Day 7 - 03 April 2019 Sarajevo

Breakfast in the hotel this morning as it is included as part of the tariff.  An interesting selection of tradition 'english breakfast' including fried eggs, but also the European style with cold meats and cheeses and also what I would call a middle eastern selection.  Understandably there was no bacon, but I did have a choice of chicken ham or turkey ham, but no ham ham.

By no stretch of the imagination would you call Sarajevo a pretty or attractive city. But, it certainly is interesting.  The cultural, religious, racial and architectural mix, plus the history certainly makes it interesting beyond its physical appearance.  The buildings range from influences of the Ottoman empire to Austrian (think grand Germanic) to communist minimalist, many of which still bear the scars of the war and siege of 1992 - 1995.  The various occupations by foreign powers and wars loom large in the Bosnian psyche and cant be separated from modern Sarajevo.  I am doing the Times of Misfortune tour tomorrow and hopefully have a better understanding of the recent history after that.

Ottoman style

Soviet brutalist with war damage

Austrian imperialist

Warning, some history stuff ahead.

I did the assassination tour today.  A young Bosniak by the name of Faruk was our guide and there was myself and an older Belgian couple on the tour.  The tour took in the major sites involving the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914.  He also explained the incredible range of coincidences that led up to the assassination.  We stood at the corner where the Archduke's car attempted to right hand turn instead of going straight ahead.  When the driver realised that he had made a mistake he stopped the car and attempted to reverse back to the proper route.  However one of the conspirators, Gavril Princip, was having coffee and cake (possibly because he was diabetic and needed the sugar) in a cafe on the same corner.  Young Princip looked up and saw the Archduke's car stopped near where he was sitting, he seized his moment of opportunity, leapt up, approached the car and fired two shots from his pistol killing the Archduke and the Archduke's wife Sophie, and so history was made.  A string of events initiated by this assassination led to the TGW.  It is worth considering what would have happened if the driver had driven straight on as he was supposed to and driven straight past Princip sitting in the cafe enjoying his coffee and cake.  Would TGW with loss of millions of lives, massive amounts of property and the disappearance of great empires have still happened?  Obviously I have my opinion and I will let you consider yours.

The archduke's car was coming down the road towards us

The driver did a right turn into this street, Princip was in the cafe where the museum is now.

During our mid tour coffee (Bosniak style, hot, thick and bitter, sounds a bit like my first wife, as we all know that is a joke). Faruk was happy to talk about life in Sarajevo and its recent history.  He explained that unemployment was very high, particularly among the young folk, something like 60% unemployment for under 24 year olds.  A waiter would earn approximately E300 to E350 per month ($480 to $550 AUD).  Faruk also said that his grandmother, who is 73 years old looks back fondly on the old Yugoslavia days under Tito.  When I mentioned that Tito was an oppressive communist dictator who only stayed in power with the support of the secret police and the military and violently suppressed any political opposition he just sort of shrugged his shoulders.  I think that Faruk may also have longed for the Tito days even though he was born well after the death of Tito and the collapse of Yugoslavia.

I have located a nice little bar just around the corner from my hotel, hidden in one of th lanes of the Bascarsija (or Turkish quarter).  In my mind the Bascarsija is similar to the souks of Marakesh, although smaller, and as I have never been to Marakesh I am only guessing.  Anyway it is an area of small lanes with lots of shops, cafes, restaurants, bars, shishka bars and some doubtful looking characters hanging around on lane corners.  It was initially easy to get lost in there and difficult to find the same place twice.  Luckily I have been able to find my little bar more than once.

Meet me in the Casbah

Fun Facts: Baldrick's interpretation of the start of TGW is not correct.  I discovered today that a bloke called Archie Duke did not shoot an ostrich because he was hungry.

Number of Steps: 13,220 (if I keep this up I will return home svelte like a racing greyhound).

Observations: The street sweepers here still use 'switch brooms', like something out of the middle ages or a brothers Grimm fairy tale.