After a sufficient night of heavy crashing, we are ready to take on Sarajevo for a full day. The hostel provides us with breakfast, and the Aussies staying here dare us all to try something that looks and smells suspiciously like pate but not. Turns out to be this chicken paste that is pretty foul (pun intended), and the looks on the faces of me and Connor definitely deterred anybody else from giving it a shot. But if you prefer your protein in spreadable form, that is the way to go.
We took the morning to walk around and explore the city a bit more, as we had an afternoon tour of siege-era Sarajevo coming up. The overcast skies and threats of rain seemed to put a possible damper on the day, but as will become evident, the weather proved all too appropriate by day's end. All of two blocks from the hostel is the site of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, on the Latin Bridge spanning the Miljacka River. We continued to wander, including harassment of the pigeons at Sebilj, also affectionately called "pigeon square" for reasons that are extremely obvious.
From the hostel, we embarked on a tour of some of the famous sites crippled by the siege of Sarajevo by Serbian forces from 1992-1995. Our tour guide, Saeb, was one crazy cat. He was born in a concentration camp in Croatia during World War II, eventually making his way to Bosnia after spending the first 12 years or so of his life bouncing between orphanages all over the Balkans. As if that weren't enough of a difficult life, he spent the entire siege holed up in the hostel, trying to eke out survival. His stories are too countless to remember or retell, but it was an amazing perspective to have him lead us around the city.
Our first site was the Olympic stadium from when Sarajevo hosted the Winter Games in 1984. Although the stadium has been restored, it was burned and destroyed in the war eight years after the games. After meandering the city a bit, we headed up to a tunnel that was built to bring supplies in during the siege. It serves as such a strong testament to the resiliency of these people as they struggled through such a harrowing time. The tunnel measures 800 meters, or about 1000 yards long, if my mental conversion tables are correct, and is about 5 feet tall. We saw videos of the building and use of it from wartime, as well as getting an oral history of the war from Saeb. All captivating and inspiring, as we came to appreciate the immense difficulties of the war.
Our next stop was a winding pathway up Olympic Mountain, where the bobsled track could be found. While a lot of it had been decimated during the siege, there is a section that is easily climbed on, as well as easily tagged by the climbers with spray paint. We walked the bobsled track for awhile before heading back down the mountain, but not before stopping and getting a truly breathtaking view of Sarajevo from the mountaintop.
After we had learned the difficulties of the siege, we began to learn the horrors of it. Our next stop was the Jewish Cemetery, a hillside vista that will forever be marred by the atrocities of the snipers that camped out there for four years, picking off civilians on the streets of the city from about 1000 yards away. All told, 11,000 Sarajevans were killed during the siege, including some 1600 children, many of them victims of sniper and mortar fire from a hallowed place of rest. The complete disregard and genocide is unbelievable, but so little removed from history for these people. Walking past tombstones riddled with bullet holes, tombs desecrated and destroyed by the violence; it is all we could do to keep moving in spite of a tragedy of only 15 years ago.
The overcast clouds that seemed to cast a pall on the day soon became embraced by all of us. It seemed to be the only way to learn and discuss such appalling circumstances. We talked about it, stood speechless, tried to process it. All we could come to was the fact that this terror is so outside our narrow worldview. It is hard, nay impossible, to comprehend the thoughtless killings that is so fresh in this city.
Sarajevo is tragically beautiful. It is a stunning city of immeasurable strength and resilience, while remaining astonishingly clean, friendly, accessible, and lovely. We managed to pick up an extra day here. And that is quite the boon. Day three will be a happier day, so I hope.
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