Bosnia and Herzegovina

To sum it up…I love this country. Tia and I have had so much fun and met so many great people (and great is a complete understatement.)

Our first stop was Mostar. As many of you know there was a war here starting in 1992. It was weird to see how much of the city has not recovered. Many apartment buildings still have bullet holes and in between the new buildings there are parts of old buildings completely blown apart with only some of their frames remaining. The city is still completely divided between the “Bosnians” and the “Croatians”. The Croatian side of town is completely modern and has lots of shopping centers, while the Bosnian side still has lots of buildings that haven’t been rebuilt. This is probably to do with the fact that the current “mayor” is Croatian. The high school has Serbians, Muslims and Croatian kids attending but all the classes are segregated. Even the money had three different men on each bill so no religion or race seems more important.

In Mostar we stayed at Majda’s Hostel. Majda was absolutely wonderful to us. She made us breakfast every morning and we enjoyed many cups of tea and her famous coffee which I love. Her mother even made us soup one night for dinner. She was so sweet and I loved talking with her every day. We initially planned on staying 3 nights but had to stay four because we enjoyed ourselves so much. Majda was so sweet she ended up giving us free laundry and one free night. Her exceptional hospitality amazed me. She opened her house to complete strangers and treated them like family. Mostar really was our home away from home and I couldn’t express to her how much our stay meant to us.

While in Mostar we took part in Bata’s Tour (Majda’s brother). It lasted 12 hours and we went all over in this 12 seat tour bus with a disco ball and crazy loud sound system. I sat in front with Bata and was DJ with anything from 80’s music to Gangsters Paradise to the local Bosnian beat. We drove around the town learning about what life was like before, during and after the war. I cannot imagine the horrible things these people had to endure. I’m glad I had the opportunity to learn about the war in Mostar from people that lived through it and are dealing with all the tensions that are still present today. We also went to a beautiful waterfall and jumped in the freezing cold water, drank rakia with a local family, visited the site where the Virgin Mary was said to be spotted by some kids in 1981, visited an old castle town that is still inhabited, and went to a Muslim Monastery where whirling dervishes practice and where water comes out from a cave underground at 45,000 meters cubed a second. The tour was a blast and we all went out to a delectable dinner together after where Tia and I were adventurous and tried sheep brain. It was actually quite good surprisingly. It tasted like an omelet.

Next we went to Sarajevo which is the capital. The first two nights Tia and I decided to tough it out and stay in a really cheap hostel. It was extremely gross and I wouldn’t even shower. There was no soap in the entire hostel, the bathroom doors didn’t lock or even shut in some cases, the front entrance reeked of what I have no clue, and I found bugs crawling on the curtains. After two nights of that we moved to a cleaner hostel in the center of town and met lots of fun people to spend our time in Sarajevo with. One of the nights we watched the Canada vs. US Olympic Hockey finals with a bunch of Canadians (that was a mistake). We also went to this weird little bar called “The Golden Fishbowl” which was this funky little place that looked like someone took all the antiques and nic nacs out of their attic and put it in a bar along with a giant goldfish. One of the days we walked up to the sports complex that the Winter Olympics were held in 1984. It was weird to see how much they’re changed since then because this complex was pretty small and didn’t look like it could hold enough people for the Olympics especially after watching all the events in Vancouver and seeing how many people showed up.

Our next stop was Brčko where we stayed with Svetlana who was a wonderful host. We got connected with her because she used to live in Bellingham to escape the war and she went to Tia’s church. Although Brčko was small, Svetlana always kept us busy when she wasn’t at work and was always trying to buy our dinner and drinks. Svetlana and I were similar and got along very well. We watched pirated movies like Paranormal Activity and Shutter Island since there are zero laws against it in Bosnia. The guy at the movie store laughed at me when I was surprised they had all these movies still out in theater. He said, “It’s been out in the theater for 3 days…of course we have it!” I ate pâté not knowing it was goose liver until Tia kindly pointed it out along with what veal really is. I don’t know if it’s better to be kept in the dark or not when it comes to meat. Svetlana was so much fun and even stood with us forever in the freezing cold and snow at the bus station when we left for Belgrade, Serbia. All of the people we met in Bosnia and Herzegovina were so friendly and made us feel right at home. So far this has easily been my favorite country.