Sarajevo, Bosnia

When I fly, I either make friends or become completely engrossed in a book.

I spent the entire airplane ride on the way to Vienna lost in a book I had found in the St. Louis public library about Bosnia called

 

srebrenica survivors in st. louis AFTER THE FALL.

 

As an incredibly fitting book for this trip, this book is about the survivors of Srebrenica who settled in St. Louis. The books starts by giving an overview of the events during the Bosnian war and specifically the events in Srbrenica. I will post about this separately, but suffice it to say that it made me cry on more than one occasion. It was so good I found Ginette and Curtis on the plane and told them they needed to read it.

 

Then I read this book.

 

 

This book is a quote by Kemal Kurspahic, who is the Editor-in-Chief of Bosnia's leading newspaper Oslobodjenje, which published its newspaper every day (except for one) during the four-year siege on Sarajevo. His writing style is incredible. I knew he spoke English because he lived in New York for four years, but I wasn't sure if he wrote this book in English or Bosnian. The writing is quite honestly some of the finest writing I've ever read. I will write more about this book later.

 

When I got on the plane from Vienna to Sarajevo, I sat next to a man whose name is Ninet. He helped me put my bag away so I figured he was friendly and struck up a conversation. I had my book on my lap. He asked me about my book when I told him about it he said he knew Kemal Kurspahic! Ninet said that Mr. Kurspahic is a top rate journalist. He wondered who the translator was and flipped through the book until he found her name. Ninet, as it serendipitously turns out, was a war correspondent for the BBC for 18 years. (Incidentally, he really respects the BBC and their quality of reporting.) Ninet was a fascinatingly intelligent man and we discussed American politics and the state of Bosnia. While Ninet covered the Bosnian war (he covered five wars during his career), his residence was England up until the last two years.

 

Ninet explained that the average Bosnian makes about $300.00 per week. Bosnia, and all of the Bulkans really struggle financially. He feels that this is largely due to brain drain. Everyone who had any ability made their way out of Bosnia during the war, and anyone who can go anywhere leaves. As an example, he told me of a friend of his who is sending his son to school in Canada in hopes that his son can make a future their and never come back.

 

After all of this incredibly dismal information about Bosnia, Sarajevo and the Balkans, we landed at the Sarajevo Airport..

 

 

 As we walked off the plane, right onto the tarmac (as we had in Vienna as well) and I looked around, the entire city was surrounded by these absolutely lovely mountains.

 

 

Not bare Wasatch-style mountains, but rich, emerald green mountains. These pictures do it no justice at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, I was in love.

(Although, I do fall in love with pretty much everywhere I go. But regardless, it was love at first sight.)

I said bye to my new friend and 15 minutes later we met Andrea and we were ready to start.

(Curtis, Ginette, Steve and I were all on the same flight.)

Here we are as the fun begins.