10 Aug Sarajevo– city life
I love the cafe culture in Bosnia and nowhere is this more alive than the old town in Sarajevo. I went back to the same pizza place two nights in a row to people watch. As I finished off my second glass of red, the blond waitress brought me over a third: “this is on us.”
I found out she was from Zagreb– in my opinion already a really cool city. “This city is so alive and creative,” she says.
That day, as I stood on the corner where an assasin killed the archduke of Austria and his pregnant wife, an event that started WWI, you realise how deeply historical this place is…
Also, on that same street corner, I can hear catholic church bells followed by a muezzin calling out prayer.
I love this old section of town: all the streets used to be named for different occupations: copper street, shoes, etc…. copper street is the only one that survived. Here I stop for a Bosnian coffee and piece of Turkish delight for 50 cents. The chairs are velvet and the tables are wooden and worn.
Across the street Muslim women in funky brightly coloured hijabs eat cevapi– fried sausages in a pita. Next door, a hooka bar sells flavoured smoke–the curtains are red velvet.
Restaurant called To Be Or Not To Be. The words TO BE are crossed out, something owners did during the seige. Pictures of celebs and Sarajeveans in support of a free city cover the walls. Inside, it feels like someone’s kitchen as an old woman makes the food on a tiny stove. Loads of vegetables, too. Considering all the meat in this town; it’s a good find.
Souvenirs in the old town.
Local metal worker tapping hand made copper Turkish bowls.
Finished coffee pot and old missles from the war made into souvenirs.
The River Miljacka that dissects the city. Our tour guide on the side– the tourism department offers free daily tours. The National Library. During the war, over one millions books were destroyed…
I think of Sarajevo almost daily.
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