that had once sectioned off all the hillsides. One old road, wide enough for only one wagon, or perhaps one tank from the days when the Soviets occupied this area wound around, following a similar route to our newer, somewhat improved road. Occasionally we saw a few piles of rubble of what we assumed were little rock houses. Our purpose for entering Sarajevo was for Pete to attend some top secret, super cool, world crisis NATO meetings there (none of you can tell a soul.) We arrived a day early so that Pete could show us around the city. It was beautiful and set in a valley surrounded by mountains on all sides. Only 15 years previously, this country had been part of the country of Yugoslavia. After Bosnia split off, they immediately began their own discord between the Serbians living there and everyone else, mainly of Muslim faith. Muslims and Serbians (Christians) live together fairly peacefully in the city now, but had the US and NATO forces not stepped into the crisis, there may have been solely Serbians left. With the help of the Country Serbia (to the east of Bosnia) the city of Sarajevo had been successfully cut off from all outside help through the mountain passes, and civil war raged.. Many of the buildings still have scars, particularly in the area we were staying. The one main road through the city was nick-named “Sniper Alley” during the crisis. One of the city’s most beautiful buildings almost survived until just at the end of the war it was set on fire by Serbians. Today it is a beautiful but burned shell, it’s main purpose a reminder of more turbulent times.

The city felt somewhat primitive and poor, with a distinctly Muslim feel to it. Most of the Muslims there are pretty relaxed and peaceful, with only a few radicals. We did see one full faced Burka, but mostly the women and men looked pretty “western” or the women had the shawls on their heads over modest dress. It was really cool and definitely different then any other country we had ever been to. Particularly the toliets were a bit different! Ew! What a surprise we had when we first entered the public restrooms!

We enjoyed the market in the center of the old town with its antiques and old crafts. Our favorite was the copper alley. I ended up buying a beautiful copper pot for my kitchen. The girls bought some leather and wooden shoes from a cute little man who spoke no English at all. He taught us the word for thank you, “Fallah.” Peter got a cool wooden canteen after pricing the ENTIRE market, (he is a very savvy shopper). And Jessica was allowed to purchase some belly dancing attire after earnestly promising that she would not be using it to dance for any boys.

Legend says that if you drink from the fountains, you will be returning some day to Sarajevo...

Muslim call for prayer...

Coppersmith...

On our way home from the market one evening, Jessica, Nicole and I were trying to sneak a picture of a cute little old lady struggling with her bags and a few pieces of corn she had just bought. As she looked up, she caught us trying to take her picture and broke out into the biggest toothless grin which lit up her entire face. I wish I could display the picture which is only burned into my memory, but here is the pose that she happily agreed to stand for with Nicole. She was soo cute! Smiles are the same in any language!

On our way out of town, we were attacked by a swarm of little boys begging in the street. They had caught hold of our van and were running along beside us until Pete was able to fish out a few coins for them. Just up the street was another little girl, left all by herself on the corner. She looked like she was only about 5 or 6 years old.

Just as we were regretting having to leave, and sad that our shopping was all finished, a small group of mountain Bosnian’s wares caught our eyes. The little boy, Yesjdan, was just Paul’s age and they got along great! Only one man spoke English, but we all used a lot of sign language to chat away, and it was funny because he interpreted for his wife and I, so we were able to have a typical conversation between mothers, telling all about how old our little boys were and how much they weighed and how well they were speaking, etc. The girls were fascinated by the horse-skin rugs! They had some really cheap prices and we ended up buying two sheep skin rugs, one more really big copper pot, and a clay pot to cook in the fire with. They gave the kids a little clay pyramid shaped piggy bank as a parting gift and our little boys kissed each other goodbye.