So, today, Kevin is in Belgrade Serbia. This results in some strange pictures on the Find Iphone app….
The best part about the trip so far, for us at least, is that Kevin has to do a blog for class. He refused to give us the address, but, since his email is open for us to help out with his affairs while he is gone, getting the address wasn’t that hard at all. So I’ll let him describe the trip so far in his own words. I’ll only put the first three posts, from his time in Bosnia, here. He’s done two more and they are of the trip from Sarajevo to Belgrade (they made some stops along the way) and I’ll save that for later.
A note: Kevin’s posts are presented in chronological order.
FIRST DAYS IN SARAJEVO (July 8, 2015)
Well, after 24 hours of travel I finally made it. Detroit to Boston, Boston to Munich, and finally Munich to Sarajevo. Fortunately for everyone, we didn’t have anything planned for our first day in the city so we just got to walk around and explore and just enjoy ourselves here. I mainly just explored the former Ottoman side of town and eventually grabbed “lunch” (3 p.m. here in Bosnia; jet lag) at a restaurant hidden within all the shops. The menu had vague English descriptions such as simply “Bosnian food” and while I was tempted to just go for that and see what happened, I played it safe and went with the “chicken skewers”. I’d post the Serbo-Croatian word for the dish but I can’t remember it.
Anyway, by the end of the afternoon I’d seen a lot of the markets, the famous mosque, the cathedral, the synagogue, and the place where Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. So I felt rather accomplished. Sarajevo, the main tourist area at least, isn’t very big.
The evening was the best part of the day though. After some leisure time at the hotel where it was a struggle to stay awake I went back out and it was wonderful. With the sun mostly set the temperature was perfect and the city was still really active. The crowd activity is probably somewhat owed to that we’re here during Ramadan so after the sun sets is when all of the practicing Muslims can finally eat. But it worked out really nicely for us because everything was still busy and the city was alive.
I (along with the five or so people I was with) had dinner outside on a market street right when they were starting to turn on all the lights so it was a great setting. We all had cevapcici, because apparently it was the only thing the restaurant served. Or at least, it was all we were offered. It was amazing, especially with the cheese (kajmak) added. The next day we learned that that was an essential dish to have here so I’m even more glad that I had it.
Today we went on a walking city tour. I’d seen a lot of the places already from the day before but it was nice to get the extra information, and our guide was great. The only downside was that it was really hot out but the tour ended at a good time.
Later today we’ll actually start learning stuff, so I’m trying to get my mind shifted back into gear and remember that I’m not just here on vacation. I’m pretty ahead on the reading stuff though so as long as I stay focused while I’m here I should be all set.
EXPLORING SARAJEVO AND LEARNING (July 11, 2015)
Yikes, it’s been awhile, but the time keeps disappearing. I’m pretty shocked that the week’s already almost over. But it’s been a really great week and now that we all know our way around the city now next week will probably be even better.
Going out every night for dinner in this city is great because there are so many different food options, especially on the Ottoman side of town. I’m a little disappointed that I’ve only had chevap twice, but I’ll work on fixing that. The best place by far though was the Mexican restaurant up here, Hacienda Cantina Mexicana, because it had such a great vibe and good food. Maybe the general experience and the people I was with is inflating my perception of the place, but I’m definitely heading back there at some point.
Favorite tourist place I’ve been to so far was definitely the White Fortress. Had a good time climbing the walls and just generally living life on the edge, maybe a little too literally. Got an awesome selfie with Sarajevo in the background though.
Other sightseeing highlights include the recently renovated city hall building and a really great park area outside of the city with some nice natural springs.
I’ve also been improving my Serbian. I haven’t practiced much here because the dialect throws me off, but I’ve learned a lot of grammar rules and am trying to expand my vocabulary, which is pretty dismal right now. Finally decided to learn how to count today after already learning about plurals for nouns, so yeah I’m going really out of order with some of this but it’s coming together. A waitress at one of the restaurants I went to said I had a good accent when I tried speaking some Serbian.
As far learning goes…I think I’m doing pretty well. Between the required videos and readings I know my stuff pretty well. My good memory’s been coming in handy and I’ve been able to name drop some more obscure figures and I’ve got the history mostly sorted out. But I’ve always been good at history so I’m not too surprised. This is just some especially convoluted stuff so I’m glad it’s all coming together and sticking. And I’ve had a few pretty great political and philosophical talks with some of the other students, which is always great. I love heavy and intellectual conversations like that.
Tomorrow we go to Srebrenica, so things are gonna start getting really heavy. I’ve been to memorials like this before (Dachau three years ago), but this will be one day after the twentieth anniversary and this event is still a lot fresher on the minds of the people. I’m bracing myself.
SREBRENICA AND HOW TO SUCCEED IN SAVING MONEY WITHOUT REALLY TRYING (OR EATING) (July 16, 2015)
I’m behind on these but I’m gonna start catching up by rewinding all the way back to Sunday, when we spent eight hours on a bus so we could be depressed for two. The whole day sort of put into perspective how bad the road system in Bosnia is, and I come from the state with the worst roads in the U.S. Michigan doesn’t have the same kind of mountains and hills though.
Anyway, at Srebrenica, the place was surprisingly deserted considering the 20th anniversary had been the day before. There were no guides or any information set up at the former Dutch U.N, base which now served as a quasi-museum. And the video room in the center of the exhibition hall…wasn’t showing a video. So yeah, the facilities were problematic in their lack of upkeep. Nonetheless, the experience was still incredibly profound and sad. I’ve been to Dachau before, so I’ve been to a horrible site like this before, but walking amidst 8,372 tombstones was something else. And you don’t really realize how big of a number 8,372 is until you’re there and seeing it all.
I’m really glad that we got to go and see the site but I’m also relieved that the heaviest part of the trip is over.
The second part of this post is just going to be me bitching about money management basically since Srebrenica on its own can’t work 350 words out of me and this has been on my mind. I converted 100 Euros at the airport which got me around 190 KM. That went down to 140 KM after the first day or two somehow. So with the first week down I’m at around 90 KM and the goal is for it to all last through Bosnia, which is almost two weeks. Cut to Thursday (today), and I’m at 40, so not too bad! Could be worse. As I’ve learned, the trick is to just not eat, since that’s where pretty much all of the money is going. One filling meal a day and then various snacks I have at the hotel can sustain me. There have been a couple of days where I haven’t spent any money on food and those have been wonderful. Friday will probably drain 10 or 15 out of me since that’s gonna be a big night out with Ramadan ending and the city poppin’, but I figure I’ll at least be able to escape Sarajevo on budget. Maybe not Mostar and Banja Luka, but we’ll see. I’d like to not need to withdraw any money until we reach Belgrade.
MEETING IMPORTANT PEOPLE AND BEING FORCED TO WEAR PANTS (July 18, 2015)
Monday-Thursday of this week was a battle against between heat and formal clothes. Heat won. We got to visit several officials this week to get a better view on the power structure here and get different perspectives on the future of the country.
We began with the Speaker of the House of Representatives on Monday. This guy… He was a politician through and through. He rarely answered questions and would veer to his predetermined talking points whenever given the chance.
“How would you respond to claims of corruption in Bosnia?”
“Reports of corruption are greatly exaggerated!”
(Word of this exchange was met by scoffs from every other official we would meet).
There was a lot of similar nonsense. Touring the Parliament building was cool though! And all the architecture from the 70s and 80s was hilarious.
On Tuesday, we visited the United States embassy, where they tried to recruit all of us to become Foreign Service Officers and talked about how dysfunctional things were here. Bust mostly they tried to recruit us. The room was air conditioned though so that was also nice. :) Oh and also in the morning we got to hear a lecture from somebody who survived Srebrenica. Probably should have thrown that in with the last post, but hearing about his personal experiences was really interesting. Though he eventually veered off into statistics and history which wasn’t nearly as interesting since it was stuff we basically already knew.
Wednesday was the visit to the Office of the High Representative and Thursday was the visit to the European Union delegation in Bosnia. These were probably the best visits, since it was “off the record” and the officials could speak candidly with us. They also seemed to have a lot more awareness about the situation here and gave very good answers to all of our questions.
On Thursday we also visited a U.N. military base where they train peacekeeping soldiers, as well as a Catholic priest and cardinal who lived in Sarajevo during the war. Not a lot to report from the first visit, but hearing the perspective of someone who lived through the war is always interesting so I enjoyed that even if I nearly died from heat exhaustion due to how stuffy and hot the room was. Wearing pants and a dress shirt wasn’t helping, and this week has pretty much put me off formal clothing forever. But now most of the organized events are done so I get to just enjoy my last few days in Sarajevo.
