Sarajevo, Bosnia and Heryegovina

as we made our way to what i believe would be the farthest ive traveled in the balkans i found myself surrounded by eeries bits of memories ive had from when i was younger. in my neighborhood growing up i was always around people who had migrated from what was then Yugoslavia and now i can see first had the places i had come to watch on the news. suprisingly though my experiences in mostar, kravica and sarajevo have left me with this amazing sense that people can move on with their lives even amidst some of the worst crimes against humanity that our generation has come to know. but again, the purpose of this blog (or whatever this journal has come to be) is not about telling history of which im not entirely sure of but yet to share my experiences as a traveler and tell the stories of people who ive come to meet.

the hercegovina hospitality was amazing (as i write this in retrospect). what started as a typical homestay in sarajevo turned into a chance to stay in a village outside of Trebinje tucked away in the corners between Bosnia and Croatia. i was taken in by a warm family who let us play with their cows and stay on their couches for the night. everyone knew everyone in that town and in a matter of hours we had more connections than most travelers would imagine for being in such a faraway corner of the world.. and yet the first question everyone asks about Bosnia is if its dangerous..

in my next post ill put pictures from Trebinje and surrounding villages.

for now, in sarajevo i would like to point out the obvious similarities the city shares with turkey. independently of the known label, we called the city a small istanbul and the reasons are clear. the city (saray ovasi) was a far extent of the then-ottoman empire. i didnt have a chance to write about mostar when i was there but if you look back at the pictures you can see the famous bridge for which the area was named after. it was built by a student of a student of the famous Mimar Sinan who is arguably much more talented than his european equivalent Leonardo DiVinci. the area was a delight during the 1500s in the eyes of Sultan Suleyman. his kingdom had stretched all the way to here where life remained beautiful until the onslaught of the Nazis during world war II who actually crossed the famous bridges by tank.. but im not here to talk about history.. in fact.. history seems to repeat itself whether or not we understand it, in contrast to the famous quote weve been told so many times.

ive fallen in love with the balkans. in such a small area you can see so much diversity both naturally and anthropologically. the people are among the most beautiful on earth and the travel is super exciting. enjoy these pictures and the ones ill soon painfully wait through in posting at this internet cafe in Dubrovnik as i catch up to speed with my travels.