Sarajevo - There's too much to say 💙
Sarajevo has been such a wonderful city to spend time in and one, I'm ashamed to say, I knew nothing about. Because of this we actually booked ourselves on to a walking tour instead of me using one I've found online trying to tell Matt facts as we walked. Our brilliant guide Muhamed took us around the city showing us the highlights whilst sharing information on the three main events that put Sarajevo in the media spotlight - the Assassination of Franz Ferdinand (1914), the 1984 Winter Olympics, and the Seige of Sarajevo (1992-96).
Let's start in the middle! On our first day we headed up Trebevic, the mountain to the south of Sarajevo, offering spectacular views of the city and the mountains that surround it. We did cheat and get the cable car up, mainly to save time as the reason we wanted to go up was to walk back down the abandoned bobsleigh track from the 1984 winter Olympics. The mountain was alive with butterflies and grasshoppers (more grasshoppers I've ever seen or heard) but the abandoned track feels quiet and almost post-apocalyptic and the graffiti is really interesting to look at as you go. I found this very interesting passage written somewhere near the middle which reads...
'To Isobel, and another life where we are skateboarders. And to the smoke we could of had on this abandoned bobsleigh track from the 1984 Winter Olympics I'm Yugoslavia. I wish you could see this dusty city of hipsters and kind hearts and bad, really bad drivers. You'd be a good driver here just for trying. The pigeons here are all bedraggled and lovely like nowhere else. I have so much to tell you!'
However, I think the pigeons were very similar to ones I've seen in other places.
Back in the city you can stand in the spot which sparked the beginning of World War I, as the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sofia were shot whilst driving through the city by 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip, a member Young Bosnia and one of a number of assasins planted on their route that day.
As for the Siege of Sarajevo, the best accounts are from the people that lived it. Our tour guide Muhamed was 10 years old when the city was completely blocked off from the outside world and they were bombarded by bombs and snipers. In 1992 a referendum had been held which declared Bosnia and Herzegovina independant from Yugoslavia but the Bosnian Serbs had a different idea and wanted to create a new Bosnian Serb state, so they encircled the city and attacked. As you walk the city you can see the bullets holes in the high rise buildings, but its the stories of peoples resilience which you take away. We visited the Siege of Sarajevo museum which gives 100's of personal accounts of life during the siege. Muhamed also talked plenty about schools continuing to run in basements of each district and theatre performances going on underground, as people were regularly dying whilst trying to get water for their family. Walking the city now is a delight with its market-like streets and hustle and bustle atmosphere, there is a fountain called the Sebilj which, legend has it, if you drink from it you will return to Sarajevo again.
Back in the city you can stand in the spot which sparked the beginning of World War I, as the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sofia were shot whilst driving through the city by 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip, a member Young Bosnia and one of a number of assasins planted on their route that day.
As for the Siege of Sarajevo, the best accounts are from the people that lived it. Our tour guide Muhamed was 10 years old when the city was completely blocked off from the outside world and they were bombarded by bombs and snipers. In 1992 a referendum had been held which declared Bosnia and Herzegovina independant from Yugoslavia but the Bosnian Serbs had a different idea and wanted to create a new Bosnian Serb state, so they encircled the city and attacked. As you walk the city you can see the bullets holes in the high rise buildings, but its the stories of peoples resilience which you take away. We visited the Siege of Sarajevo museum which gives 100's of personal accounts of life during the siege. Muhamed also talked plenty about schools continuing to run in basements of each district and theatre performances going on underground, as people were regularly dying whilst trying to get water for their family. Walking the city now is a delight with its market-like streets and hustle and bustle atmosphere, there is a fountain called the Sebilj which, legend has it, if you drink from it you will return to Sarajevo again.