Chris and I flew Lufthansa from London to Munich
to Sarajevo Airport. We went to visit our friend Frane who has been
the European Commission Spokesman in Sarajevo for the past 9 months.
Sarajevo was fascinating-- exploring the streets and the markets,
seeing the old synagogues, churches, and mosques, talking to people
and learning about the 4 year siege and civil wars, understanding
the regions topography and seeing the infamous cemeteries that sprouted
up during the conflict.
We then drove 4 hours down to Split Croatia and on
to Dubrovnik, a wonderfully preserved medieval city state. On the
drive back from Dubrovnik, we crossed into the Serbian held area of
Bosnia now called the Republic of Srpska. This charming region is
definitely not noted for its support for international intellectual
copyrights-- nor for its sense of humour. Just past the Croatian border,
we went into a tiny makeshift CD store with a sign in Cyrillic saying
Import/Export CDs where every CD cost 3 DM ($1.40) .They had everything--
jazz, blues, trance, dance, pop, classical, and all types of software
stacked in cardboard boxes to the ceiling. We ended up buying 100
CDs at probably greatest, but most inconveniently located, CD store
in the world.
The night life in Sarajevo basically consists of
walking up and down the main pedestrian street 500 times, sitting
in a cafe on this street sipping delicious Bosnian coffee (very similar
to Turkish coffee), then going to bed at 11pm. Late night snacking,
however, invariably involved the Bosnian speciality known as cavapchis
which are chopped lamb kebabs with diced raw onions in this delicious
spongy pita bread. I developed a strong attachment to these sandwiches.
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Fantastic, quick reading introduction to the conflict. Washington
Post's Peter Maass from the center of the nightmare in Bosnia, a war
correspondent's montage of images - eerie, grotesque, ironic, angry,
absurd . GREAT!!!
Click on images below to see full picture!
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