Attack of the Smog

The bus ride to Sarajevo took more than half a day. When we got there, everyone was reminded exactly what coach busses aren't meant for- that being small narrow roads. The biggest street in Sarajevo was maybe four lanes and many of them were narrow one lane streets, especially those on the hillside where our bus was driving. One of the turns our driver wanted to make was too narrow so he has to back the bus up the entire street (which was a hill by the way) until we got back to the previous intersection. So our first Sarajevo experience scared the crap out of most of us.

The next morning we had tours of the city that were given to us by local students at the Amerocan University of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This worked out better than a group of 26 tourists following a soft spoken tour guide that told is about more architecture than anyone cared to know about. We split to three groups and wandered around the old city of Sarajevo, which had lots of churches and mosques along with Ottoman ruins which made for a pretty neat comparison. When wondering around, all I could think about was that the city looked like a European Jerusalem, built in a valley surrounded by lots and lots of old religious buildings. The Milijacka River runs through the city which makes for beautiful views looking up the river into the hills. It's a shame though that becuase it's the winter, there is often large amounts of smog that envelope the city. I'm talking about you couldn't even see 100 feet in front of you. It makes for a somewhat depressing morning when you cannot see the surrounding mountains that make the city so beautiful. The students then led us to lunch at a brewery restaurant so we got to try Bosnian beer, and while it may not have been traditional Bosnian food, it was still pretty good. All of us learned one lesson very quickly: vegetarians would have trouble surviving in the Balkans. I think the most vegetables I saw while in Sarajevo, other than a tomato on a sandwich that I gave to someone else was the side of onions with the chevapcici, once again which I did not eat. Chevapici was described to us as meat fingers and said its hard to explain in english and I agree, but either way I would say google it and find out about its deliciousness.

Looking up the Milijacka River

Jordan and I on one of the bridges over the Milijacka River

Mosque at day

Mosque by night

Walking into the Old City of Sarajevo

The square where Franz Ferdinand was shot in 1914

Looking across the Milijacka River at a pretty building

The rest of the day was spent at the University, which we walked to after lunch and saw much of the actual city. We were advised in Hungary to read the CIA fact sheet for BiH and thank god my roommate and I did. One thing that was picked up very quickly from our time there is that the government is highly illogical. This goes back to the Dayton Accords (or Constitution as some people called it). Putting it simply:

There are three ethnic groups, Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats, each of which elect one president who is in power in alternating 8 month terms during the 4 year election cycle. Minority groups have yet to be represented and each of them have a veto power. This insane and dysfunctional division continues in parliament, the state (similar to the federal gov't in the US), and the entities, which act below the state. From my basic understanding and without looking at the plethora of notes I have on the topic, there seems to be no decisions being made, more corruption than a mafia, and absolutely no uniformity throughout the different forms of government. So all of this makes for some pretty sweet chaos and it is impressive the country still exists when looking at it from this point of view.
By hearing all of this through lectures and trying to have it explained in some detail in an hour and a half is nearly impossible. Understanding this is like trying to learn a foreign language when being taught by a fish. Incomprehensible. Despite this ultimate confusion, the lectures were interesting and managed to keep many of us awake because this point of the trip began more lectures and less touring, so we were all much closer to nap time than the first half of the trip.

The Green is the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (The Federation)
The Yellow is Republika Srbska

A chart of the government system of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Each side represents each of the two sections of the country.

Thankfully when we got out of the lectures and were able to wander around the city. Some of the Bosnian students made a reservation at this funky bar/cafe that was by far the most hipster place I have ever seen, called The Goldfish. This gave us an opportunity to really talk to them and get to know more about them. Especially many of the students had interesting stories about where their families went during the war and coming back to Bosnia. This place had antiques and money, both paper and coin, spread all over the place and the owner had a very sweet mustache that was curled up on both sides, so he only added to the flavor of the bar. Not to mention they don't use radio music- instead there was a playlist on the computer which played lots of oldies and indie music, which was very refreshing to hear since they were all songs that we don't hear to often. One of the strangest things for me was one of the professors at the University is American and came to The Goldfish and spent the rest of the night with us. He was not that old but I guess I am not accustomed to professors going out and drinking with their students. Especially because many of the students had final presentations in his class tomorrow, so when a few of us switched to a different bar to get another drink, they were continually telling us to keep him drinking so he would be hungover the next day and be a more lenient grader. Naturally, we failed at this but we were also advised that this plan would have backfired had it worked because it would have made him a harsher grader due to being cranky instead of an easier grader.

The inside of The Goldfish

Walking out of the Old City at night